Chapter 5: The Technology and Literacy Project: Crossing Boundaries to Conceptualize the New Literacies

The phrase “new literacies” has emerged in recent literacy research to signify the current unsettling of our conceptions and practices of literacy that has accompanied the rapid expansion of communications technology (Alvermann & Hagood, 2000; Luke & Elkins, 1998; Tyner, 1998). Digital technologies have altered the very nature of the texts that people encounter in their everyday lives. These changes have had significant consequences for how we think about literacy in relation to adolescents. Young people increasingly consume multimodal texts that incorporate graphic arts, music, and cinematic forms as well as print (Kirst, 2000; Kress, 1997; Luke & Elkins, 1998; Negroponte, 1995; New London Group, 1996).