Chapter 9: Unraveling the Riddler: New Media, Technology, and Literacies in Exploring Heroes and Superheroes

Today’s students are inundated by media and technology. The world is both bigger and smaller ... and “flat” (Friedman, 2005). It is bigger in the sense that there is so much more one must know and be able to do; smaller in that knowledge about the world and its people is at the tips of our fingers with the Internet; and flat in that we are functioning at a global level.

This multidimensionality presents challenges as well as opportunities. Students can readily amass a great deal of information but may not know how comprehensive or accurate this information is. As information consumers, they must learn how to critically analyze this information for validity, bias, and usefulness. In other words, they must develop skills and abilities beyond those required in conventional print texts. These new literacies, including visual literacy, have increased significantly in such a media-rich environment. Simultaneously, students must be prepared to be conscientious producers of information. This generation has the privilege of serving as reporters in their own right. No longer must we wait for news to be filtered down through the media; rather, social networking technologies, such as Twitter, allow everyday writers immediate access to their audiences. However, we must teach that “with great power comes great responsibility.” Between the media-rich environment, new technologies, and a more global orientation, teachers must rethink the “basics” in education. Regardless of whether they perceive these as friend or foe, today’s teachers must accept these influences as a part of twenty-first century learning. According to the Partnership for 21st Century Learning (2009), a national organization promoting twenty-first century readiness, students must continue instruction in the core subjects alongside “the essential skills for success in today’s world, such as critical thinking, problem solving, communication and collaboration.” We teachers must work with students to reinvent traditional elements of education and embrace a new approach in which we meet students where they are and journey together towards a new dimension of learning.