Extending Literacy through Participation in New Technologies.

Editor’s Message Literacy has always been an embodied, material act. Among other things, this means that it shapes and is shaped by its technologies. Today, we see changes in literacy practices as people gain access to new ways of communicating and making meaning. These changes raise many questions: How can we prepare students to participate in new literacies even as they are redefined by each new technological development? How can we build and sustain environments that promote the development of these new literacies? One aspect of the new literacies is that it is easier now to produce, manipulate, and transmit images. In the past, many texts—memos, letters, reports—were created without pictures. The inclusion of images in children’s literature or textbooks was often a major production. Today, images are routinely added to documents created using computers, including webpages and now e-mail messages. A related example is the ways that reading and writing can be more easily integrated with the use of online databases and interactive software. This month, Umesh Thakkar, Maureen Hogan, Jo Williamson, and I look at a crosscurriculum innovation in which students engage in reading, writing, problem solving, interacting with simulations and databases, and performing various hands-on activities. A seemingly narrow focus on chicken eggs leads students to explore a broad array of questions in embryology, evolution, agriculture, economics, mathematics, and literature. The project provides students with the opportunity to participate in many of the new literacies. At the same time, teachers learn new skills as they use these same tools and participate with other teachers in a community of inquiry. Viewed retrospectively, the project also gives insights to how curriculum innovations can be implemented and sustained: What aspects of it can be scaled up? How can it continue beyond the initial excitement? What are the benefits and costs in creating a comprehensive learning environment? We are especially indebted to our inservice and preservice teacher participants for their work as true collaborators and to all our colleagues who generously gave us their time and efforts on this project.