Navigating 21st Century multimodal textual environments: a case study of digital literacy

In the 21st century young people live and learn in a technological world that is fast paced and in a constant state of change. As technology becomes more and more accessible outside of the classroom,educators are challenged to re-consider the literacy skills required to be successfully literate. Enacting literacy teaching and learning in and for the 21st century requires teachers to update their pedagogicalknowledge, skills and contextual understanding of the world children live and learn in. This chapter offers a brief overview of the Australian Curriculum, locating it within a 21st century learning discourse.The authors interpret and analyse one young student’s creation of a digital text in a movie modality. Attention is paid to how the case study teacher created meaningful digital literacy learning experiences and opportunities for children to create and interact in social, multimodal textual environments, both within and beyond the school.

Web-text : perceptions of digital reading skills in the ESL classroom

New strategies required in Web reading and digital writing cause previous notions of literacy to be reshaped and compel teachers to rethink classroom reading practice. The aim of this paper is to compare student perceptions of reading skills needed in the traditional print- text mode with the skills needed to read and gather information on the Web. Do students perceive reading as different on the Web? Are there implications for reading classroom teachers? This research was conducted in a medium-sized suburban government primary school of 580 students from 72 different countries. The participants were 48 students in two grade-six classes, with a focus on 12 English as second language (ESL) students' responses. These students came from Taiwan, China, India, Malaysia, Poland and Bhutan. The study was replicated in an adult ELICOS language centre environment with the authors own class of 18 students from China, Indonesia, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Japan. Different student expectations of Web-text compared to paper-text were evident. This research adds to our constantly evolving notions of literacy embracing technology and can be applied to primary, secondary and tertiary levels of ESL teaching practice.

Process drama and digital games as text and action in virtual worlds : developing new literacies in school

This article explores the intersections between drama and digital gaming and the educational possibilities for literacy of both. The article draws on a model for the educational uses of digital gaming and three case studies from the Australian Research Council funded three and a half year project, Literacy in the digital world of the twenty first century: Learning from computer games. This model theorises the scope of the possibilities for literacy outcomes from the usage of computer games. The article describes how the model works, and then applies the model to drama education, specifying some new ways of thinking about the literacy outcomes from drama education. Process drama is theorised as the creation of text-in-action.

Using data mining for digital ink recognition: dividing text and shapes in sketched diagrams

The low accuracy rates of textshape dividers for digital ink diagrams are hindering their use in real world applications. While recognition of handwriting is well advanced and there have been many recognition approaches proposed for hand drawn sketches, there has been less attention on the division of text and drawing ink. Feature based recognition is a common approach for textshape division. However, the choice of features and algorithms are critical to the success of the recognition. We propose the use of data mining techniques to build more accurate textshape dividers. A comparative study is used to systematically identify the algorithms best suited for the specific problem. We have generated dividers using data mining with diagrams from three domains and a comprehensive ink feature library. The extensive evaluation on diagrams from six different domains has shown that our resulting dividers, using LADTree and LogitBoost, are significantly more accurate than three existing dividers.

Literacy into action: digital games as action and text in the English and literacy classroom

Using data gathered from a three-year research project exploring digital literacy and pedagogy with respect to video games, including classroom games-based pedagogy and curriculum and ethnographic research on students' digital game playing, this article locates and explores a key conceptual problem facing the incorporation of digital games into English and literacy classroom activities. This challenge is defined as "action" and refers to the non-visual and non-textual elements of gameplay. This challenge is explored both theoretically and through a practical discussion of various strategies developed by teachers in the project to approach this issue. The article draws on contemporary game studies in order to map out and highlight several key areas where action-based projects lead to critical reflection.

From the comforts of print to the possibilities of digital media: leading the way in teaching political leadership in a faculty of arts

Since it inception, Deakin University has been committed to the delivery of innovative, high quality course materials to its off campus students. Until recently these packages were predominantly print based, although augmented with audio-visual materials delivered in cassette format. Ironically, with the advent of information and communications technologies (ICT), and some select computer assisted learning and multimedia packages, there was an overall decline in the use of audio and video as important means of enhancing learning. Like many other universities, Deakin has moved to a strong, centralised approach to the provision of its digital and online corporate technology environment. With investment in these technologies has come a renewed interest in the ways in which text and audio-visual materials in digital form can enhance students' learning experiences. Moreover, the ways in which a variety of digital media supported by online developments can create new models and approaches to teaching/learning has figured prominently. This paper presents a case study of how this challenge has been taken up in a unit, Political Leadership, in the Faculty of Arts. The academic teacher's intentions in moving to a completely digital approach are examined along with students' experiences of learning in the subject. Issues are considered from the experience.

Information warfare : corporate attack and defence in a digital world

This text introduces the concepts of information warfare from a non-military, organizational perspective. It is designed to stimulate managers to develop policies, strategies, and tactics for the aggressive use and defence of their data and knowledge base. The book covers the full gambit of information warfare subjects from the direct attack on computer systems to the more subtle psychological technique of perception management. It provides the framework needed to build management strategies in this area. The topics covered include the basics of information warfare, corporate intelligence systems, the use of deception, security of systems, modes of attack, a methodology to develop defensive measures, plus specific issues associated with information warfare.

