La nova alfabetització, a la Universitat

M’ha agradat força l’article Thinking Spatially: New Literacy, Museums, and the Academy, de la revista online Educause Review. Entre d’altres consideracions sobre l’alfabetització en les tecnologies de la informació, aquest article diu

“…unless leadership comes from above, higher education is not likely to move quickly to institute curricular reforms and spur the growth of new programs and faculty lines that will teach students to function in a world of networked, rich-media publishing. … The problem is that there is no logical place in current curricular models or college/university faculty charts to locate core, nonspecialized coursework that unifies the acquisition of a basic new-literacy skill set. Yes, we have writing faculties and English 101 requirements, and yes, there are specialized courses in interface design, graphic design, photography, video, and so on. But if an institution wanted to offer a basic “21st Century Literacy 101″ course to every student, who—within the academy as it now exists—could be called on to teach the course? Who is prepared to offer introductory-level, required coursework that encompasses a critical introduction to the static visual (e.g., photography) and the verbal and the moving images and the sound and a bit of graphic design to teach students to author well-argued, well-researched, and well-organized digital publications suited to a networked, online world?”

Aquesta reflexió sobre la dificultat de muntar una bona assignatura sobre la “Nova alfabetització digital” a la Universitat es pot extendre a una dificultat semblant per muntar una assignatura general sobre “Coneixements científics per a no científics”, o “comunicació científica” o “ciències de l’empresa per a científics”… És relativament fàcil ensenyar sobre els continguts propis d’una discilplina (“core”), però no és pas tan fàcil dissenyar nous continguts fonamentals (també “core”) però que no corresponen a disciplines tradicionals.

En fi, veurem algun dia una assignatura troncal de “Alfabetització per al Segle XXI”?