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By analysing reading and writing in a specific context online, we can better understand evolving social and teaching practices. For instance, various online platforms, such as The Open University of Hong Kong’s OLE and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s Moodle, and Facebook, have been gradually incorporated into teaching and learning. “The medium, or process, of our time—electric technology—is reshaping and restructuring patterns of social interdependence and every aspect of our personal life” (McLuhan, 1967, p. 8). The technology-related transformation is embedded in broader social changes, influencing people’s language and communicative practices. The domestication of technology (Berker et al., 2005) reveals that people are digitally transformed in their everyday lives. Teenagers are considered as “digital natives” who are specifically adept at using innovative technological devices whilst older people, or “digital immigrants,” have to become familiar with new technologies (Prensky, 2001). Nevertheless, it is of great significance not to stereotype a generation of people via this division because technology expands the variety of knowledge and experience in teenagers and the elderly alike (Bennett et al., 2008; Hargittai, 2010). In this global era, research on new media has followed a wider range of how language and literacy practices can transform educational practices. As Barton (2009) notes, “…by examining the changing role of texts we uncover the central tensions of contemporary change: new literacy practices offer exciting possibilities in terms of access to knowledge, creativity and personal power” (p. 39). This paper, therefore, aims to examine how language teaching and learning can be changed through innovative digital media, particularly in relation to educational settings. In doing so, it is found that computer-mediated discourses can be highly effective in promoting literacy via online language learning spaces. |
