Literacy in the Information Age: Inquiries into Meaning Making With New Technologies

Educators today want to go beyond how-to manuals and publications that merely celebrate the many exciting new technologies as they appear in schools. Students are immersed in an evolving world of new technology development in which they are not passive recipients of these technologies but active interpreters of them. How do you help learners interpret these technologies as we all become immersed in the new information age?

Editor Bertram C. Bruce provides this collection of 32 Technology Departments from the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy covering the 1998 to 2002 volume years, which examines critical aspects of literacy in the new information age and the complex issues surrounding the use of new technologies. The pieces build on specific examples from classrooms, Web use, and other experiences with new digital information and communication environments.

Bruce has grouped the chapters conceptually rather than chronologically into the following six sections: Historical Perspective, New Media Practices, Personal Meanings, Ethical and Policy Issues, Learning Opportunities, and Community. The book also addresses issues such as credibility, access, and privacy, and most centrally an understanding of what new media mean for teaching, learning, and literacy development.

Educators feel the challenge of preparing students to live productively within this emerging world and deciding what learning experiences can best prepare students for becoming literate in today’s world. This collection will provide the tools for you and your students to explore the way new literacies are evolving as they become ever more central in your lives.

©2003 | 384 pp | ISBN: 0-87207-003-4 | 003-553 | General

IRA Book Club selection 03/03

Bertram C. Bruce is Professor of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois, USA.