Electronic Literacies: Language, Culture and Power in Online Education.
By Mark Warschauer. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 1999.
http://www.lll.hawaii.edu/web/faculty/markw/elec_lit.html
220 pp. ISBN 0-8058-3118-5 (cloth) $45; ISBN 0-8058-3119-3 (pbk) $22.50.
 

For educators seeking to probe beyond the anecdotal, Electronic Literacies offers a powerful lens through which to view the contextual dynamics that accompany electronic media into our classrooms. In what is probably one of the first serious empirical analyses of its kind in the field, the author invites us to explore old and new literacies, the complex values they reflect and embody, and the profound educational reforms they may call for if we are to avoid  reinforcing the very inequalities we wish to redress. Warschauer's focus is not just on the mainstream of Western (or even Westernized) learning situations, but "...on the experiences of culturally and linguistically diverse learners who are at special risk of being marginalized from the information society" (vii). His four ethnographies are meticulously researched and well grounded in classical and contemporary theory. Above all,  his subjects are objectively and humanely portrayed, and the voices of instructors and students speak strongly throughout. The book therefore demonstrates, rather than merely asserting, the power of emerging forms of literacy and their potential implications for classrooms, institutions, and societies. While presented as narratives, the case studies neither achieve nor strive for conclusive finality; at times the reader is left feeling ambivalent, uncomfortable, and wary. Yet Electronic Literacies is far from an exercise in pervasive skepticism. Warschauer, while conservative and critical in his conclusions, emphasizes positive elements of the  introspective process inherent in such qualitative research. His purpose, as he shows us, "...can be compared to the purposes many of us invest in network-based teaching: not to provide a single definite answer but rather to open new forms of conversation and to encourage the process of reflecting on them" (197).

Descriptive Overview of Book's Contents