New Media, New Literacies, and New Forms of Learning

Abstract

This article summarizes the new media and literacy themes that inform the articles in this special issue of IJLM. The articles all address the topic of how new media are transforming what it means to be literate in today's society and how these media are creating new conditions and forms for learning. The articles come together around the view that digital media are fundamentally changing learning practices and that the transition to digital media is not just a transfer of class content to online venues, nor just an online-only effect, but instead represents a change in learning practice for the digital age. The articles and this special issue result from a workshop that provided the opportunity to integrate knowledge across multiple perspectives to address how new media affect how, where, and with whom we learn and what it means to be literate in the 21st century.