Does Posting Text Qualify as Transliteracy?

Posted on behalf of Jonathan:

After reading Sue Thomas’ post (Thomas, 2012) and watching her video

lecture (Thomas, 2008), I found myself contemplating the concept of

transliteracy amongst young people and giving consideration to the

question she posed at the end of the blog post: “Imagine that you have

been asked to measure the transliteracy levels of students and

teachers at your school. How would you do this?” (Thomas, 2012).

Immediately, I thought about the young people that I taught when I was

an active classroom teacher, just over four years ago. I felt that so

many of those young people were quite adept at using a number of

tools, but yet the default mode for expressing ideas seemed to be

text. Whether it was using email, posting to facebook or sending an

SMS message – the dominant mode for expression was text regardless of

the medium used.

Brian Hulsey’s video (Hulsey, 2010) also raises the question of mode

versus medium (if I may use those terms to describe these ideas). In

all but one of the instances being described by Hulsey, the dominant

mode for expression is text (or at best hypertext). He demonstrates

his concept of transliteracy by discussing the sharing of a blueberry

smoothie recipe and shows how it can be sent by email, posted to

Twitter, shared on Facebook and written on a sticky note. The only

time he illustrates the use of another mode besides text, is when he

discusses using the telephone to tell his grandparents about the

recipe.

So the question for discussion is this: is transliteracy accurately

described by using multiple tools to express oneself using a single

modality or does transliteracy also indicate a use of multiple modes –

text, speech, music, film, dance, drama, etc. Based on Thomas’

definition it would. She says, “transliteracy is the ability to read,

write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from

signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to

digital social networks” (Thomas etal, 2007).

An important measure for determining the transliteracy level of

students in a school setting then must include their amount of

exposure to arts education. Students would need to be able to express

themselves using pictures, film, theatre and music as well as text in

order to be truly transliterate, otherwise they are simply using text

with different tools. As a math teacher, I would also say that

students should be well versed in communicating using numbers,

symbolic logic, charts and graphs. All of this speaks to a public

education system that emphasizes a variety of literacies and includes

a strong emphasis on not just English language arts and mathematics,

but also art, music, dance and drama.

Am I transliterate?

Sue - thank you for a very engaging lecture; you really made me stop and think several times. 7,000 years of no writing? Aboriginals sending YouTube videos to communicate. Tribes that exist without writing and reading - really forced me to reconsider my definition of transliteracy.

If we include signing, then that is an area where I am not literate. I taught a student whose parents were both deaf. This student's first language was signing. When she wrote, she would often neglect to include connecting words like 'the' because they don't exist in signing.

I would consider myself only marginally transliterate. I can read and write in English; I speak only English (some very limited highschool French and enough Spanish to say hello and order a beer at the resort!).  I recently learned to include audio and images in my writing through the use of i-movie and felt I had significantly grown in my literacy skills. It has actually opened a whole new door leading to numerous ideas for 'literary' projects (after I get through this masters!)

We do tend to think of transliteracy as our ability to read, write and to use new media (computers, cell phones) but perhaps it has made us smug and to forget the value of previous literacies.

Maybe this is silly, but I was wondering if you would include intuition as a form of literacy?

I have often felt that I need to sharpen my skills in listening to my intuition.  As an example, I can think of many instances when I forgot to bring something with me to work; when I arrived at work I would discover I forgot the item and then I would realize that the nagging 'something' that I ignored on my way out the door was trying to remind me but I ignored it.

Some people would argue this was a default of my brain at that moment, in that it was not bringing a memory forward.  Others would argue about the source of the "intuition."

Either way, is it possible that 'intuition' is a literacy we have lost touch with because we have become so dependent on language and writing?