As someone who has devoted much of his adult life to books, reading and writing, and especially to helping students enjoy and understand some of the most sophisticated and difficult writers the world has ever known (difficult in George Steiner’s sense of the word, for the truly literate amongst you) I’m really interested in the ranting and ravings in the educational ICT world about digital literacy. It would be just too easy to cut and paste nonsensical examples which mistake the kind of unconscious, visual literacy any child steeped in the highly conventional language of TV and film today possesses, with some kind of fully assimilated, knowledge based skill. The 21^st century schools world is awash with them. Ironically that would be precisely the kind of crude action the very same voices would applaud as an example of being digitally literate, but instead I’ve picked on a definition which has the merit of being well thought out and well written, which you can read in full here. What I like about this definition is the following fundamental stipulation it contains.

However the dimensions are described, in almost every circumstance “ordinary” basic literacy skills are a necessary precondition for digital literacy.

You bet! And that leads me onto what I really wanted to write about. The news that the Conservatives are promising to expand the Teach First programme was accompanied by criticism from teacher union leaders. So in the interests of combining digital, with real literacy, I invite you to have a look at this quotation from a union leader on the story, and ask yourself what the speaker's choice of words tells you about them? 

Chris Keates of the NASUWT, said: "It is disappointing that the Conservatives plan to hijack schemes designed by this government to nurture teachers and leadership in schools in a bid to advance the Conservative Party vision of elitism in every aspect of education."

Chris Keates might also be interested to learn that Teach First was not a scheme designed by this government, but was the original brainchild of an American, Wendy Kopp, transplanted to the UK by the consultants, McKinseys.