Guy Merchant

Applying novel theoretical perspectives to key current topics, this book aims to rethink and redefine our understanding of digital literacy. Guy Merchant underscores the pressing need to look critically at the impacts and complexities of new aspects of digital communication as it has become increasingly significant in modern life. In this cutting-edge book, Merchant explores how digital literacy has become an integral part of everyday work and leisure, used for official, unofficial, formal and non-formal purposes. The book raises issues that are central to the development of digital literacy in policy and practice, and emphasises its position as a distinct orientation in research and scholarship. Chapters consider a variety of established and emerging communicative practices, including the work of computational agents such as algorithms, AI and chatbots. In this critical contribution to the literature, Merchant evaluates the social and material dimensions of digital literacy and includes illustrative examples of digital communication in context, presenting a sociomaterial account of new literacy practices. Rethinking Digital Literacy is a crucial resource for students and academics in education and education policy, as well as in literacy studies and communication studies. Its forward-thinking insights into educational technology will also benefit policymakers, practitioners and researchers.

Writing surrounds us, it informs us, it guides us, and it controls us. The power and complexity of this exceptional human invention is a story of change. However, in today's digital world, technology has drastically altered how and where we write, what we write about, and what writing looks like. This fascinating book presents a compelling argument for the vital importance of writing, and considers where its future may lie. Richly illustrated with examples of writing practices old and new, it explores the significant changes in writing that have occurred in our lifetime, and highlights how technology has challenged some of our most deeply held views about human communication. Through a careful examination of how writing works, it explores how it can be considered as a technology, inviting us to think again about this visual language that we so often take for granted. Writing matters – now, more than ever before.

Writing surrounds us, it informs us, it guides us, and it controls us. The power and complexity of this exceptional human invention is a story of change. However, in today's digital world, technology has drastically altered how and where we write, what we write about, and what writing looks like. This fascinating book presents a compelling argument for the vital importance of writing, and considers where its future may lie. Richly illustrated with examples of writing practices old and new, it explores the significant changes in writing that have occurred in our lifetime, and highlights how technology has challenged some of our most deeply held views about human communication. Through a careful examination of how writing works, it explores how it can be considered as a technology, inviting us to think again about this visual language that we so often take for granted. Writing matters – now, more than ever before.

What happens when a small group of educators get together? What could they do, what could they make, what could they become? Not necessarily what you might think. This book describes an alternate journey, one that departs from the busy traffic of goal-oriented projects, over-determined aims, and the doorstep delivery of interventions in order to wander reflectively across a more expansive landscape. We came together to record the successes and failures of a small research project, witnessing it gather momentum and then dissipate, but always holding open the space for a nuanced way of working that allowed for – even celebrated – humour, deviation, distraction, and dissatisfaction. This is a record of that journey, told through story fragments and reflective commentary.

Undoing the Digital challenges common ways of understanding digital technology and its relationships to literacy and literacy education. The book explores how a sociomaterial perspective can provide an alternative analysis of literacy in the context of digital communication. Introducing a series of conceptual tools and examples, the book examines digital communication as an emergent interweaving of social, material and semiotic resources. The perspective invites literacy research to focus more on the relations associated with the process of making meaning: the new collaborations, stories, conceptualisations, directions, and intentions that take shape in, and also help to shape, the contemporary mediascape. Drawing on studies conducted in a variety of contexts, this book is key reading for all advanced students and researchers of literacy and digital media within Education, Applied Linguistics and Media/Communication Studies.

Undoing the Digital challenges common ways of understanding digital technology and its relationships to literacy and literacy education. The book explores how a sociomaterial perspective can provide an alternative analysis of literacy in the context of digital communication. Introducing a series of conceptual tools and examples, the book examines digital communication as an emergent interweaving of social, material and semiotic resources. The perspective invites literacy research to focus more on the relations associated with the process of making meaning: the new collaborations, stories, conceptualisations, directions, and intentions that take shape in, and also help to shape, the contemporary mediascape. Drawing on studies conducted in a variety of contexts, this book is key reading for all advanced students and researchers of literacy and digital media within Education, Applied Linguistics and Media/Communication Studies.

‘This an exciting publication that offers authentic approaches for educators to meet challenges of the literacy that students need in our evolving digital landscape.’ Maureen Walsh, Adjunct Professor, Australian Catholic University and Honorary Professor, The University of Sydney ‘In this significant new text, Cathy Burnett and Guy Merchant foreground the affective, embodied and emergent nature of making meaning with new media.’ Teresa Cremin, The Open University The rise of new media technologies has changed the ways in which children engage with texts and this has implications for literacy provision in schools. Drawing on research exploring new media practices within and outside school, this book explains and encourages classroom activity that makes purposeful and appropriate use of these literacies and is underpinned by a set of guiding principles for teaching literacy in contemporary times. Key topics include: Building on children’s experiences in and out of school Supporting children to draw on multiple modes and media to develop and convey meaning Developing a responsive approach to literacy provision Investigating ways of encouraging collaboration through and around digital media Encouraging children to use digital media safely and advantageously This is essential reading for primary English or elementary language arts modules on initial teacher education courses including university-based and schools-based routes into teaching and also for current teachers wishing to enhance their own literacy teaching. Cathy Burnett is Professor of Literacy and Education at Sheffield Hallam University. Guy Merchant is Professor of Literacy in Education at Sheffield Hallam University.

