I’m expanding the definition of illiteracy.
We use the literacy rate of countries or cities as a short-hand for how developed they are. In other words, we consider the ability to read and write as a kind of bare minimum for participation in the present; anyone who doesn’t have that qualification is arguably trapped in the past.
With that said, literacy in reference to reading and writing is not the only kind of literacy that’s becoming a bare minimum. Wired made this argument recently in regard to statistical literacy: far too many people can’t look at a stat and critically think about what it means, and how the collection method or criteria impact that meaning.
Some other literacies I’m proposing we start considering key performance indicators for our society.
Media Literacy: can you judge the validity of a source of information? Can you tell when facts are being manipulated? Can you analyze the information being provided to you, and make valuable conclusions?
Digital Media Literacy: do you know how to use tools available for search? For publishing? For communication? Can you control and customize your experiences online? Can you make use of and/or modify standard technology and services? Do you know what level of control and management is possible in your various online accounts and/or identities?
If I was being fair, I’d probably throw ‘Code Literacy’ in there as well, but given my skill set, I don’t feel qualified to define what the line is there. I can get google analytics or disqus working on a blog (the current theme on AI had them integrated automatically, though) but I wouldn’t consider myself code literate. This is actually one of my biggest issues with my skill set, and reflects what I consider a hole in the education system.
We’re entering a new phase of human culture, and the shift is as big as the printing press making literacy a key requirement in participating in humanity’s advancement.
We need some new bare minimums. What are yours?
One of the problems the industry has is that the creatives can’t talk to the businesspeople and the technologists,” Mr. Slayden said. “Businesspeople don’t know what a wireframe is. It’s siloed. When we talk to industry people, they all start shaking their heads that, yes, this is a major problem. That’s our goal: train people who are strong in one area and can converse in other areas so they can work better.
Colorado Students to Learn Digital From Alex Bogusky
This is such a terrific idea. Cheers to Crispin for once again flexing their innovation muscle.
(via bliptvad)
It IS great and I hope they franchise this and teach the course in every city.
You are dead in the water or forever beholden to “middle men” if you can’t talk all the languages.
And as far as what’s being taught in most colleges lately, I was talking with a student about to start her fourth year as a journalism major and her mind was blown with my BASIC overview of the Internet content landscape. CPM, metrics, and buying urls were terms foreign to her and concepts that had not been covered in her classes. Jesus. Apparently the entire curriculum is information that would be useful if it was 1985 outside. She said she was thinking of going to graduate school. I told her she better find out exactly what classes they are going to offer or she might find herself spending money and time she doesn’t have to waste on an education that suits her for nothing more than teaching the History of Journalism.
(via tanya77)Jack of all Trades is generally a good place to be, if you’re also willing to put in the time to become Master of One.
Narratives and Communication.
I gave an impromptu talk last night, at Refresh Events in Toronto. I may have been enticed to the front of the room with the promise of free beer, but in all honesty just watching others speak about their passions, and the lessons and challenges they’ve faced, got me up and talking about the transition I made from studying English Literature, to studying (and now working in) Communications.
I’m not going to repeat that talk here.
But I’m going to mention something related; the importance that my understanding of narrative has on my understanding of communication, in terms of marketing/communications disciplines. We can talk about messaging, or branding, or badge theory. In the end, we’re all talking about narrative. Everything has a narrative, is composed of smaller things with narratives, and can combine to form a meta-narrative. You don’t sell products, you sell expansions to the personal narrative of customers. Very few people buy a Tom Ford suit because they like the Tom Ford story. They buy it because they want their story to include the signifiers and meaning of Tom Ford suits.
Don’t create meaning for the product, or even the brand. Create meaning for the final narrative, that of the consumer. Create something that can be remixed and integrated into established lives and identities.
Narrative, and the tools and tricks of narrative, are what I loved, and still love, about english literature. In terms of durable, repeatable and distributable content, the written word, the written story, is the most developed medium our society will encounter. Learning to dissect that system, learning what it’s like to develop meaning in a format that often references ideas and concepts from an earlier century, another continent, from our collective cultural memory, taught me more about how to develop meaning from a patchwork of different influences than I realized.
To properly analyze a novel, you need to be able to understand the major references, regardless of how subtle or obtuse. I can’t think of any better training for building compelling narratives in the current media landscape, or for picking apart messages created and distributed in any other medium, all of which have had less time to develop and establish technique and idiom.
Except for a long string of self-effacing jokes, I’m very proud of my past studying English Lit. I’m certain it makes me a better communicator and strategist than I would have been otherwise, just as I’m sure it’s the only reason I ended up focusing on communication strategy.
