2. WEB LITERACY THROUGH SOCIO-CONSTRUCTIVISM

2.4 CONCLUSION

We began this chapter by presenting the socio-constructive framework in which web literacy, as all literacies, is regarded as context bound, both historically and socially. Also in the present study we understand web literacy as a set of social practices situated in today's society. Web literacy related terms and definitions directed us to focus on a variety of aspects that are related to the web. To sum up this analysis, we define web literacy as autonomous managing on the web. This refers to both reading and writing on the web. We approach the concept of web literacy through three interrelated fields: skills in using the web, content knowledge of the multimodal medium, and an awareness of oneself as a web user.

The definition and the model of the three interrelated fields of web literacy have several implications for both the creation of the content of the learning space, and for the social practices the learning space facilitates. As to the process of creating the learning space, the model makes it more accessible to focus on particular areas of web literacy at a time, and to formulate the tasks in relation to the specific content knowledge and/or metacognitive knowledge goals. It also ensures a more extensive coverage of the many-sided concept.

As to the learners and the social practices, the definition itself calls for social interaction and some form of collaborative knowledge construction. Within the socio-constructive framework the learners are seen to construct their own conceptions on what web literacy is and on how web literate they perceive themselves. The broadness of the definition ensures that there is both something new and something familiar in the content of the learning space. This results in various expertise among the possible learners of the learning space. This, then again, makes it possible for the learners to share their own knowledge and benefit both from the learning space and the learners in the learning space when constructing their own conceptions on web literacy. In addition, the topic of web literacy becomes more accessible for all, because it is seen to build on traditional forms of literacies.

When focusing on the actual learning, which will be further discussed in the following chapter, the definition has the strength of focusing on the essential. It would be a huge leap to assume that we can teach real skills and strategies in a comprehensible way within the restricted framework of the study. Focusing on the content knowledge and metacognitive knowledge, then again, seems more reasonable, and can in fact be seen to precede the development of actual skills that are needed in autonomous managing on the web.

As we now have presented the framework of how web literacy is understood in the scope of this study, we will move on to introduce the pedagogical premises for learning web literacy.