Thoughts on Multiliteracy #3

It's challenging to list how many kinds of multiliteracy can be recognized in Downes' remarks—partly because one has to be multiliterate to make sense out of what Downes had to say and partly because it's difficult to know what to call the various literacies that manifest themselves to one degree or another. Even so, I'll give this my best shot.

Multiliteracies I recognize in Downes' remarks:

academic literacy
Downes suggests that his remarks are modified by the limits imposed by the abstract he wrote for it. (Understanding the nature of abstracts is necessary in order to understand the limitations it imposed on his remarks.)

literary-rhetorical literacy
Downes uses several standard literary-rhetorical devices (e.g., analogy, metaphor, comparison) to clarify, expand, and synthesize many references and clusters of information.

name literacy
Downes uses names of people (William Gibson, Tim Reilly, Lessig, Rory McGreal, Shapiro, Varian, Hegel) to refer to varied interpretations of concept areas and to points of view which are both similar to and different from his own.

product literacy
Downes uses names of specific products (lego, NoteTab, Skype, Encyclopedia Britannica, wikipedia, Friendster, Orkut, Word) as examples of new media and as symbols for new protocols and processes for communication amd information processing.

institutional literacy
Downes uses names of corporations and organizations (Microsoft, Sun, Intel, Cisco, Yahoo, Compuserve, Prodigy, America Online) as quick references for many things—among them user characteristics, product design, and approaches to marketing and information management.

historical literacy
Downes mentions historical events (e.g., when Compuserve, Prodigy, and AOL joined the net; Romans, their chariots, and their roads; railtracks and shuttlecraft) in order to reference various historical milestones and to focus on catalysts for change.

business/marketing literacy
Downes frequently uses terms from business and marketing (vertical market, production based on demand, proprietary, commercial, peaked, declining, bundling, pay-per-view) as "shorthand" references to characteristics and protocols typical of new media.

jargon literacy
Downes uses terms which are common in the world of technology and new media (URL, remix, jewel case, telephony, DRM high-bar, IMS, spam, digital repositories, reusable learning objects, CSS, RSS, pdf, text editors, Real media, XML, mp3, SCORM, FTP, UseNet) but which might well be incomprehensible to those who are not directly involved in these areas or are involved but only marginally.

learning theory
Downes makes occasional reference to learning design and such approaches as needs analysis.

lexical literacy
Downes makes free use of English word-building techniques in order to coin new terms and to use existing terms in unexpected ways. He also freely draws on multiple meanings of specific terms (e.g., free = 'no cost' and free = 'unrestrained') and on use of unusual terms (affordance) in order to capture one's attention and to focus on varying points of view.

sociological literacy
Downes frequently uses sociological terms (e.g., institutional vs individual, peer-to-peer, diversity) to refer to characteristics of new media.

symbolic literacy
Downes frequently uses metaphors and similes ("like electricity, not like legos"; "it's like something that flows, it's like the water system"; lock-out, filter, directionality) in order to explain difficult concepts in a more understandable way.

contextual literacy
Downes' remarks don't make much sense unless they're heard or read as the PowerPoint is played.

cultural literacy
Downes makes at least on remark which suggests different world views among Canadians and Americans.

visual literacy
Downes' PowerPoint uses standard conventions to distinguish between primary information (e.g., key concepts of his talk) and supplements to these key concepts (citation information).

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And there are certainly more.

D. O.