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The Queensland School Curriculum Council (1997) has defined literacy in simple terms as being "the ability to communicate by reading, speaking, listening and viewing". Emerging technologies are providing new challenges in the area of literacy, "with new technologies come also new genres and new opportunities to learn about the world" (Lankshear & Knobel, 1997). Evolving definitions of literacy often include all the symbol systems relevant to a particular community. " Literacy encompasses a complex set of abilities to understand and use the dominant symbol systems of a culture for personal and community development. In a technological society, the concept of literacy is expanding to include the media and electronic text, in addition to alphabetic and number systems. These abilities vary in different social and cultural contexts according to need and demand. Individuals must be given lifelong opportunities to move along a continuum that includes the reading, and writing, critical understanding and decision-making abilities they need in their community (The Centre For Literacy Of Quebec, 1997). The Australian Children's Literacy National Project Newsletter (1997) states that, "literacy refers specially to written language usage (including digitally encoded texts). Some important points follow from this conception. First, As written language, literacy is already technologised. It only comes into being within and through available technologies of information and communication ... regardless of the particular technologies involved in specific cases, technology is necessarily inherent in literacy. There simply cannot be literacy without technology. (Lankshear, Bigum et al) What is the purpose of LiteracyWeb Australia? LiteracyWeb Australia aims to highlight case studies in the area of children's development of literacy skills and to facilitate publishing and dissemination of effective teaching strategies. Links are provided to quickly access other literacy sites thought to be worthwhile for teachers and to scan for references using the ERIC database. The first schools involved in developing case studies are those in the Gympie/Mary Valley cluster, north of Brisbane, QLD, Australia. Case studies are to be brief accounts outlining an innovative approach to literacy undertaken by schools or students. Hattie (1992) examined the effects of schooling through a meta-analysis covering a thirty year period including 577 studies. His main overall finding was that innovation was the theme underlying most of the positive effects and that "a constant and deliberate attempt to improve learning on behalf of the system, principal and teacher typically relates to improved achievement." The most important moderator of enhanced achievement appeared to be feedback. For example the effect of homework was much more positive when it included feedback. Programs based on the use of computer technology or peer tutoring consistently show positive effects. Therefore, we will be particularly looking for case studies involving innovation and that include effective and relevant feedback to students. Some of the first case studies to be included involve the use of computer technology or peer tutoring. |
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