Technology and management systems for digital rights and content: the editors friend

Since the late 1980s, when authors began to deliver typescripts to their publishers on disk, the process of editing and publishing books has been in an almost constant state of change. Not only has digital technology enabled a conflation of book production processes, but books themselves are increasingly available in a wider choice of delivery modes. From traditional hard cover and paperback books, to digital files formatted for printing on desktop printers, to files specifically prepared for delivery via hand-held electronic book-reading devices, to text designed to be read on screen (incorporating hyperlinks that facilitate the reader's ability to navigate around the text and between texts), the consumer now has potential myriad choices for delivery of their chosen content. And the publisher, it seems, has myriad ways to deliver content and to seek and satisfy new markets. As well as opportunities, these changes have caused disruption to the traditional supply chain.

This paper focuses on changes to the role of the editor caused by the digitisation of the publishing industry.

Factors to consider when planning to submit a digital thesis

Emerging technologies offer new possibilities of text production. Consequently there are important implications for submitting a digitalised thesis. This paper reflects upon some of the issues associated with the digitalisation of the thesis entitled "The literacy practices of Kunib¡dji children: Text, technology and transformation". This PhD thesis was submitted in a multimedia format on a DVD and reported on the literacy practices of a group of Indigenous Australian children who spoke a minority Indigenous Australian language. Factors to consider when digitalising a thesis include the social possibilities of emerging technologies. These are explored with reference to the purpose of research in changing times. The opportunities to integrate a number of texts in the submitted thesis are demonstrated. The use of multimodal texts to improve the validity of the research is discussed using examples of digital video and interactive texts in a minority Indigenous Australian language context. This paper concludes that the digitisation of a thesis should be guided by the possibilities for conceptualising and reporting new knowledge while upholding an ethic of respect for the participants.

Digital games : literacy in action

Digital Games: Literacy in action is the result of a wide-ranging investigation into the educational possibilities involved in young people's games. From their creation in the classroom to analysing games and the world of games as text, academics and teachers are now taking seriously the serious play of young people.

The contributors use the interaction between the theoretical frameworks of games as text and games as action to explore a wide of range of issues relevant to the teaching of English and literacy. These include understanding games as media texts, the place of digital culture in young people's lives, the narrative and visual design components of games, exploring concepts of role play and identity in games, the potential for games to engage disengaged students, and issues of gender and social interaction in game playing.

Australia's digital policy : adopting a children's rights approach

  Children’s engagement with online technologies may seem second nature, yet the impact that the internet has on their lives is shaped by a powerful public policy agenda that largely overlooks children’s interests. Australia’s digital policy framework is dominated by discourses of safety and risk on the one hand and, on the other, neoliberal arguments about the possibilities for economic growth offered by e-commerce. In the midst of such powerful discourses it is difficult for children’s voices to be heard. This paper offers a close textual analysis of the Australian public policy context for regulating cyberspace. Finding a discursive duopoly that overlooks children’s interests, the author identifies two key features of a rights-based approach to challenge the dominant narratives currently serving the interests of the private sector and the State. 

'Turning around' to the affordances of digital games: English curriculum and students' lifeworlds

The need for English and literacy curriculum to connect with young people's lifeworlds to build bridges and frames of reference that connect traditional English curriculum with digital texts and literacies, are increasing priorities in curriculum frameworks in Australia and elsewhere. This paper reports on a project in which the authors worked with teachers and students in five secondary schools to research the ways in which digital games might be incorporated into the English curriculum. Central to this endeavour was 'turning around' to the affordances of digital games and their paratexts to understand how they can be understood as text and action. Drawing on classroom observations and literature in Games Studies and English curriculum we present a timely model and innovative heuristic that we argue facilitates teachers incorporating digital games into their English classrooms. We illustrate how each assists teachers in 'turning around' to digital games to make their English classrooms more relevant to students' lifeworlds.

Games as text, games as action: video games in the english classroom

Contemporary views of literacy, and of English and Language Arts curriculum recognise the importance of digital culture and communication forms in many young people's lives and the multiple forms of literacy students engage with as they work, interact and play. Amongst these, videogames, whether played on PCs, laptops, wiis, or on mobile devices of various kinds stand out as highly popular, engaging and sophisticated emergent cultural forms. Drawing on research in Australian secondary schools over a number of years, this paper describes approaches to working with games in the English classroom, and presents a model for critical games literacy which entails thinking of games as both text and action. It describes the ways in which the model might be used for planning and teaching with and about games, stressing the active nature of games and play, and calling on understandings of literacy as design.

English in the digital age: making english digital

Despite the emphasis in the press and elsewhere on the print-based nature of English curriculum, opportunities to develop digital English, with attention to web-based and multimodal forms of text, literacy, location, and activity, are present in the draft national (Australian) curriculum for English, alongside more traditional forms. This paper examines the place of digital and multimodal texts and literacies within the draft paper for the Australian English curriculum, and the possibilities offered by a national curriculum, for exploring and imagining an English for the Digital Age.