Making Our Learners Transliterate is Just as Important as Knowing how to Read

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Reflections on Transliteracy by Brenda McPherson Fry Our youngest learners to our college graduates and beyond need to become Transliterate. Just because children are born into the computer age, it does not mean that they know how to maximize the use of the smart phone in their hand, the desktop in the dining room, or the tablet in their backpack. Young mind still need to be nurture, develop, taught to use in meaningful way all the devices and tools they have at their fingertips.

Transliteracy for me it is the ability to read, comprehend, enhance, synthesis and develop knowledge across a wide variety of media platforms. Students no longer just read a book, they listen to the author talking about how his book was written. They access the internet through search engines, like Finding Dulcinea, Instagrok, and Google Custom Search to determine, evaluate, and identify information and data to answer the questions, and to question the answers. They synthesis the material they gather from all the sources available to them to truly be 21st century learners. These are tools that last beyond memorization and rote skills, beyond just reading and writing, these are skills that expand the mind, elevate the human race, cultivate learners who grow up to discover the cure for cancer, become productive members of the society.

We are at the precipice of change, we are no longer talking about the future, we are talking about the present, and librarians are the keepers of the knowledge. Their changing role will enable them to be collaborators with other staff members, to be the curators of information, and to provide the access and the tools to all learners as they grow and develop in a world that is no longer just about a pen, a paper, and an encyclopedia.