Bayview Beach Resort, Batu Ferringhi Beach, Penang, Malaysia

27-30 September 1999

Internet literacies and research in tertiary academic discourse

Dr Cecile Badenhorst

Graduate School of Public and Development Management, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

Abstract

This paper explores some of the difficulties that post-graduate diploma students, at University of the Witwatersrand's Graduate School of Public and Development Management, experienced when doing research on the Internet. Most of their concerns revolved around using the internet as a research resource. Our thinking about an embedded computer-oriented curriculum needs to be more systematically developed to include rather than alienate learners. Researching on the internet involves a complex integration of technical skills, academic literacy, critical literacy and other multiliteracies. Academic discourse has a particular way of organising meaning-making practices. Since these meaning-making practices are also tied to assessment for students, this relates to identity. Language is implicated because it is through language that we construct our sense of self, that we have access to and participate in a particular discourse. Since discourse is about relations of power, participation, access and identity become even more central.

-----------

Presentations by the South African Multiliteracies Group:

Each member of the group will present his or her own paper on how she or he is implementing Multiliteracies in a specific site.