English 789/889: Special Topics in English Teaching: Digital Literacies in English and Language Arts

Course Description and Goals —

In recent years, definitions of literacy, language, and literature have grown increasingly complex and contested as a result of new genres and communication mechanisms. Understandings of how we learn and teach English have been formalized and institutionalized over time, but our digital age questions, synthesizes, and reframes such knowledge. For example, content knowledge and text memorization have been central to schooling for over 100 years, but critical reading, information curation, and synthesis have become increasingly important skills in our newly information-rich society. What do these developments mean for the study and teaching of English? In this course, we will examine and theorize “21st century skills,” experiment with different forms of digital communication, and outline implications for learning and teaching English. We will explore such questions as:

• What does it mean to become literate in the 21st century? Digitally literate? How do researchers and teachers think about technology-mediated literacies and cultures?
• How are the processes and products of digital media and digital cultures changing what it means to read, write, create, and communicate?
• What, if anything, is different about learning and participation in digital media and cultures? 
• How can we integrate “new literacies” concepts & tools into our English and Language Arts teaching? Should we do so?