Overview

The convergence of technology, information, and media has reinvigorated and transformed conceptions of media literacy. “Schools and afterschool programs must devote more attention to fostering what we call the new media literacies: a set of cultural competencies and social skills that young people need in the new media landscape” (Jenkins, 2006: 4). These competencies and skills include: play, performance, simulation, appropriation, multitasking, distributed cognition, collective intelligence, judgment, transmedia navigation, networking, and negotiation. Two of these literacies—appropriation and transmedia migration—are largely specific to new media. The remaining competencies and skills can be understood as novel aspects of cognition and disposition that have become more essential in the new media landscape (Pinkard & Sweet, 2009). DYN has developed a short list of five core values designed to capture the essential cognitive skills and dispositions required to become productive and prosperous citizens in the 21st century.