2. WEB LITERACY THROUGH SOCIO-CONSTRUCTIVISM

2.1 INTRODUCTION

For some time now literacy researchers have acknowledged the fact that the Internet is becoming an integral part of people's lives. For instance, Warschauer (1999:4) states that "the most important current development affecting reading and writing is the development and spread of the Internet". New forms of literacy are required, web literacy being one of them. In this study, web literacy means, like any other form of literacy, reading and writing, using the medium of the web.

In this chapter we will present our view of the concept of web literacy in relation to a number of definitions in recent research on the areas of technology and literacies. As web literacy is a fairly new concept, there are numerous definitions and closely related and overlapping terms that describe reading and writing on the web from particular perspectives. We will begin by clarifying what is meant by the web as a medium. After that, we will have a brief overlook on the socio-constructive paradigm (Tynjälä 1999) and its effect on web literacy (Barton and Hamilton 1998, Lemke 1998). Examining web literacy through a socio-constructive framework helps us to illustrate the cultural, social, societal and historical aspects of all literacies, an in this case, web literacy. As an example of a socio-constructive approach to literacies, we will introduce a concept of Multiliteracies (The New London Group 2000), which is easily adapted to reading and writing on the web. Finally, based on research on web literacy and related research areas (Sorapure et al. 1998, Thoman 1999, Warschauer 1999, Janks 2000, Ministry of Education 2000, Karlsson 2002, Sutherland-Smith 2002), we will form a comprehensive view on what web literacy is and what kinds of areas it consists of . Through an overview of the various definitions we will finally introduce the three interrelated fields of web literacy we comprised for our pedagogical purposes.