Jump to Content

Media Release

August 20 2008

Teaching literacy in a Web 3.0 world

Digital technologiesNew digital technologies are said to be opening avenues for people to create and contribute content to various communities in ways that previously were not available.

Web 3.0 is seen as the next evolution of the internet, characterised by its capacity to connect users everywhere at the same time to customised information.

Research SA Chair and Professor in UniSA’s Centre for Studies in Literacy, Policy and Learning Cultures, Victoria Carrington, has been focusing on the evolution of Web 3.0 in connecting people to the growing availability of 3-D immersive virtual worlds.

Prof Carrington will share her findings at the seminar Literacy, identity and culture in a Web 3.0 world on Friday evening, August 22 as part of the University’s Hawke Research Institute Professorial Lecture Series, Gift of Knowledge 2008. Prof Carrington will draw on her research, which tracks the kinds of texts and textual practices that young people engage with using digital technologies such as mobile phones, video games, social networking sites and virtual worlds.

Professor Victoria CarringtonProf Carrington will present a range of texts that demonstrate the shift towards what Professor of Literature at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Henry Jenkins called a “participatory culture”.

“Participatory culture refers to the concept that there is a movement towards greater participation in a range of communities,” Prof Carrington said.

“It’s a culture reflected by the out-of-school practices of many young people using digital technologies to interact with one another through unique styles of social text.”

As young people embrace these new forms of communication, Prof Carrington says it sets a new context within which educators must now think about teaching literacy.

Members of the public are invited to register online to attend the seminar on Friday August 22, in the Bradley Forum, Level 5, Hawke Building at UniSA’s City West campus, North Terrace Adelaide from 5pm – 6pm.

Media contact

top^