From my previous post on defining literacy, it is clear that I have always believed literacy belongs in the “English” basket. A set of explicitly taught skills that students engage and use during English lessons.

Module 5 (Information Literacy) of ETL401 has allowed me to revisit my definitions of literacy and its importance in developing information literate students. The module opens up the idea of varying literacy perspectives. Gone are the traditional views of just reading and writing, instead viewing and understanding what literacy is depends on our context and perspective.

A big stand put point for me was that being literate now means being able to access, comprehend and articulate multi-modal texts. As a result, many different forms of literacy now exist. A great table summary was provided in module 5 which included forms such as computer literacy, visual literacy, critical literacy, etc. It is important to keep this idea of different forms of literacy in mind as students will range in competency and skill in various domains.