a view informed by the problems of traditional literacy in a digital age

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Downloaded by [University of Gent] at 06:46 09 December 2011 Journal of Information Technology for Teacher Education, Vol. 8, No. 2, 1999 Reconstructing the Teaching of Language: a view informed by the problems of traditional literacy in a digital age RONALD SOETAERT & BART BONAMIE University of Ghent, Belgium ABSTRACT In the authors’ work at the University of Ghent they focus on the problem of cultural literacy in a digital age. In the first part of this article they confront the reader with recent complaints about our postmodern culture, mainly inspired by a back-to-basics movement. In the second part they consider or ‘problematise’ literacy in a postmodern and post-print society. In the third part they focus on ‘language and literature’ in a digital age – questioning the profession of language and literature teachers today. In the fourth part they try to describe how digital screens change our attitude towards books, culture and education in general, and writing and reading in particular. Changes in technology influence how we consider literacy in general and our ideas about learning and teaching in particular. In the fifth part they describe different new roles for teachers which have been influenced and even created by the digital revolution. From their educational viewpoint, the authors suggest a new kind of literacy is needed, starting from the fact that literacy is always constructed – situated – in a particular context. The discussion about the progress or the decline of our literacy should be situated in a historical, contextual framework. A historical perspective teaches us that literacy is a process rather than a product. When we know where our concepts of literacy come from, and how they are embedded in a cultural context, we will be able to understand how it evolves. Only such an understanding can provide an adequate basis for discussing the issues of language teaching and teacher training with new technologies and media. Complaining, Blaming, Curing Complaining Comparatively few people today – in Western societies – are considered illiterate. Yet ‘cultural’ literacy is considered a major problem in our contemporary society (Soetaert & Top, 1996). At universities, in schools, in bars, in newspapers, magazines and talk shows people are complaining 123
Downloaded by [University of Gent] at 06:46 09 December 2011 Ronald Soetaert & Bart Bonamie about the decline of cultural literacy. In particular, people working in literary circles and the artistic world – in general, people sharing good taste – are complaining that high culture no longer counts and no longer affects society. All of this is part of the ‘culture of complaint’, probably also the typical complaint discourse of getting older. The complaints are also inspired by ‘taste’. A quick glance at several books and articles reveals that we really can differ in taste. Good taste in some recent ‘complaint books’ is described as a manifestation of human sensibility toward the world. And good taste is said to be in danger today. Browsing through a bestseller by Alan Bloom (1987), we find ample illustrations of the way the discourse of complaint works. About the good old teacher: ‘The old teachers who loved Shakespeare or Austen or Donne, and whose only reward for teaching was the perpetuation of their taste, have all but disappeared’ (Bloom, 1987, p. 65). About the ‘classical’: ‘Classical music is now a special taste, like Greek language or pre-Columbian archaeology, not a common culture of reciprocal communication and psychological shorthand’ (Bloom, 1987, p. 68). The central idea was summarised by Postman (1985) in his Amusing Ourselves to Death – another best-selling book – and the ideas are echoes from Bloom’s lamentation: ‘But, in the meantime, any notion of the serious life of leisure, as well as men’s taste and capacity to love it had disappeared. Leisure became entertainment’ (Bloom, 1987, p. 78). Blaming Who is to blame? There are a lot of possible scapegoats: postmodernism, capitalism, the commercial market, intellectuals, education in general/teachers in particular, (the disappearance of) the nuclear family/the nation, academia, (over)specialised discourse at the university and art criticism, art itself, critical theory, etc. And all these blameworthy institutions, people, disciplines and philosophies are deeply intertwined, forming an institutional network. Of course, education is always the major scapegoat: inadequately trained teachers, for some; an irrelevant curriculum, for others; a trivial curriculum; a trivial methodology obsessed by short-sighted aims. And, of course, among the usual suspects, the media are very often mentioned: mindless TV and subcultures with CDs, computers, computer games, etc. Bloom summarised his complaint in a direct attack on youth culture: ‘But as long as they have the Walkman on, they cannot hear what the great tradition has to say. And, after its prolonged use, when they take it off, they find that they are deaf’ (Bloom, 1987, p. 81). Let us replace the Walkman by the computer and we can imagine what Bloom would have suggested: young people have gone blind once they finally look up from the screen. Blind at least to the beauty of traditional cultural heritage. 124
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