NCTE Definition of Literacy in a Digital Age — Comprehensive Study Notes

Definition and Core Principles

• NCTE’s Definition of Literacy in a Digital Age emphasizes that literacy is not static; it continually evolves as curriculum, assessment, and teaching practices adapt to changes in society and technology.

• Literacy is a collection of communicative and sociocultural practices shared within communities.

• A literate person intentionally applies a wide range of skills, competencies, and dispositions.

• Literacies are interconnected, dynamic, and malleable and are inextricably linked with histories, narratives, life possibilities, and social trajectories of individuals and groups.

• Active, successful participants in a global society must be able to:

  • Participate effectively and critically in a networked world;
  • Explore and engage critically, thoughtfully, and across a wide variety of inclusive texts and tools/modalities;
  • Consume, curate, and create actively across contexts;
  • Advocate for equitable access to and accessibility of texts, tools, and information;
  • Build and sustain intentional global and cross-cultural connections and relationships with others so as to pose and solve problems collaboratively and strengthen independent thought;
  • Promote culturally sustaining communication and recognize the bias and privilege present in the interactions;
  • Examine the rights, responsibilities, and ethical implications of the use and creation of information;
  • Determine how and to what extent texts and tools amplify one’s own and others’ narratives as well as counter unproductive narratives;
  • Recognize and honor the multilingual literacy identities and cultural experiences individuals bring to learning environments, and provide opportunities to promote, amplify, and encourage these differing variations of language (e.g., dialect, jargon, register).

• Elements of the Framework for Literacy in a Digital Age Applied to learners of English language arts:

  • Today’s literacy demands have implications for how teachers plan, model, support, and assess student learning.
  • The framework reflects a belief that learning is a lifelong process inviting students and teachers alike to benefit from reflecting on questions associated with literacy in a digital age.
  • The framework is designed to adapt as technology and society evolve, urging ongoing reflection and adaptation in pedagogy.

• Learning is a lifelong process: reflection on questions associated with literacy in a digital age benefits both students and teachers; the framework supports ongoing growth and adaptation in practice.

The Framework in Practice for Learners of English Language Arts

• Learners have access to a wide variety of texts and tools.
• We engage with many multimedia texts in daily life for various reasons.
• These texts provide new information and offer new perspectives on the world.
• Knowledge and understanding of the various texts and tools available are important for using them intentionally.
• Being literate means making choices and using texts and tools in ways that match purpose and thinking about texts and tools in new ways.
• Understandings of literacies have implications for learner agency, access, action, and opportunities.
• In practice, this framework emphasizes active decision-making, critical engagement, and purposeful use of digital and print texts.

Participate effectively and critically in a networked world

• The internet is a primary information source in the modern era; learners must understand how to participate and navigate the networked world.
• Connecting people, ideas, and information builds critical consumer agency and prepares learners for the global world beyond the classroom.
• Guiding questions for practice:
  • Do learners select, evaluate, and use digital tools and resources that match the work they are doing?
  • Are learners critical, savvy producers and consumers?
  • Do learners build and utilize a network of groups and individuals that reflect varying views as they analyze, create, and remix texts?
  • Do learners analyze information for authorial intent, positioning, and how language, visuals, and audio are being used?
  • Do learners find relevant and reliable sources that meet their needs?
  • Do learners take risks and try new things with tools available to them?
  • Do learners, independently and collaboratively, persist in solving problems as they arise in their work?
  • Do learners use a variety of tools effectively and efficiently?
  • Do learners select and use appropriate tools and modalities for audience and purpose?
  • Do learners take responsibility for communicating their ideas in a variety of ways with different modalities and clear intentions?

Explore and engage critically, thoughtfully, across a wide variety of inclusive texts and tools/modalities

• Guiding questions:
  • Do learners seek out texts that consider multiple perspectives and broaden their understanding of the world?
  • Do learners critically analyze information and ideas from a variety of sources?
  • Do learners choose texts and tools to consume, create, and share ideas that match their need and audience?
  • Do learners create new ideas using knowledge and insights gained?
  • Do learners analyze the credibility of information, authorial intent, and its appropriateness in meeting their needs?
  • Do learners use information and the ideas of others to solve problems and make decisions as informed citizens?
  • Do learners strive to see limitations and overlaps between multiple streams of information?
  • Do learners gain new perspectives because of the texts they interact with?
  • Do learners use tools to deepen understandings, to share ideas, and to build on others’ thinking?
  • Do learners develop new skills and strategies to meet the challenge of new texts and tools?

