… and this year’s theme is “Transliteracy

from Cradle to Career” where educators at the K-12 and college levels, including faculty,

librarians, and instructional designers come together to discuss 21st SEN-TUR-EE literacies.

We will consider the rich and changing landscape of the modern classroom, and what today’s

learner will need to know to engage and master these multi-layered competencies

What is transliteracy? For those new to the phrase – and even for those for whom it

is familiar – it might be a difficult concept to define.

Is it merely information literacy that includes digital media and social media? Not quite.

Transliteracy.com, a group founded by our keynote speaker Sue Thomas, defines transliteracy

as “ 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.” Sue Thomas notes “Because it offers a wider

analysis of reading, writing and interacting across a range of platforms, tools, media

and cultures, transliteracy does not replace, but rather

contains, “media literacy” and also “digital literacy.” 

This is a working definition, and so by extension is as fluid and changing as the many digital

and social media. Sometimes, students are more

familiar with these new digital tools than their teachers. But does that mean they are

poised to critically engage these tools …. ? Again from Transliteracy.com:

“We are now using video or audio equipment to capture content that could only have been

witnessed live.  We are using computers and other

technology to share information that we would have previously shared over the phone or face

to face.  Getting information from people you know

rather than from a reference book or librarian is traditionally information seeking behavior.”

“What we are witnessing today is thus the acceleration of a trend that has been building

for thousands of years. When technologies like alphabets

and Internets amplify the right cognitive or social capabilities, old trends take new

twists and people build things that never could be built before”

(Transliteracy.com) How we see the world is different than even

10 years ago. Our perspective is larger – what was once at a distance is now literally and

metaphorically closer. We use various tools to create focal points

on a rapidly changing horizon. The boundaries of teaching and learning are

interrogated. We are at once consumers of information, learners, and teachers – often

all in the same context. Immersion ..  We immerse ourselves in virtual

worlds and actual spaces, blurring the lines with augmented virtual reality and social

media.  Learning is immersion. Our conversations are changing.

Rather than wondering who starred in that old movie, we can quickly settle the debate

by looking the information up on the Internet. Instantaneous sharing of information – from

the score of the big game to the latest update on the hurricane to the viral video clip - creates

new communities of sharers and viewers. We don’t have to hold the information, we have

to know how to access it. We are increasingly mobile, and have information

grouped via apps. We have immediate access to social media,

and 24-hour connectivity. But the implications go beyond immediate connectivity.

Users are situated as managers of short cuts, managing everything from personal goals, to

money, to avoiding that uncomfortable social situation by texting or playing a game.

So, users can remove themselves from the present without ever leaving.

Our relationship to time, place, and space has shifted. We are beyond the clicker on

the coffee table. The remote is on the mobile phone, as an app.

The prime time slot is whenever we want it to be. What was once an invention intended

to invite leisure, is now informing and creating an expectation of connectivity.

Google is the new virtual, global classroom, playground and commons.

The definitions of open – itself a widely debated word - accessible and emerging education

are pushing our own understanding of what it means to be holistic, organic learners

– the points at which we can intersect complex goals, and objectives with a sense of reflective,

creative, play. The global village is literally always under

construction. The rapidity with which definitions of cutting edge design, interconnected media,

and emerging texts and subtexts arise means the learner cannot get entrenched in

a specific paradigm. The paradigm is change. Multi-player board games – games of commodity,

trade, and negotiation – can be played in the face to face setting or online.

While board games are not new, the connectivity they can represent is.

They represent the negotiation of collaboration versus individual play.

Massive online multi-player games can join and support thousands of players at once,

creating the wide scale, global version of a face-to-face Dungeons and Dragons game of

even 15 years ago. Translation …. Translation of code, sound

to text, word and image.  Translation is ongoing in a global virtual environment.  

Emerging …. Emerging technologies; emerging literacies, emerging thought and practice.

We hope this conference ignites new questions, creates new possibilities for collaboration,

and encourages thoughtful engagement of emerging and multifaceted literacies.

Join us on March 15, 2013 at SUNY Empire State College, Center for Distance Learning.

http://threetees.weebly.com/