Handbook of Research on New Literacies

Situated at the intersection of two of the most important areas in educational research today — literacy and technology — this handbook draws on the potential of each while carving out important new territory. It provides leadership for this newly emerging field, directing scholars to the major issues, theoretical perspectives, and interdisciplinary research pertaining to new literacies. Reviews of research are organized into six sections:

• Methodologies
• Knowledge and Inquiry
• Communication
• Popular Culture, Community, and Citizenship: Everyday Literacies
• Instructional Practices and Assessment
• Multiple Perspectives on New Literacies Research

FEATURES

• Brings together a diverse international team of editors and chapter authors
• Provides an extensive collection of research reviews in a critical area of educational research
• Makes visible the multiple perspectives and theoretical frames that currently drive work in new literacies
• Establishes important space for the emerging field of new literacies research
• Includes a unique Commentary section: The final section of the Handbook reprints five central research studies. Each is reviewed by two prominent researchers from their individual, and different, theoretical position. This provides the field with a sense of how diverse lenses can be brought to bear on research as well as the benefits that accrue from doing so. It also provides models of critical review for new scholars and demonstrates how one might bring multiple perspectives to the study of an area as complex as new literacies research.

The Handbook of Research on New Literacies is intended for the literacy research community, broadly conceived, including scholars and students from the traditional reading and writing research communities in education and educational psychology as well as those from information science, cognitive science, psychology, sociolinguistics, computer mediated communication, and other related areas that find literacy to be an important area of investigation.

Julie Coiro is an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and a Director of The New Literacies Research Lab at the University of Connecticut. Her research focuses on online reading comprehension, new literacies of the Internet, and effective practices for technology integration and professional development.

Michele Knobel is Professor of Education at Montclair State University. She spends a good deal of her time investigating everyday literacy practices--especially those involving digital technologies.

Colin Lankshear is Professor of Education at James Cook University and Visiting Scholar at McGill University. His academic interests include sociocultural studies of new literacies in popular culture and the practice of teacher research.

Donald J. Leu is the John and Maria Neag Endowed Chair of Literacy and Technology and a Director of the New Literacies Research Lab at the University of Connecticut. He studies the new literacies of online reading comprehension and instructional practices that improve students’ ability to read, communicate, and learn with the Internet.