Being a literate person means understanding how discourses work
Screens and Images
Written texts are related to the alphabet, while digital technology links literacy to other elements. Today, images are expressive forms which, like the written word, represent something; they are used to create meaning. In this context, there are close links between words and images.
Literacy and New Media
From this perspective, new media have brought about three major changes:
- Current technology allows for the use of different methods or resources in establishing communication
- Interactivity, which is understood as the possibility of establishing a relationship between the medium, the author and the recipients of the messages”
- Texts can be reconstructed far more simply, both by the original author, who created the text, and by others, who transform it”
Outside and Inside the Classrooms
Our research took place outside and inside the classrooms. A good example is the workshops held at the Telefónica Flagship, where boys and girls learned and taught to become aware of the languages they used to publish on Instagram and other social networks.
The experiences and results crystallized into interactive books, a free download from iTunes, or as pdf files. Studies have also been carried out in classrooms, introducing transmedia experiences. In this case, the starting point was Matilda, one of Roald Dahl’s characters. Girls and boys from primary education reconstructed their adventures writing blogs and participating in social networks, for example, on Facebook.