Literacy and Fluency

There is a lot to be said about literacy and fluency in the Williams piece. I found the distinction between the two terms to be particularly interesting. The NRC's Being Fluent with Information Technology associates the term 'literacy' with competence and claims that it is "too modest a goal" (p 2). Fluency, on the other hand, is seen as 'deeper understanding' as well as 'a higher level of competency" (p 2). In a world where technology is rapidly becoming more and more complex, new levels and areas of literacy and expertise will become necessary.

Williams then begins to examine and discuss eleven theses regarding the NRC report. Only 5 of these were in some way a part of the original report, upon which Williams greatly expands. These 5 discuss Literacy as a technical skill, as conceptual, historical, and social, and as intertwined with power. 

Those theses added by Williams suggest more than just a definition and description of literacy. Williams discusses things such as "the literacy divide between school and home," (p 9) examining the four different kinds of school literacy (powerful, informational, functional, and performative) and how a difference can exist between community literacy and school literacy. She also looks at the desirability of connecting these different literacies.

Williams overall purpose in reviewing this report is to find the most effective way to gather further information and to determine which information is necessary to search out in answer to "the most important questions" (p 17).