Everyday Literacies

Spanish language version of New Literacies

We are thrilled to see that the Spanish language edition of the second edition of New Literacies has been published this month by Ediciones Morata in Madrid. The book has been translated by Pablo Manzano, whose work is greatly appreciated.

Ediciones Morata was established in 1925 by Javier Morata Pedreño, a journalist. The press grew out of the Minerva Bookstore (Librería Minerva), which Morata had founded 4 years earlier. It was able to operate throughout the Spanish Civil War as a scientific press with a strong presence in publishing medical and literary texts. Upon Morata’s death in 1966 the company was taken up by Morata’s daughters Flora and Claridad. Flora became director. In 1976 Morata’s grand daughter, Florentina became director and remained in this role until her death late in 2006. The current Ediciones Morata catalogue features 300 titles in Psychology, Education, Sociology, Psychiatry, Philosophy and related fields.

We are very happy that Open University Press negotiated the translation with Ediciones Morata and hope the book enjoys a good life in Spanish as it has to date in English.

This is a good time and place for us to express our great thanks to all the folk who have contributed toward making our experience with the two editions of New Literacies so rewarding. We have experienced a huge amount of goodwill with these books, all the way from our colleagues at Open University Press to those colleagues who have used the books in courses, to those who have reviewed them. Reviewers have been kind. It would have been easy to argue that they do not push “the theory” hard enough, or that too much time has been devoted to issues that at first sight might seem a bit remote from classroom practices. But reviewers have focused on positive aspects and we have appreciated that very much. We are also very grateful to colleagues who have used the books in courses and given us feedback on how they have gone. This also holds true for A New Literacies Sampler. These were “serious fun” books to put together and it has been a real privilege to find that others have been so willing to get into the “serious fun” and to spin off it.

As anyone in academe knows, you can take a lot of hard knocks there as well as getting some great breaks. Over the years we’ve experienced both, but so far the balance has tipped heavily in favour of positive experiences. We have been very lucky in that regard and want to express our great appreciation.

More new books to review

Dana Wilber and I (Michele) have a bunch of new books just in that are looking for reviewers. Reviews will be published in e-Learning. If you interested in reviewing one (or mroe) of these texts, email me (knobelm@mail.montclair.edu) the title and your mailing address and we'll send you the book and some book review guidelines to help you.

New books to review (09/09/08)

Distance Learning in Higher Education: A Pragmatic Approach to Planning, Design, Instruction, Evaluation and Accreditation by Rovai, Alfred P., Ponton, Michael K. & Baker, Jason D.

New Media and Public Relations by Duhe, S.

NewLits.org has launched!

Dana Wilber, Colin and I--in conjunction with our wiki developer, Christian Blair--are extremely happy to announce the birth of the NewLits.org wiki!

The NewLits.org wiki has two central aims:

1. to host and promote a rich and varied range of professional development resources for middle school language arts educators

2. to support and encourage the meaningful take-up of new literacy practices in classrooms

NewLits.org is built upon the principles of the "wisdom of crowds" and "creative commons". It believes that collaboration among diverse people usually yields a “better” outcome than is achieved by individual experts working alone. It also recognizes the importance of creating resources for educators that are free to use (with appropriate attribution) for non-commercial purposes for enhancing our professional field.

To get things started, 10 prominent authors in the field were commissioned to write articles for the wiki. These include:

• James Paul Gee: Lucidly Functional Language


• Donna Alvermann: A Hybrid Approach to Content Area Literacy


• Jabari Mahiri: Digi-Pop: New Literacies Need New Learning


• Michael Hoechsmann: From the Classroom to the Newsroom: Teaching Media Writing


• Rebecca Black: Publishing and Participation in Online Affinity Spaces


• Jon Callow: As I see it - integrating viewing across the curriculum


• Chris Shamburg: Podcasting and Fluency


• Laura Nicosia: Adolescent Literature and Second Life: Teaching Young Adult Texts in the Digital World


• Lalitha Vasudevan: Media and youth literacy: Addressing the needs of struggling learners in middle school classrooms (in process)


• Glynda Hull: Narrative and digital storytelling (in process)

You yourself are invited to contribute to the wiki by:

• Reading contributing authors' papers (these were commissioned specifically for this wiki) and posting your responses to the ideas they advance


• Uploading resources you’ve developed in your own classroom for others to use for non-commercial purposes


• Adding links to sites or online resources relevant to new literacies that you think others will find useful


• Downloading resources posted by others and using them in your classroom; then posting an account of how things went


• Showcasing your students’ new literacies work


• Creating a space within the wiki that focuses on a particular interest of yours (e.g., middle school students and lucidly functional language in the sciences; addressing literacy difficulties in middle school classrooms)


• Creating a space within the wiki dedicated to using particular digital resources in your classrooms (e.g., editing anime music video remixes)


• Suggesting and actively developing other options (and there are many)

NewLits.org is funded by the Improving Teacher Quality Project (ITQP), which is a is a federally funded, three-year partnership (running from 2006 to 2009) between Montclair State University and East Orange School District, New Jersey (USA). While this wiki is a component of this partnership, participation in the NewLits.org wiki is not limited to the project and interested participants from everywhere are welcome to use and contribute to this wiki.