Digital Literacy

Wesch graphically illustrates his thoughts about the way that Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs, SNSs, RSS, and Wiki have changed the way that people communicate and share information. The video emphasises that digital text is easily captured and transformed, it is moveable and above all 'hyper' - able to be linked to and from infinite sources.

A decade ago I hypothesised that what at the time was called 'electracy' was taking up a position between orality and literacy. Were were seeing a re-techologising of the written text that blurred the boundaries between writing and speech. Web 2.0 apps confirm that belief.

What struck me in the Wesch video was how flexible, moveable, non-linear and above all 'hyper' was the text written in pencil on chart paper. In may be that "digital literacy" does not differ in essence from other forms of literacy, whatever the differences in scope.


Kibby, M. (1998). Web weavers: the gender implications of the (re)technologising of the word. Winds of Change - Women and Culture of Universities, (pp. 749-754). Sydney, Australia: University of Technology.