‘This an exciting publication that offers authentic approaches for educators to meet challenges of the literacy that students need in our evolving digital landscape.’ Maureen Walsh, Adjunct Professor, Australian Catholic University and Honorary Professor, The University of Sydney ‘In this significant new text, Cathy Burnett and Guy Merchant foreground the affective, embodied and emergent nature of making meaning with new media.’ Teresa Cremin, The Open University The rise of new media technologies has changed the ways in which children engage with texts and this has implications for literacy provision in schools. Drawing on research exploring new media practices within and outside school, this book explains and encourages classroom activity that makes purposeful and appropriate use of these literacies and is underpinned by a set of guiding principles for teaching literacy in contemporary times. Key topics include: Building on children’s experiences in and out of school Supporting children to draw on multiple modes and media to develop and convey meaning Developing a responsive approach to literacy provision Investigating ways of encouraging collaboration through and around digital media Encouraging children to use digital media safely and advantageously This is essential reading for primary English or elementary language arts modules on initial teacher education courses including university-based and schools-based routes into teaching and also for current teachers wishing to enhance their own literacy teaching. Cathy Burnett is Professor of Literacy and Education at Sheffield Hallam University. Guy Merchant is Professor of Literacy in Education at Sheffield Hallam University.

First Published in 2000. Over the last 30 years, growth in the popularity and provision of books for children has been remarkable. The quality and inventiveness of children's authors and illustrators have led some to think of the picture book as a new art form. This book is a celebration of some of this work and it concentrates on the potential that picture books have for the teaching and learning of literacy. The aim of this book is to encourage colleagues to take a closer look at some of their favourite picture books and to see how they can be used as a starting point for enjoyable and challenging literacy work in primary classrooms. Believing that teachers do not need to rely on schemes to structure their English curriculum and with this in mind this book includes 24 popular titles that have been identified in terms of their potential for delivering exciting text-, sentence- and word-level work. Written to be used as a resource, and anticipate that many readers will be most interested the commentaries on the picture books (contained in Chapters 3- 7) and the accompanying photocopiable activity sheets.

This book and CD-ROM will enable children to: Understand and usethe features of adventure stories. Plan, write and edit polishedpieces of writing. Create interesting texts inspired by the materialson the CD-ROM. Write on screen using the writing frames provided. Design and publish their own books. Assess their work and thework of their peers.

In the last five years, Web 2.0 applications – vast virtual worlds, multiplayer online games, social networking, and file sharing among them – have inspired new notions of what it might mean to be literate in the twenty-first century. While previous scholarship on Web 2.0 has focused on its social and recreational uses, this book explores its ability to enrich and transform the educational experience of children and young people. It discusses the opportunities and risks presented by this large-scale shift in popular engagement with new media, and uses illustrative vignettes to document the work of innovative educators who construct new ways of thinking and being around Web 2.0.

First Published in 2000. Over the last 30 years, growth in the popularity and provision of books for children has been remarkable. The quality and inventiveness of children's authors and illustrators have led some to think of the picture book as a new art form. This book is a celebration of some of this work and it concentrates on the potential that picture books have for the teaching and learning of literacy. The aim of this book is to encourage colleagues to take a closer look at some of their favourite picture books and to see how they can be used as a starting point for enjoyable and challenging literacy work in primary classrooms. Believing that teachers do not need to rely on schemes to structure their English curriculum and with this in mind this book includes 24 popular titles that have been identified in terms of their potential for delivering exciting text-, sentence- and word-level work. Written to be used as a resource, and anticipate that many readers will be most interested the commentaries on the picture books (contained in Chapters 3- 7) and the accompanying photocopiable activity sheets.

`Here is timely and extremely useful exposition and guidance on the management and procedure of language and literacy teaching. Practical advice is offered on the breadth of the role of the primary school English subject leader right from the starting point of compiling an application for such a post. The extensive and thorough coverage is frequently supported by reference to current demands and expectations, including the Framework for teaching of The National Literacy Project. An impressive adjunct to the detail is the applied anecdotal evidence and the inclusion of actual examples of documentation devised and in use in schools. I was pleased to note such aspects as the conferencing technique for both reading and writing being integral to everyday strategies' - School Librarian `Everything co-ordinators need on policy development, implementation and evaluation in English, language and literacy' - Junior Education High quality teaching in English language and literacy is a central part of the primary school curriculum. The coordinator has a key role to play in building on good practice, introducing new ways of working and monitoring their effectiveness. This book is written for coordinators and for those who are intending to take on the subject leadership, and addresses the issues of policy development, implementation and evaluation in primary English. By drawing on background theory and research, the authors provide clear guidance on the central tasks of subject co-ordination. Case study material is used to illustrate development work in English language and literacy in primary schools. The authors give up-to-date and practical advice on how to understand the processes of change.