Why Shift Didn’t Happen
I recently attended the National Council of Teachers of English annual conference. This year it was in San Antonio, Texas. The theme for the conference was “Shift Happens,” shift referring to the move from old literacies to new ones, from print media to digital. Over the period of a few days, it became clearer to me than ever why new literacies mark the beginning of the end of English.
There are two observations I made during my time at the conference that have subtle significance to the state of English. First, though both sessions I presented at had in their titles some reference to online literacies (MySpace in one; online in the other), we as presenters were not guaranteed either a data projector (so that the computer screen could be viewed from afar) orinternet access. During my second presentation, I was told that internet was provided for only two rooms and that was all. This was a conference with over twenty thousand teachers on teaching. Secondly, as I wandered up and down the aisles of the convention center where sponsors and vendors had set up booths, I was struck by how few of them had anything seriously to do with moving English beyond print media. I strolled past bevies of book publishers, test preppromisers , and the occasional grammarian. In short, the conference on shift happening made clear to me why shift is not in fact happening. It’s because the people who need to take it seriously aren’t; their time, money, and effort is still stuck in the Print Age.
There are voices in English education and adjacent fields who are writing passionately and thoughtfully about our current state. But from the looks of this convention,their voices are going unheard. While recently reading a collection of essays called, Adolescent Literacy: Turning Promise into Practice, I was struck by voices likeKylene Beers, Donna Alvermann, and Sara Kajder . Each offered an awareness of our current tension. Beers draws attention to a sad irony–as students’ deftness in new literacies is broadening, policy makers are shrinking the definition of literacy itself so that it is more “accurately” assessable. Alvermann builds on this point, emphasizing that in addition to the narrowing of our definition of literacy, current teachers have trouble relating to themultiliteracies of their students; it’s no longer about language alone. Finally, even Kajder’s efforts to concretize the use of technology in the classroom, while helpful for teachers to whom it is new, falls short of suggesting ways to infuse curricula with new literacy awareness and practice. But, if infrastructural support is not in place, then very little of the above theorizing and research matters.
I’m finding a similar incongruity in my role as the technology and media coordinator at my Manhattan middle and high school. Our administration would like to help bring the school culture and pedagogy into the digital age: conversations about SMART boards and data projectors and class web sites. Step one, however, is far less romantic. First we have to have computers in each classroom that are only for teacher use. Without an infrastructure in place that can support hefty software and access web sites at high speeds, the rest is little more than a mirage. And even though my administrative colleagues are on board with this, we now face the gauntlet of actually getting equipment and other orders in from the Board of Education. It’s boring, dirty, and essential work. My school, I’m happy to say, is putting its money and time behind the unglamourous task ahead.
New literacies do indeed mark the end of English. English, as my experience at the NCTE conference supports, is dedicated to the Print Age–books, pages, pencils, paper. Students know that there is something newer, more powerful, and interesting out there. Teachers, unless they receive authentic institutional, infrastructural, and professional support, will do as they have done. Shift will not happen. In fact, shift does not need to happen. We need infusion. It is a concerted effort to infuse pedagogy with new literacies that is needed. It can begin with suiting classrooms seriously with access to those new literacies: optimized computers, dependable Internet, and on-site digital literacy coaching.
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