When reading the assigned literature, it sparked several connections in relation to my job and my own literacies.  When beginning the readings I, admittedly, was a bit confused with the terminology.  At first, I interpreted the terms in their traditional use, later it became clear that the intended meaning had a much broader scope.

First, in reading Chapter 12 in Literacies: Social, Cultural and Historical Perspectives, specifically The Study of New Literacies, I was able to parallel some of the concepts to my current work. When the author described the “old wine in new bottles” concept it helped me understand his message more clearly.  I was able to parallel it to a very recent struggle within my department.  We have transitioned from live presenter lead workshops/trainings to webinar style teaching and we are slowly moving into creating a learning environment on our LMS.  When we moved from live presentation to webinar, it was a difficult transition due to the material presented.  Only by trial and error did we realize we had to recreate a lot of the material in order to ensure the activity or presentation carried the same contextual force and desired outcome for the learner that we had originally intended. Looking back, it was not only developing our own skills and literacies with the new approach to teaching but the same literacies of the audience.  It took time to acclimate the audience to the technologies and the new approach to learning. There were several tutorials and demonstrations from the software provider’s representative that helped solidify the departments understanding of the tools.  Once we had a handle on the capabilities, we then could adapt our material to use the tools to our advantage to ensure a dynamic learning experience. 

As stated above, I was able to connect with Chapter 12 however I did not have the same reaction to Chapter 1. I respectfully disagree with the author’s position on the topic of “functional literacy”. I believe in an ideal world “more than functional literate” could be a standard expectation for Americans or Australians, however we do not live in an ideal world. If poverty and immigration were something only told in history books, we may be able to set a standard of “more than functional literate.”  The reason this resonated with me is because of my family’s origins.  Being first generation born in the United States, literacy was not a focus and I am sure I am not alone.  I can imagine a large percentage of Americans have the same experience, either first hand or somewhere within their family tree.  Understanding the struggles my grandparents and my parents have faced and knowing their limitation with literacy of several kinds; political, social, technological, etc., it has given me the motivation and drive to better myself and work towards a greater success.  That motivation and drive is a concept I strongly encourage with my own children, not only by teaching them but by role modeling. Which brings me to my own literacies today.

As I have come to realize in the readings there are several different types of literacies.  I have read and re-read the statement I was tasked with and I continue to look back and analyze how I have used texts and currently use texts to further my own learning.  I will speak to the obvious first, my continued education.  This is where I find myself the most traditional.  I am of the generation of text books, notepads and paper.  I need to read on paper and be able to highlight and make notes in the margin.  For example, when assigned the articles for this assignment I printed each one.  It is how I am able to process the information for learning purposes. However, for leisure I prefer all of my text to be electronic.  I have two different kind of electronic readers, one backlight and one e-ink.  I also have the book store app on each of my electronic devices, laptop, both my IPhones (yes I have two) and my computer at work.  I have always loved to read, I have collected specific authors for years and still keep hard copies of the books.  As an adult I continue the love of reading but there is a slightly a different purpose.  As I continued to further my education, it was brought to my attention my English writing skills were not quite up to par.  At first it was a shock, I had graduated high school and 2 years of college and it was just being brought to my attention.  When I finally got beyond feeling defensive, I realized I needed to do something about it.  First, Itried to identify the reason, again my family origins came into play.  I began to pay more attention to how I spoke which affected my writing and reading skills.  Once I starting working my own skills I was able to identify the source of my errors. I spoke just like my family; slang, broken English and incorrect grammar.  This is still a work in progress for me.

As for the less traditional text and/or literacies (social, technological, etc.), I feel I am fluent.  With text for technologies purposes, I best learn via vlogs.  Demonstration and tutorials which I can refer back to has personally been the best tool for learning thus far.  I find blogs helpful in a limited capacity.  When they are clearly factual, question and answer type, I do find them useful, otherwise I feel it is overloaded with personal opinion.  Blogs are an innovative approach for expression, when it is used with specific parameters, it can be beneficial. Based on my experience, blogs fall within the category of social text and literacies. Social texts are a necessary tool in today’s world and public expression is on the rise.  Participating in these social environments is not my primary mode of socialization but instead of resisting I have conformed to the masses. 

I look forward to continuing to explore new literacies and the study of literacies to see how I can continue to further my professional and personal self.