As an English trainer in Costa Rica, I was preparing a group of rural leaders to go to the US. All of them were excellent communicators in Spanish, many of them very intelligent, but a number of them had either no literacy or very low levels of literacy (reading and writing) in Spanish. As one of my activities, I used the image (drawing) in which there is either an old hag or a young woman, depending on how you look at the picture. This is similar to the drawings by Esher or the coup d’oeil pictures.

Both my co-instructor and I used the pictures with two different groups. What surprised us was that those students that were illiterate could not see two different images within the same picture, even if we tried to point it out to them. Whatever they saw initially was the only image they could see. On the other hand, those who were literate were able to see both when pointed out to them. I had learned about this in my teacher training, but never realized how it would impact looking at images.

Learning to read and write develops a person’s ability to abstract ideas and interpret images. This would have a great impact on media as well as reading and writing. If we have new “literacies” and move away from reading and writing text, we will still need to teach the ability to abstract ideas (e.g. interpreting images, connecting symbols to information). I’m not sure our educational system is ready for that yet.

It seems to me, looking at literacy in this way, looking at a YouTube video can indicate different levels of literacy, just like looking at texts.

My 20 years of experience teaching at the university and adult training levels has demonstrated that there is a shift. That shift is not in written or oral traditions or even media literacies vs. written literacy. Rather, it is the ability for my students to abstract meaning and think critically (at a higher level) based on symbols. I see a trend towards much more literal thinking with an inability to abstract from the media, text, or oral inputs. Many of these students score high on SAT or ACT standardized tests which would indicate that they are “literate” in the traditional sense of being able to read and write. However, in my mind, they are becoming more “illiterate” as they are having more and more difficulty abstracting from the literal.

These things have always been there. Were not seeing more of it. We are seeing less of “paper print” and we are seeing more of electronic print.

As we become less linear we might very easily get the impression that we are becoming more sensory.

The word “litteracy” is so linked in to the printed word that it would be hard to debate the questions posed by harold.

Hmm.. litteracy is a bad word. Litt !

I think (I’ll check later this week) that Michel Cartier would say that we are moving to visual and iconic language as well as “oral” .. of course (much of) video combines the two.

“Is video becoming the/a new literacy? ” (Don’t think so)

“Are we returning to our oral past after three thousand years?” (We never left it)
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When we become more predominantly oral or “sensory” we are not really moving towards the past. Oral is more entrenched in us. Senses even more. “Written word” is less entrenched.

We are clearly moving away from the “press printed word” and its linearity. But, we are not moving back to oral. It always was there although it wasn’t VALUED, reinforced, or taught in a world where its cheaper to convey messages by mass produced print.

Litteracy, for the past many year, has been closely defined to our capacity to mass produce for the printed press and our capacity to use the output of the printed press.

Capacity to produce (Write press compatible items). Capacity to use (Read press compatible items).

In a “printed” world, a musician that can’t write press ready music (sheet) or can’t read is devalued.

The efficiency of the press and the old physical distribution network is being replaced by the electronic message and a new propagation network.

The new litteracy (we shouldn’t call it litteracy anymore), will be our capacity to produce and use results from this new mode of production. Its a “valuation” thing.

So, in this perspective, one could say that video would not be the new litteracy. Well, not more than reading comic books would have been the new litteracy.

I don’t totally agree with my own statement. So nice to me non-linear.