Changing dimensions of school literacies

This article discusses emerging multiple dimensions of literacy practices, or 'multiliteracies', influenced by the affordances of computer technology; the increasing prominence of images in electronic and conventional formats; the distinctive literacy demands of different curriculum areas; and the distinction between literacy practices that are reproductive of existing knowledge and prevailing social orders and values, and those that are critically reflective, questioning and challenging. It is argued that a functional, meaning-based metalanguage, describing knowledge about linguistic, visual and digital meaning-making systems is a crucial resource for critical comprehension and composition of computer-based and conventional texts in the age of information and communication technology.