Post literate culture: a return to a more natural way of communication?

If you are a school librarian, you are probably a fan of the wonderful Doug Johnson & his Blue Skunk blog. His post today has a great comment about the postliterate culture, personified by Net Gen students. Here is how he describes the postliterate: those who can read, but chose to meet their primary information and recreational needs through audio, video, graphics and gaming.

And here is that great comment:

But I would argue that postliteracy may be a return to more natural forms of communication - speaking, storytelling, dialogue, debate, and dramatization. It is just now that these modes can be captured and stored digitally as (or more) easily as writing. And information, emotion and persuasion may be even more powerfully conveyed in multi-media formats.

All the more reason for those of us who work with the Net Gen to incorporate audiobooks and other multi-modal literacy into the brand new school year! Want a great title that will bring all of the communication modes mentioned by Johnson into the classroom? Get your hands on Recorded Book's excellent production of Newbery Award-winning Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village. It is a wonderful multi-voiced presentation that models for listeners the reader's theater performance - how author Laura Amy Schlitz originally wrote the work. A must-have audiobook for school libraries!

Image from www.bn.com