2. WEB LITERACY THROUGH SOCIO-CONSTRUCTIVISM

2.3.3. Web literacy as awareness of oneself as a web user

We began exploring the concept of web literacy by introducing web literacy first as a set of skills and strategies (ch 2.3.1) and then, as content knowledge of the web (ch 2.3.2). The third viewpoint on web literacy has not been that clearly articulated in the definitions on web literacy in earlier research and is that clearly referred to only in few of the definitions in Table 1 in chapter 2.3 (Thoman 1999, Warschauer 1999, Ministry of Education 2000). This is web literacy as metacognitive knowledge.

By metacognition we refer to an awareness of one's own (and others') cognitive processes, thinking, learning and knowing (Tynjälä 1999:114-115). As content knowledge (see ch 2.3.2) is knowledge of the specific domain, in this case knowledge of the medium web, metacognitive knowledge is knowledge about oneself in relation to the content knowledge. Metacognitive knowledge can be divided into three areas: those of person, task and strategy related knowledge (see eg. Tynjälä 1999:114-115, Wenden 1998 in Benson 2001:95-98, Wenden 2001:45-46). We discuss metacognition more carefully in chapter 3.2.2 where the focus is on building one's metacognitive skills. In this chapter we merely focus on how metacognitive knowledge can be understood as a crucial part of web literacy, and describe the three areas of metacognitive knowledge in relation to the web (see Figure 6).

Figure 6. Metacognitive knowledge and the web.

Firstly, person knowledge on web literacy can be understood as knowledge the web reader has acquired about how cognitive and affective factors may influence his/her reading and writing on the web, and how these factors apply in their experience. Person knowledge also refers to how proficient the readers and writers see themselves on a given area of web literacy.

This kind of person knowledge is probably included in many of the definitions of web literacy introduced earlier, yet it has not been articulated that clearly. What has been referred to is control of one's own interpretations (see Table 1: Thoman 1999). The web reader should be aware of the ways s/he interprets web information, which naturally requires person knowledge. The questions of what motivates the reader, and on a larger scale, the personality of the reader, are also addressed in the Steps of Media Literacy introduced in chapter 2.3. In addition, what is also mentioned is the knowledge of oneself as a web reader, in other words, a proficient web reader and writer is aware of his/her reading strategies. (Ministry of Education 2000.) Warschauer's (1999:163) comment on the need for "a clear and meaningful purpose for reading and writing" can also be interpreted as person knowledge. In the context of the web knowing oneself can naturally help a web reader. If you know your strengths and weaknesses, and understand why you are at times frustrated with the medium or tired of reading from the screen, you are more likely to cope with those feelings and perhaps also able to modify your web reading strategies. Similarly, an awareness of your own attitudes and preferences, for instance, whether you think that it is easy to find information on the web, or that there is reliable information on-line to begin with affects your use of the medium. Also such questions as what colours or modes of meaning you prefer and how they influence your reading on-line help you to relate yourself to the web content you are reading or writing. For as has already been argued above, the novelty of the medium challenges its readers and writers into meaning making processes that require awareness of how we read and why we seem to trust some information sources more than others.

Secondly, task knowledge on web literacy refers to knowledge about various task types and task demands that the web as a medium exposes you to. This form of metacognitive knowledge is important in the sense that the medium is under constant development, and along with this development, new tasks emerge. Task knowledge of the web can be understood from the perspective of what you know that is possible to be done on-line. For instance, knowing that in addition to searching information you can also communicate on-line, broadens your perspective on web literacy. And only after you have this knowledge you can start to learn how to communicate on the web. Another example of task knowledge has to do with reading on-line. Applying the strategies of reading print texts to reading web content may work to an extent. Yet, in order to be web literate, the reader needs to know that web content is interactive and that you need to move the cursor on the screen, for instance, to check if some of the images are hyperlinks to other pages. Task knowledge can also refer to more cognitive tasks on the web, for instance, the knowledge of the tasks such as reading images and assessing the credibility of web content. This kind of task knowledge is not very clearly present in the definitions (see Table 1). What needs to be said is that the skills and strategies need to be first understood as knowledge of the skills and strategies. After knowing about the tasks you need to manage the web, you can begin to put them into practice. Only after this the task knowledge results in actual skills of using the web.

The third component of metacognitive knowledge, strategic knowledge refers to knowledge of what strategies there are, and when and how to apply these strategies. In other words, task knowledge is not enough, for you need to have knowledge of the actual strategies with which you might be able to accomplish these tasks. An awareness of your goals when using the medium (see Table 1: Ministry of Education 2000) should result in selecting the suitable strategies for that purpose. When thinking about web literacy the web poses its readers and writers more freedom, as the reading path is not linear. Various reading strategies, such as skimming and scanning naturally apply in this electronic environment, too. Another reading strategy could be the use of the cursor on a web page in search for links to other pages or the use of the Find function of the browser, with the help of which you can easily locate words and phrases on a specific web page. Other examples are knowledge of different searching strategies and different strategies for assessing web content, which are highly important on-line. It is a prerequisite for the actual use of the strategies and for successful use of the web to know the strategies there are, and to be aware of the purposes of reading and writing.

All of the three areas of metacognitive knowledge can also be viewed from the perspective of others (Tynjälä 1999:114-115). Similarly to a web reader and writer being aware of his/her own use of web, it is important to know how other web readers manage the medium. The individual differences when reading on-line need to be acknowledged. Also an understanding of how we read the web and why we read it in different ways needs addressing. Furthermore, the metacognitive side of web literacy can also be understood as the knowledge about the meaning making processes. For instance, in the lines of the New London Group's (2000) socio-constructive knowledge building (ch 2.2.1), understanding how we construct meanings and relating that to the medium in question is very relevant for any literacy development.

To sum up, we have already pointed out the diversity of the definitions of web literacy. In this chapter we introduced a viewpoint to web literacy which has not been that clearly addressed in earlier research. Our goal when defining web literacy has been to build a working definition that can be used for the pedagogical purpose of supporting the learner to develop towards web literacy as autonomous managing on the web. Because of this, we find it important to change the focus from the skills to both content knowledge and especially to metacognitive knowledge. For we argue that it is only through building your metacogniton that you can strive for independence when faced with a medium such as the web. Without an awareness of yourself as a web reader and writer, the nature of web literacy is less self-directive, and adapting to the changes in the medium and its content is more difficult.