Talks delivered at Hanoi National University Of Education (Vietnam), The Coffee Inn (Hanoi, Vietnam), and Universitas Negeri Surabaya (Indonesia)

1. Literacy
Technology
& Society
Dr Ibrar Bhatt
Lecturer in Education
Photo by ibrar bhatt https://www.flickr.com/photos/87248369@N03/20406599061/
@ibrar_bhatt
i.bhatt@qub.ac.uk
ibrarspace.net

2. This lecture
•Understand how literacy occurs in and through the practices of
people, their networks, and their contexts (i.e. social practices)
•Explore ways to examine digital literacy in context to enhance
teaching and learning in TESOL
•Present the theoretical basis of a *new* Faculty-wide module for
the MSc TESOL programme at Queen’s University Belfast

3. Controversies

4. This debate is not new.
Plato records Socrates’ objection to the practice and
technology of writing (‘Literacy’), stating that it would
erode memory and cognitive functions, make people
rely on data/information and not knowledge, and
ultimately have a negative effect on society (Phaedrus)
Educators therefore need to better understand new
controversies, and the impacts of technologies on
new literacies

5. Literacies in context:
E.g. an air con engineer & manual

6. Literacy as social practice
Literacies are:
• Experienced within specific contexts
• Attached to professions, communities, and places
• Part of particular cultural histories
• Mediated by material objects and technologies
Therefore, to understand them, you need a thorough exploration of contexts

7. Literacy as social practice
What counts as Literacy in a ‘social practice’ approach depends on:
• The institutions in which it is embedded
• The processes through which it is acquired
• The practices through which it it is enacted
Therefore, to engage with Literacy becomes a form of critical social inquiry, and has importance
for TESOL pedagogies that are sensitive to context

8. Street (1984)
• The 'autonomous model' - Literacy is a technical skill,
autonomous from the social acts in which it occurs,
and neutral
• The ‘ideological model’ - Literacy is “always
embedded in socially constructed epistemological
principles” (Street 2009: 29)
• 'Multiple literacies'

9. Barton & Hamilton (1998, 2012)
Challenges discourses of literacy that are dominant
and simplifying
Ethnographic methods to:
• describe literacy practices in a particular
community
• explore literacy as a method of sense-making
• examine literacy’s relationship to quality of life.

10. Barton and Hamilton (2000) help conceptualise literacy in the following terms:
• Literacy is best understood as a set of social practices; these can be inferred from events which are
mediated by written texts
• There are different literacies associated with different domains of life
• Literacy practices are patterned by social institutions and power relationships, and some literacies
are more dominant visible and influential than others.
• Literacy practices are purposeful and embedded in broader social goals and cultural practices
• Literacy is historically situated
• Literacy practices change and new ones are frequently acquired though processes of informal
learning and sense making
(Barton & Hamilton 2000: p. 8)

11. Literacy practices like graffiti have a constellation of social practices
surrounding them: music, protest, territory, etc.
Photo by ibrar bhatt https://www.flickr.com/photos/87248369@N03/32967559021/in/dateposted-public/

12. Controversies

13. In each of these headlines there is a crisis narrative surrounding Literacy, its relationship to Technology,
and what that means for our Society
Looking at the headlines, Literacy (or digital literacy) is presented as a ‘problem’.
• We need to find out certain things (collect data) in order to understand this problem better (research)
• There are issues (challenges and opportunities) in teaching contexts (pedagogy)
• Often there is a pre-supposed ‘proper’ way of doing Literacy. Who benefits from this view of Literacy?
(critical questioning)
Research – Pedagogy – critique

14. Researching digital literacy ‘from the ground up’
What kinds of research questions and methods of data collection could you use to explore the problems
within the headlines?
https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3841/14391226325_8c35c2a652_b.jpg

15. Getting to know a context
Exploring people’s subjective experience with language and digital literacy is vital to our
understanding of how to develop materials in context. In digital environments, we can examine:
• People’s common habits of use with digital media, over time and in different places
• Their practices across the contexts of classroom, around the campus/school, and at home
• The networks of people and places involved
• The applications, devices and platforms they use
• The digital literacy policies and frameworks in the college/school
• Historical trends with digital media in the lives of people
• Historical trends with digital media in a college/school or community
• How people obtain information, their sources of information, and how they make sense of the
world (my current work: curation as a digital literacy practice)

16. Examining digital literacy as a case
Possible methods you can use include:
• Ethnographic methods (e.g. Barton & Hamilton)
• Linguistic Landscapes (Shohamy & Gorter 2009)
• Focussed interviews: technobiographies, day-in-the life, walk along
• Participatory methods (e.g. Venn diagrams, see Bhatt 2017a)
• Multidimensional screen recordings (see Bhatt et al. 2015; Bhatt 2017b)
• Self-tracking applications
• Usability software (my current research!)

