When I first started reading this chapter, I thought what are the authors talking about? After a few pages in, I started to understand. The basic premise the authors want you to understand about literacies is that words, whether written or read, are intertwined with who you know you are and who you are outside of your immediate social group. The meaning and the expression of the words you convey will vary depending on your primary or secondary discourse. The authors break those down into primary, which they explain as the way we learn to speak and express within our intimate social group, and secondary, as the way we speak and express with outside social groups. I found it interesting that the farther away your primary discourse is from your secondary discourse causes the individual to "stretch" and find a way to succeed within the second discourse.
The authors discuss the fact that the technology age we live in creates a new category of literacy. The recent interaction with all types of media generates a new understanding of literacy and meaning. Basically, we are members of discourse and within that membership communicate and express ourselves through the connection with both technology and paper reading and writing.
The media industry has changed and evolved making options available to use that we could never imagine before. The authors note that within the community, there are two different mindsets about the evolution of the technological age. One mindset feels that today is just like it was before, but we have added new technology. The other mindset feels today is nothing like what it was in the past and that gap is expanding. In a nutshell, the youth today are growing up with access to things we didn't have access to up until now. Even new technology is constantly upgraded and adjusted to meet the needs of their consumers. Collaboration appears to be a major factor in the need to change software. Through the use of tagging, consumers are finding others that they feel comfortable collaborating, sharing, and seeing different perspectives.
The need to expand our definition of literacy is here. In the age of technology, we need to include all of those new things that our students use to communicate. This is their language and their understanding of who they are. This is where their primary discourse and secondary discourse can come together if we include both in our teaching. Use the technology to convey meaning and understanding.
Very well stated! I was also slightly confused at the beginning of the chapter but began to understand as I continued to read. In my blog post, I mentioned the need for using these new digital tools and technologies in our classroom. The students are ready and well prepared to use these tools, and we need to make it easily accessible for them.
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