Reading Online - Articles: Literacy and Cyberculture

Literacy and Cyberculture

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Abstract

This article traces the range of literacy events that occur in one cybercommunity whose members are participants in the online role-play “Cybersphere.” A sample text produced by users within the community serves as the focus for critical analysis and offers a rich example of the ways in which language is being used within cyberculture. Some of these ways replicate offline communication; others are unique to cyberculture and deserve our close inspection if we are to understand the complexities of the literacy being adopted by our students.

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Author Information

Dudfield worked for five years as a lecturer in language and literacy at the University of Tasmania. She has recently taken up a senior research position at the Centre for Critical Psychology of the University of Western Sydney (Nepean), Australia, where she is managing a large research project titled "Children and Cyberspace." She can be reached by e-mail at a.dudfield@uws.edu.au.