Consume, curate, and create actively across contexts

• As empowered learners engage in literacy practices, they need opportunities to move from consumers to producers of content. Specifically, from content consumers to content curators to content creators. These stages do not have to be sequential, nor mutually exclusive.
• Consume:
  • Do learners analyze and evaluate the multimedia sources that they consume?
  • Do learners examine the credibility and relevancy of sources they consume?
  • Do learners consider the author, purpose, and design of information they consume online?
  • Do learners review information shared online with a perspective of healthy skepticism?
  • Do learners solve real problems and share results with real audiences?
  • Do learners search and synthesize online texts to solve inquiry-based topics?
  • Do learners review a variety of sources to evaluate information as they consider bias and perspective in sources?
• Curate:
  • Do learners consciously make connections between their work and that of the greater community?
  • Do learners evaluate their own multimedia works?
  • Do learners evaluate content they find online before sharing with others?
  • Do learners apply ethical practices when using media?
  • Do learners evaluate content and develop their own expertise on a topic?
  • Do learners collect, aggregate, and share content to develop their voice/identity/expertise on a topic?
• Create:
  • Do learners use tools to communicate original perspectives and to make new thinking visible?
  • Do learners communicate information and ideas in a variety of forms and for various purposes?
  • Do learners make creative decisions with intention, developing and using skills associated with modality?
  • Do learners communicate information and ideas to different audiences?
  • Do learners articulate thoughts and ideas so that others can understand and act on them?
  • Do learners evaluate multimedia sources for the effects of visuals, sounds, hyperlinks, and other features on the text’s meaning or emotional impact?
  • Do learners have the skills to make informed decisions about their own design choices as much as their choices about text?
  • Do learners share and publish their work in a variety of ways?
  • Do learners share and publish original content with a consideration of the intended audience?
  • Do learners respond constructively to published work and to responses to their own work?
  • Do learners publish in ways that meet the needs of a particular authentic audience?

Advocate for equitable access to and accessibility of texts, tools, and information

• Not only should learners have opportunities to explore and engage with a wide variety of inclusive texts and tools, but they should also have equitable access to these texts and tools on a frequent basis.
• Learners must have ready access to information and information professionals that provide expertise in print-based and digital-based texts and information sources.
• Learners with disabilities should have equitable access to text, tools, and information and, when necessary, advocate for this access in all learning experiences.
• Key questions:
  • Do learners have readily available classroom access to a variety of texts and information sources?
  • Do learners have access to well-funded school and public libraries?
  • Do learners have opportunities to engage with and learn from school media and library professionals?
  • Do learners make decisions in information-rich environments?
  • Do learners recognize information gaps or information poverty?
  • Do learners advocate for their own individual and community’s access to texts and tools?
  • Do learners attain a greater understanding of text through accessible text structures?
  • Do learners use visual cues (headings, subheadings, boxes, graphics) to support their reading of a text?
  • Do learners access digital texts that adhere to web accessibility principles?
  • Do learners with disabilities receive equitable access to texts, tools, and information?

Build intentional global and cross-cultural connections and relationships to pose and solve problems collaboratively and strengthen independent thought

• Learners need communicative skills to work in both face-to-face and virtual environments, enabling collaboration to solve problems and construct narratives.
• Technology broadens the range of voices and perspectives that learners encounter.
• Guiding questions:
  • Do learners work in groups in ways that allow them to create new knowledge or to solve problems that can’t be created or solved individually?
  • Do learners work in groups to create new sources and ideas that can’t be created or solved by individuals?
  • Do learners collaborate with others whose perspectives and areas of expertise differ from their own?
  • Do learners listen in ways that allow them to intentionally build on one another’s thinking to gain new understanding?
  • Do learners develop new ways of thinking and/or new responses from disagreements and grapple with diverse perspectives in ways that positively impact work?
  • Do learners gain new understandings by working with others in sustained ways?
  • Do learners make intentional moves to learn from and with others?

