Images of literacy in reference CD- ROMs and search websites for children

In the technologised society, the new information and communication technologies (ICTs) are becoming one of the main areas and tools of literacy activity. ICTs are also becoming one of the active ‘participants’ of literacy education. In the present paper, I discuss my ongoing doctoral research into the discursive construction of the child as a literate subject in reference CDROMs, online encyclopedias and search websites for children. My research is driven by a number of questions: What notions of literacy are offered to the child user of ICT-based educational products? Whose literacy practices are represented as universal by their producers? Who may and may not benefit from technology-mediated literacy education? How is the child user of ICTs constructed as a literate, social and cultural subject and who is excluded by these constructions? I am conducting my study within the approaches of social semiotics and discourse analysis. My objects of analysis are both verbal texts and images. Here, I will focus on images as ‘participants’ in the construction of the notions of literacy and on what the images of literacy in reference CDROMs imply about their users as literate, social and cultural subjects. Literacy in technologised society Literacy researchers agree that ICT has dramatically changed literacy practices as well as the very idea of being a literate member of society (Cope & Kalantzis 2000; Lankshear et al 1997a; New London Group 1996; Queensland Government 2000; Snyder 1997, 2000). An overview of the most recent works on the purposes of literacy education in the New Times demonstrates that there is a call for educators to develop a ‘multidimensional’ vision of the new technology-mediated literacy a vision that includes its operational, cultural and critical aspects. This vision is needed in order to provide the literacy education required for members of society to IMAGES OF LITERACY IN REFERENCE CD-ROMS AND SEARCH WEB SITES 73 become actively involved with the higher kinds of technology-mediated symbolic activity (Gee 2000; Kress 2000a, 2000b; Lankshear et al 1997b). The attention of some literacy educators has been attracted to those groups of students who are threatened with marginalisation in relation to the kind of literacy required in an information-based society (Bruce 1999; Downes 1997; Comber & Green 1999a, 1999b; Queensland Government 2000). It is, however, possible to point out some educational projects and programs that aim to account for the diversity of students and communities. These programs also aim to translate the skills, knowledges and practices used by the children in their communities and homes into outcomes that will enhance their opportunities and broaden their life pathways. However, in the technologised society, ICTs are not only changing what counts as literacy; they are also changing who determines what counts as literacy and where and how literacy education takes place. The attention of literacy educators has been attracted to the issue of the ‘Nintendo generation’ as having literacy experiences different to their teachers and parents (Green et al 1998). Literacy researchers argue that the computerisation of the home as well as the early engagement of children with digital culture has resulted in the formation of significant differences and gaps between school literacies and the use of technology in the school setting and those technology-mediated literacies and uses of technology available to children outside the school setting. Many literacy educators and researchers have become conscious of the fact that the world is changing all around us, and that our students, our children, are arguably already living and learning in the future, although not necessarily in the context of the nation’s classrooms. (Green & Beavis 1998, p i) One of the characteristic features of the technologised society is that the range of educational ‘stakeholders’ includes not only governments, teachers and parents but also the producers of educational technology-based products (Bigum & Green 1993; Kenway 1995; Luke 2000). As Carmen Luke (2000, p 71) argues, corporate experts already play a significant role in determining ‘how people will learn, what they learn, and what constitutes literacy’ in the technologised society. This role is becoming more significant due to the increasing technologisation of the home and the growing domestic use of computer and related technologies for educational purposes (Australian Bureau of Statistics 1998; Downes 1998; Kenway & Bigum 1996). The issue is no longer who may and may not play the role of the ‘literacy authority’, but what are the social and cultural implications of the appearance of new ‘education providers’ and ‘literacy authorities’? As Burbules and Callister (2000, p 16) argue, it is necessary to understand ICTs’ ‘specific benefits for particular kinds of learners; their impact on access and equity issues for learners who do not benefit from them; and so on’. To achieve this understanding, ICT should be approached not as a ‘tool’ used by the literate subject, but as a ‘context and resource’ (Bigum & Green 1995) used to change the literate subject: