Cynthia L. Selfe - Global Literacies and the World Wide Web

GLOBAL LITERACIES AND THE WORLDWIDE WEB

The World-Wide Web has transformed the way that information is distributed. Increasingly it is touted as a global literacy system, a technology-rich environment within which information is distributed, received and acted upon. Global Literacies and the World-Wide Web provides a critical examination of the new online literacy practices; authoring, designing, interpreting and enacting change, especially as these activities are affected, both directly and indirectly, by various cultural and national contexts.

Global Literacies and the World-Wide Web is written by scholars from around the world including Mexico, Japan, Greece, Hungary, Australia, Palau, Cuba and the United States. Each chapter represents and examines online literacy practices in their specific cultures, providing critical commentary on how these literacies are determined by national, cultural and educational contexts.

Gail Hawisher and Cynthia Selfe resist a romanticised vision of global oneness and instead celebrate the dynamic capacity of these new self-defined literacy communities with their continuing redefinition of ethnicity and difference. Global Literacies and the World-Wide Web is a lively challenge to conventional notions of the relationship between literacy and technology.

Gail E.Hawisher is Professor of English and Director of the Center for Writing Studies at the University of Illinois. Cynthia L.Selfe is Professor of Humanities in the Humanities Department at Michigan Technological University.

LITERACIESSeries Editor: David

BartonLancaster University

Literacy practices are changing rapidly in contemporary society in response to broad social, economic and technological changes: in education, the workplace, the media and in everyday life. The Literacies series has been developed to reflect the burgeoning research and scholarship in the field of literacy studies and its increasingly interdisciplinary nature. The series aims to situate reading and writing within its broader institutional contexts where literacy is considered as a social practice. Work in this field has been developed and drawn together to provide books which are accessible, interdisciplinary and international in scope, covering a wide range of social and institutional contexts.

SITUATED LITERACIES

Edited by David Barton, Mary Hamilton and Roz Ivani

MULTILITERACIES

Literacy Learning and the design of social futures

Edited by Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis

GLOBAL LITERACIES AND THE WORLD-WIDE WEB

Edited by Gail E.Hawisher and Cynthia L.Selfe

Editorial Board:

Elsa Auerbach Boston University

Mike Baynham University of Technology, Sydney

David Bloome Vanderbilt University

Norman Fairclough Lancaster University

James Gee University of Wisconsin

Nigel Hall Manchester Metropolitan University

Mary Hamilton Lancaster University

Peter Hannon Sheffield University

Shirley Brice Heath Stanford University

Roz Ivani Lancaster University

Gunther Kress University of London

Jane Mace Southbank University

Janet Maybin Open University

Greg Myers Lancaster University

Mastin Prinsloo University of Cape Town

Brian Street University of London

Michael Stubbs University of Trier

Denny Taylor Hofstra University

Daniel Wagner University of Pennsylvania

GLOBAL LITERACIES AND THE WORLD-WIDE WEB

Edited by

Gail E.Hawisher and Cynthia L.Selfe

London and New York

First published 2000
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, NewYork, NY 10001

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor and Francis Group

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.

To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledges collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.

Selection and editorial matter 2000 Gail E.Hawisher and Cynthia L.Selfe; individual chapters 2000 the contributors

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Global literacies and the World-Wide Web: postmodern identities/[edited by] Gail E.Hawisher and Cynthia L.Selfe.
p. cm.(Literacies)
Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index.
1. Communication and culture. 2. Communication and technology.3. World Wide Web (Information retrieval system)Social aspects.4. Written communication-Social aspects.
I. Hawisher, Gail E. II. Selfe, Cynthia L., 1951. III. Series.
P94.6.G58 2000 9925166
303.48'33dc21 CIP

ISBN 0-203-97886-2 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-415-18941-1 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-18942-X (pbk)

TO THOSE WOMEN WHO TAUGHT US HOW

Sug McCune Cornelius
Helen McCune
Eleanor Caples
Elizabeth Peterson
Hilda Pettrich
Elsie Seisz
Dayle Benson
Julie Carlson

PLATES, FIGURES, AND TABLES

Plates

Figures

Tables

CONTRIBUTORS

Enik Csomay, Etvs University.

Elizabeth W. de Huergo, American Institute of Monterrey.

Aliki Dragona, University of California, Davis.

Victor Fernandez, Trabajadores, Havana, Cuba.

Barbara Field, Simon & Schuster.

Sibylle Gruber, University of Northern Arizona.

Carolyn Handa, University of Southern Illinois, Edwardsville.

Gail E.Hawisher, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Cynthia Haynes, University of Texas at Dallas.

Jan Rune Holmevik, University of Bergen.

Jason Johnstone, University of Puget Sound.

Karla Saari Kitalong, Central Florida University.

Tino Kitalong, Chad er a Belau, Orlando, Florida.

James A.Levin, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Sean Lewis, University of the Western Cape.

Cathryn McConaghy, University of New England.

Elaine Richardson, Pennsylvania State University.

Susan Romano, University of Texas at San Antonio.

Cynthia L.Selfe, Michigan Technological University.

Sarah Sloane, University of Puget Sound.

Ilana Snyder, Monash University.

Taku Sugimoto, University of Tokyo.

Laura Sullivan, University of Florida.

INTRODUCTION: TESTING THE CLAIMS

Gail E.Hawisher and Cynthia L.Selfe

The Web as an environment for global literacy practices