I believe the textbook: Toward Digital Equity – Bridging the Divide in Education states it best in that literacy has different meanings for different people. As for me, when I hear the word “literacy” it think of “reading, reading, reading” which is what I absolutly HATE to do! So for me, literacy is a “bad word”. After reading chapter five of the text, I had a little better outlook on literacy because it discussed 21st century literacy which involved technology and that made the term some what better.
In Dr. Lowell’s post, Programming: The New Literacy, (http://durandus.com/phaedrus/2008/02/05/programming-the-new-literacy/) he discusses his thoughts and views regarding a post he found by Marc Prensky where Marc states that ”the single skill that will, above all others, distinguish a literate person is programming literacy”. Which in the words of Dr. Lowell, what does programming “really” mean? To me, when I think of programming, I think of specific codes that are required for the purpose to getting a computer program to do what one needs it to do. Programming is a complex and detailed; not to metion highly sophisticated process but I don’t think that it is “the single skill”, above all others that will distinguish a literate person! Programming is much like literacy in that it has different meaning to different people but it is not “THE” literacy. When looking at the meaning of words, I always like to look at the “definition” – it provides a better understanding for me of what the word actually means. So in looking at the “definition” of literacy, I found that it is defined as: the quality or state of being literate, esp. the ability to read and write and a person’s knowledge of a particular subject or field. So when we break down the word, we can understand why literacy has a different meaning for different people!
