Literacias do séc. XXI

Howard Rheingold define-se a si mesmo como um "online instigator" (sic) e é um nome incontornável e pioneiro do estudo das redes sociais e das comunidades virtuais. Numa coluna no San Francisco Gate, chama a atenção para as literacias do século XXI. Valeria a pena prestar atenção ao que ele diz.
Ficam algumas dicas, apenas como aperitivo para a leitura do texto completo:

• I have collected evidence over the past several decades that suggests the humanity or toxicity of next year's digital culture depends to a very large degree on what we know, learn, and teach each other about how to use the one billion Internet accounts and four billion mobile phones available today. After more than twenty five years of participation, observation, and analysis, I've become convinced that the future tenor of online culture depends now on whether new literacies spread far enough, fast enough in the next few years.

• What we know and what we teach our children about how to critically consume and collaboratively create online media matters. How many people are included in that "we" matters. And the quality of knowledge we learn and share about life online matters. If you think that forgetting to teach your kids the facts of life is dangerous, wait until you witness the collision of a global superempowered infrastructure with a population of illiterate users.

• I want you to know that only after confronting this issue for a long time did I become convinced that the difference between the haves and have nots, between education and disinfotainment, is not a matter of hardware or software or even (entirely) of being able to afford access to the Web. The most important critical uncertainty today is how many of us learn to use digital media and networks effectively, reasonably, credibly, collaboratively, civilly, humanely.