New Literacies

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by Tapio Varis, Professor and Chair of Media Education, University of Tampere, Finland, and UNESCO Chair in Global e-Learning, with applications to multiple domains.

"Many definitions of literacy exist. They relate, at their core, to an individuals’ ability to understand printed text and to communicate through print. Most contemporary definitions portray literacy in relative rather than absolute terms. They assume that there is no single level of skill or knowledge that qualifies someone as literate, but rather that there are multiple levels and kinds of literacy (e.g. numeracy, technological literacy). In order to have bearing on real-life situations, definitions of literacy must be sensitive to skills needed in out-of-school contexts, as well as to school-based competency requirements (Wagner 2001). Media literacy is multidimensional (Varis 2000). Digital Literacy is the ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide range of sources when it is presented via computers (Gilster 1997). "