17. Researching (new) digital literacies
Current methodological trends in the Social Sciences, Educational Research, and Linguistics

18. A ‘technobiography’ as an interview method
for research
A notable method of gaining insights into how people use language and literacy online. Originating in
Kennedy (2003) and elaborated on in Page et al. (2014).
This method can focus on:
• personal practices with digital media (lived experience)
• Online representations of the self
• phases of change over time
• different domains of life
• how habits of use emerge in life
• personal use vs prescribed use.

19. Activity
i) Carry out a technobiographic interview with the person next to you.
Typical questions can include:
1) When did you first use a mouse? Send a text message? Search for something on the Web? Set up a
social media profile?
2) What caused this first usage? Was it mere inquisitiveness? Or did you have to?
3) Can you remember the first [essay, email, etc.] that you wrote? How did you write it? Is it different
to how you would do it now? What has changed over time?
4) What irritates you most about digital technology?
5) What do you enjoy most about digital technology?
6) Tell me about the first time you used a digital translation app/device. How has your use of these
evolved over time?
7) When did you first interact with someone multingually online? How have these practices evolved in
your life?

20. Final points
Researching digital literacy using a ‘social practice’ approach helps us to look at
the funds of knowledge that learners bring to education. And to use those funds
to inform pedagogies and a better understanding of learners.
What it means to be digitally literate is always in flux. Focusing a lens on student
practices as the locus of inquiry can also contribute to other fields within
Language Education, including Mobile Assisted Language Learning (e.g. Pegrum
2014), Computer-Assisted Language Learning (e.g. Davies et al. 2011),
Networked Learning, and Technology-Enhanced Learning.

21. References:
BARTON, D. & HAMILTON, M. (1998, 2012) Local literacies: reading and writing in one community, London: Routledge
BARTON, D. & HAMILTON, M. (2000) Literacy Practices. In: BARTON, D., HAMILTON, M. & IVANIC, R. (eds.) Situated literacies: reading and
writing in context. London: Routledge. 7-15
BHATT, I. (2017a) ‘Classroom digital literacies as interactional accomplishments’, In Researching New Literacies: Design, Theory, and Data in
Sociocultural Investigation, Knobel, M. and Lankshear, C. (eds.), New York: Peter Lang.
BHATT, I. (2017b). Assignments as controversies: digital literacy and writing in classroom practice, Routledge Research in Literacy
BHATT, I, DE ROOCK, R & ADAMS, J. (2015). Diving deep into digital literacy: emerging methods for research, Language and Education, Vol.
29 (6), 477-492
DAVIES G., WALKER R., RENDALL H. & HEWER S. (2011) Introduction to Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). Module 1.4 in Davies
G. (ed.) Information and Communications Technology for Language Teachers (ICT4LT), Slough, Thames Valley University [Online]:
http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod1-4.htm
KENNEDY, H. M. T. (2003) "Technobiography: Researching Lives, Online and Off." Biography, vol. 26 no. 1, 2003, pp. 120-139. Project MUSE
IVANIČ, R., EDWARDS, R., BARTON, D., MARTIN-JONES, M., FOWLER, Z., HUGHES, B., MANNION, G., MILLER, K., SATCHWELL, C. & SMITH, J.
(2009) Improving learning in college: rethinking literacies across the curriculum, Routledge, London.
PAGE, R., BARTON, D., UNGER J. W. and ZAPPAVIGNA, M. (2014) Researching Language and Social Media: A Student Guide. Abington and
New York: Routledge
PEGRUM, M. (2014) Mobile learning: Languages, literacies and cultures, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
SHOHAMY, E. & GORTER, D. (2009) Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the Scenery. London: Routledge.
STREET, B. V. (1984) Literacy in theory and practice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Further reading on Literacy Studies:
BAYNHAM, M. (1995) Literacy practices: investigating literacy in social contexts, London: Longman
STREET, B. V. (2009) The future of 'social literacies'. In: BAYNHAM, M. & PRINSLOO, M. (eds.) The future of literacy studies, Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan, 21-37

22. Dr Ibrar Bhatt
Lecturer in Education (MSc TESOL)
Convener of new module: Digital Literacy &
Communication
@ibrar_bhatt
i.bhatt@qub.ac.uk
ibrarspace.net