A number of weeks ago, my friend Tom Whitby asked me to write an
article for SmartBlogs about literacy. Tom Whitby also inspires
me. Among his various activities is facilitating an online
community of more than 15,000 educators devoted to the topic of
personal learning networks. PLNs describe a range of skills and
techniques, practiced by many educators, to fashion personal
information networks of people and knowledge sources, from which
they can learn. These educators are publicly practicing
contemporary literacy in order to achieve what has become the
primary purpose of literacy –– to continually learn. Literacy is
a foundation of democracy. This is why we teach it. But, as a
reader, were you taught to read as well as you do? Certainly,
you would not be reading now, unless someone taught you to. But,
as you read this article, are you calling to mind your teachers’
discreet lessons? Do you consciously know when you are scanning
or reading for detail? Do you recognize and label alliteration,
cause and effect