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//TOWARD A DEFINITION OF 21st-CENTURY LITERACIES Adopted by the NCTE Executive Committee February 15, 2008//

Literacy has always been a collection of cultural and communicative practices shared among members of particular groups. As society and technology change, so does literacy. Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the twenty-first century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, many literacies. These literacies—from reading online newspapers to participating in virtual classrooms—are multiple, dynamic, and malleable. As in the past, they are inextricably linked with particular histories, life possibilities and social trajectories of individuals and groups. Twenty-first century readers and writers need to
 * 1) Develop proficiency with the tools of technology
 * 2) Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally
 * 3) Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes
 * 4) Manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information
 * 5) Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts
 * 6) Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments

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This is a course first and foremost about literacy; and less about technology itself. As humans, we’ve told stories since the dawn of time. The structure of a good story hasn’t changed, but the means and ease of communicating stories has recently expanded. In the 21st century, with its rich array of technologies, everyone, including our students, has access to new ways to communicate stories. While we will certainly be learners of technology tools throughout the course, we will also focus on the core of digital storytelling – a good story – and how its use can enrich the literacies we aim to develop in our students.

There are two essential questions that we will address over the course of the semester:
 * 1) //Using the context of rethinking education, how does digital storytelling “fit” in a new paradigm? What does it have to offer today’s students?// The possibility of creating technology-rich, networked environments for our students is greater than it ever has been. Digital storytelling can amplify the skills and literacies of the 21st century.
 * 2) //What are the affordances and constraints of digital storytelling?// The modification of teaching practice to take advantage of new tools amplifies aspects of our practice and constrains others. Knowing from experience what these affordances and constraints are helps us to make the most effective use of new ideas and tools.

Together we will focus our work in this course on developing answers to these questions.