Multiliteracies for Collaborative Learning Environments

The Course Text

The course textbook:

Multiliteracies for a Digital Age by Stuart A. Selber, February 2004, paperback, Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN# 0-8093-2551-9, $27.00 http://www.siu.edu/~siupress/titles/s04_titles/selber_digital.htm

An undergraduate review: Reactions to Multiliteracies for a Digital Age by Alison Bennett: http://people.emich.edu/abennet1/a444/multlit2.htm

"Given the intellectual and human dislocation that technology can produce, computers may even be counterproductive in many educational settings" (p.5)

Computer competency requirements such as the one at Florida State promotes practical skills but "fails to offer perspectives needed for making rhetorical judgments. ... the requirment neglects ... (for example)

file naming schemes that can be searched meaningfully
writing effective emails
participating in asynchronous discussions
analyzing currency, authority, reliability of websites
generating visual images that represent data relationships accurately and convincingly

From Selber (2004) p. 25: The conceptual landscape of a computer multiliteracies program

Category	Metaphor	Subject Position	Objective
Functional Literacy	computers as tools	students as users of technology	effective employment
Critical Literacy	computers as cultural artifacts	students as questioners of technology	informal critique
Rhetorical Literacy	computers as hypertextual media	students as producers of technology	reflective praxis

Functional Literacy

Competing visions of functional literacy

Computers as tools

From Selber (2004) p. 45: Parameters of a functional approach to computer literacy

Parameters	Qualities of a functionally literate student A functionally literate student ...
Educational goals	uses computers effectively in achieving educational goals
Social conventions	understands the social conventions that help determine computer use
Specialized discourse	makes use of the specialized discourses associated with computers
Management activities	effectively manages his or her online world
Technological impasses	resolves technological impasses confidently and strategically

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Multiliteracies for Collaborative Learning Environments

The Course Text

Last updated: August 24, 2005