Reading in the 21st century

Thoughts about creating readers and web 2.0...

What does it mean to be literate in the 21st century?

What reading "counts"?

Boys who read comics, non-fiction and computer game instruction manuals and cheat sheets?

Here's a quote, from the blurb of the book Classroom Blogging, by David Warlick.

"Weblogs are about reading and writing. Literacy is about reading and writing. Blogging equals literacy. How rarely does an aspect of how we live and work plug so perfectly into how we teach and learn?"

Thousands of kiwis have (or have at least started) their own blog. This can, and often is done on many web 2.0 sites, including social networking sites.

Even some year 1 classes are starting to use blogs to develop their literacy.
Mrs Cassidy's Classroom Blog
Voyagers - NZ Year 1 Blog

How can we use blogs as a tool to develop literacy?

Online reading - does reading social networking sites like bebo count? These are currently the some of the most visited internet sites by kiwis. They're all about reading and writing. How can young people's passion for these sites be harnessed to help build literacy? One idea is to create your own network for your book group, using goodreads or ning. Put your favourite books on bebo, myspace or facebook?

What about online games, such as Runescape? Just getting through the tutorial takes a lot of reading. Need to be good at map-reading, and using North, South, East and West for directional skills. Then, any "conversation" between players is in the form of text. Quests within Runescape need a lot of reading. If you don't have a reasonable reading level you can't play this popular game. Opportunity to learn some things - what is tin made out of? Could be followed-up in the classroom. Is being immersed in the world of Runescape the same as being immersed in a good book?

Here's an example of 21st century literacy in action, using digital storytelling. Work out what is special about where you live. Write a script. Think about visual representation of your story. Then, turn this into a wonderful digital story.
Here's the Life Round Here stories from Te Awamutu Intermediate. And here are the ones from Taradale Intermediate School.