Using New Literacies Theory As a Lens for Analyzing Technology-Mediated Literacy Classrooms

In this article, I share the ways in which New Literacies theory served as an interpretive lens to understand how the Internet as a cultural tool mediates the literacy actions of adolescents in English Language Arts classrooms. Data were drawn from a larger study in which students who were considered “at-risk” because of previous academic failure were given the opportunity to engage in digital writing events by classroom teachers who used digital writing frequently and in a variety of different ways in their instruction, ranging from collaborative writing using Google Docs to the use of Web 2.0 applications and multimodal projects. Findings revealed that writing with technology tools both enabled and constrained the literacy actions of the adolescent participants. Analyzing the learning context of these fourth and ninth grade classrooms through the lens of New Literacies theory informed my understanding of the ways in which technology infused the literacy curriculum and daily literacy practices that occurred in the literacy classrooms.