Promote culturally sustaining communication and recognize the bias and privilege present in the interactions

• Culturally sustaining communication draws on diverse sign systems/modalities to consume, curate, and create in both face-to-face and digital spaces.
• Teaching practices grounded in this framework encourage learners to inquire about how language and power converge in texts to create or perpetuate biases against marginalized communities.
• Guiding questions:
  • Do learners have opportunities to raise questions about bias and privilege when consuming, curating, and creating texts?
  • Do learners practice recognizing patterns in discourse rooted in the oppression of nondominant groups (race, gender, sexuality, ability) and use strategies to interrupt this discourse?
• Learners should have opportunities to collaborate with people from diverse communities to address social issues that impact all of our lives.

Examine the rights, responsibilities, and ethical implications of the use and creation of information

• Networked, digital spaces enable rapid sharing and aggregation of information, but also raise questions about intellectual property and ownership of ideas, content, and resources.
• The rapidly changing digital texts and tools create new ethical dilemmas.
• It is essential for learners to understand ethics as principles governing behavior when interacting with information.
• Guiding questions:
  • Do learners share information in ways that consider all sources? Do learners consider contributors and the authenticity of sources?
  • Do learners practice safe and legal use of technology?
  • Do learners create products that are both informative and ethical?
  • Do learners avoid unauthorized access to others’ systems, software, or data?
  • Do learners engage in discursive practices in online spaces without demeaning others?
  • Do learners adhere to acceptable use policies and terms of service of tools and digital platforms?
  • Do learners respect intellectual property and use licensed materials appropriately?

Determine how and to what extent texts and tools amplify one’s own and others’ narratives as well as counter unproductive narratives

• It is important to engage in multimodal literacy practices to communicate information that supports participation in a diverse and democratic society.
• Learners navigate digital spaces where narratives are constructed for various purposes and must develop awareness of biased narratives that exclude nondominant communities.
• Learners should have sustained opportunities to produce counter-narratives that expose and interrupt misrepresentations of identities or life experiences.
• To engage in participatory literacy practices, learners need opportunities within the curriculum to author multimodal stories to examine power, equity, and identities and grow as digitally savvy and civic-minded citizens.
• Guiding questions:
  • Do learners analyze narratives to address accuracy, power dynamics, equity, and monolithic notions of race, ethnicity, culture, gender, sexuality, or ability?
  • Do learners explore multimodal narratives to identify and understand the cultural practices that inform those narratives?
  • Do learners have space to compose narratives across genres for a variety of audiences that center their life experiences and honor their cultural backgrounds?
  • Do learners create and disseminate narratives that leverage the affordances of digital tools?
  • Do learners share and critically analyze narratives they produce and consume in digital spaces?
  • Do learners use multiple digital tools and print-based literacies to design and create multimodal representations of stories that communicate asset-based ideas?
  • Do learners use multiple digital tools and print-based literacies to amplify the cultural wealth in their communities?

Recognize and honor multilingual literacy identities and culture experiences individuals bring to learning environments and provide opportunities to promote, amplify, and encourage these differing variations of language (dialect, jargon, register)

• The use of diverse narratives and lived experiences enriches learning and authentic contexts.
• The use of native dialects in education can enhance social, cognitive, emotional, and linguistic development.
• The literacy identities and dialects present in classrooms are influenced by historical, economic, pedagogical, sociolinguistic, cultural, ideological, theoretical, and political factors.
• As learners enculturate in current and future digital contexts, they should be provided opportunities to promote, amplify, and encourage these variations of language (e.g., dialect, jargon, register).

Credits, Acknowledgments, and Framework Revision

• Bill Bass, Parkway School District, MO
• Shelbie Witte, Chair, Oklahoma State University, OK
• W. Ian O’Byrne, College of Charleston, SC
• Detra Price-Dennis, Teachers College, Columbia University, NY
• Franki Sibberson, Dublin City Schools, OH
• We wish to extend our appreciation to the following individuals for their feedback at various stages of this revision:
  • Sarah Bonner
  • Jennifer Dail
  • Patricia Dunn
  • Chad Everett
  • Danielle Filipiak
  • Frances Glick
  • Crag Hill
  • Ken Lindblom
  • Ernest Morrell
  • Amy Piotrowski
  • Kristin Ziemke

Acknowledgments and Publication Details

• This article is a publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) detailing the Definition of Literacy in a Digital Age, including the framework revision and its guiding principles for 21st-century literacies.
• The content is intended for dissemination and educational use in alignment with NCTE’s mission to advance literacy.