ABSTRACT
Just how these multimodal communications will transform learning and teaching, pedagogy and curriculum is yet to be decided. At present we can but observe the transformations that are taking place in everyday life and try to predict the impact they will have on the learning and teaching environments of the future. When we set out to survey over 600 14-year-old students attending schools in an Australian city we asked ourselves a number of questions, such as: “What types of texts are students reading outside the classroom?” “What connections, if any, can be made between various print-based and new media communication activities?” and “What might be the implications of students’ out-of-school literacy practices for curriculum development?” We were particularly interested in the reading practices of young people since these are under question through some sections of the popular media. Adults worry that young people are not exposed by modern schooling to the more traditional print-based texts and they express concern that computers could be displacing “the book” as the preferred technology for disseminating knowledge and providing pleasurable leisure reading activities. On the other hand, researchers highlight different concerns from some sections of the popular media. Several writers have noted the lack of current evidence about the extent to which schools are making connections between the out-of-school literacy practices of young people and the curriculum and pedagogy of classrooms (Ladbrook, 2009; Lankshear & Knobel, 2006) and it is likely that these concerns informed the point made by the writers of the (Australian) National English Curriculum Position Paper (Freebody et al., 2008), that English should broaden its view of what constitutes appropriate engagement with communications technologies. There is little doubt that the students who took part in our survey were engaging in a broad range of literacy practices outside school. They were almost all connected to the Internet and using a computer on a daily basis; most possessed a cell phone and some form of game technology. In recent years there has been a growing interest in the online experiences of young people and the creativity and knowledge production of a savvy generation of multimodal operatives (Alvermann, 2001; Alvermann, Hinch-
man, Moore, Phelps & Waff, 2006; Gee, 2003; Knobel & Lankshear, 2004; Ladbrook, 2009; Lankshear & Knobel, 2006; Lewis & Fabos, 2005; Marsh, 2006; Snyder, 2004). In the remainder of this chapter we contribute to this emerging body of research and discuss aspects of our study where we set out to better understand the current reading experiences and habits of young Australians.
