Transliteracy

Quite the new buzz word. Or is it? The impression I got from the readings is that it has the potential to become one. It is a new word, for what seems to be an old concept. A concept that has taken place for years, but perhaps has not been put in a box like the term transliteracy tries to do. It is something that we do without realising, to different extremes, and is now coming to the fore because of the myriads of new platforms that we are using as a society, and thus the vast range of things we apply our literacy skills to.

Thomas et al describe 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”

So as you can see, only recently has 'transliteracy' become so widely relevant, and perhaps this has made it worth pulling apart and creating a word to describe it.

It is relevant to teacher librarians because it is something that we can support with our knowledge, resources and skills. Meredith Farkas writes of fears that it will become a buzz word that is only associated with teacher librarians, when in fact it needs to be applied school wide so that students are gaining transliteracy skills for life. I can see her logic, and feel that as teacher librarians we must make sure we are promoting these things (the important concepts we learn about, information literacy being a prime example, as well as transliteracy) as school wide endeavors where we are there to support everyone, but are the leader of a school wide team, rather than the only instigator.

It does seem a lot to think about, but then really transliteracy involves things we already do (or plan to do in my case) - ensuring that students have access to a range of literacies as listed in the description above, and supporting them in gaining the skills to tranfer their understandings between these different platforms.


References:

Farkas, M. (2010). Transliteracy from the perspective of an information literacy advocate. In Information wants to be free blog.

Thomas, S., Joseph, C., Laccetti, J., Mason, B., Mills, S., Perril, S., and Pullinger, K. (2007). Transliteracy: Crossing Divides. First Monday, 12 (12)