Literacy in the contemporary scene

In this paper I examine the relationship between literacy and contemporaneity. I take as a point of departure for my discussion school literacy and its links with literacies in other institutions of the contemporary scene, in order to determine the relation between contemporary ends of reading and writing (in other words, the meaning of being literate in contemporary society) and the practices and activities effectively realized at school in order to reach those objectives. Using various examples from teaching and learning situations, I discuss digital literacy practices and multimodal texts and multiliteracies from both printed and digital cultures. Throughout, I keep as a background for the discussion the functions and objectives of school literacy and the professional training of teachers who would like to be effective literacy agents in the contemporary world