There is no denying literacy skills are forever evolving in the fast pace ever changing digital landscape we live in. In the beginning, literacy was simple about reading and writing print texts and further evolved to include reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing and, the ever important, understanding. This is further evolving as we apply these skills to the vast number of multiliteracies that impact our day to day lives. Kalantzis & Cope (2015) states that today students are required to use multimodal skills to make meaning of the multiliteracies in their world. As O’Connell (2012) states students need to have access to a range technologies and to experience multiliteracies in order to compare and contrast what they are seeing and hearing. O’Connell (2012) further sates that being able to compare and contrasts allows students to build knowledge and understandings. Literacy skills will have the need to be continuously redefined as the changing information landscape continues to create new literacies.

This ever changing definition of literacy skills impacts the methods of teaching literacy. As teacher librarians (TL) we need to immerse ourselves in the ever changing literacy landscape to be able to keep up to date with the changing definition of literacy skills. Kalantzis & Cope (2015) states it is important for teachers to continue to develop and learn new pedagogies to keep up with the multiliteracies of the 21^st century.  As a TL born before the landscape exploded into multiple types of literacies, in particular digital literacy, it brings many fears reservations and unknowns. As Roach & Beck (2012) explains teachers may have a fear of new technologies, thus new literacies, but what will help them to grow and learn is there level of understanding of language. As a TL and an expert on language this will assist us in exploring new ways of teaching multilitracies to our students.

References

Kalantzis, M. & Cope, B. (2015). Multiliteracies: Expanding the scope of literacy pedagogy. New Learning. Retrieved May 5, 2016, from http://newlearningonline.com/multiliteracies

O’Connell, J. (2012). Change has arrived at an iSchool library near you. In Information literacy beyond library 2.0 (pp. 215-228). London : Facet. Retrieved May 5, from Proquest.

Roach, Audra K., and Jessica J. Beck. “Before Coffee, Facebook: New Literacy Learning for21st Century Teachers.” Language Arts, vol. 89, no. 4, 2012, pp. 244–255. Retrieved May 5, 2019, from ProQuest.