This marks my first class for this elective. I’m working backwards, so, even though I’m writing this first, this won’t be the first post out.
I remember the first time I went to my local public library. My dad took my sister and I there because we were making a start on projects and we needed to complete research. A librarian helped set up our accounts and rifled through the numerous shelves to collect the books that I needed (something about Queen Mary, if I remember correct).
Adrian Miles, in “Networked Literacy: The New Path to Knowledge”, refers to this as print literacy. Miles (2007, p. 201) states that it ‘expresses a much deeper understanding of the implications of what it means to be a participant, even a peer, within a print defined and governed information economy.’
In this scenario, the librarian was far more literate than me—I had no idea where to find the necessary books; I didn’t know what the numbers on the books and shelves meant. And yes, while I was uncertain on how to navigate the library, I still knew how to conduct myself in the space. Miles (2007, p. 203) says that this ‘implicit knowledge is deeply embedded through many years of teaching and learning, and grounds the ideology of what it means to be print literate’.
It wasn’t long before we frequented the library every weekend for our own entertainment.
Then came year eight of high school—we finally got wireless internet. I remember setting up my first Skype account and getting addicted to the idea of a method of instant communication that didn’t cost me 15 cents per message.
Fast forward to my second year of uni; I hardly visit my local library. My library membership has expired and ever since the renovation, I have no idea what’s on the upper level. I don’t know where the Young Adult fiction section is—the younger me would be disgusted at 2018 me (rip).
Let’s move away from print literacy and onto network literacy.
Miles (2007, p. 208) calls network literacy a ‘social, collaborative process … It means learning how to write with an awareness that anyone may read it: your mother, a future employer or the person whose work you’re writing about.’
In the same way that print literacy is understanding how print functions, network literacy is understanding how the network functions.
Once again, this class is challenging the definitions of words I think I already know—affordances, and now literacy. From what I can gather, literacy refers to understanding the users role when generating content. It’s common sense; it’s knowing that anything published on the internet will have an audience and understanding the related consequences.
I think this is why all my creative practices are written under various pseudonyms. It’s a fear I have, that if someone I know in real life were to discover the fact that I partake in generating content, I would be mocked for my interests.
Well, that, and the fact that “foreign” names tend to be completely dismissed, but that’s a whole ‘nother issue I probably shouldn’t be exploring on this blog.
References
Miles, A (2007), ‘Network Literacy: The New Path to Knowledge’, Screen Education, vol. 45, pp. 201-208.