The Fall 2005 issue of Currents in Electronic Literacy
will publish article-length submissions related to the
theme below. Currents is also seeking reviews of
recent texts. For a list of suggested titles, see
<http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/currents/fall04/reviewcfp.html>.
 

Theme: "Beyond the Digital Divide? Investigations of
Internet Access and Agency in a Mobile Era"

The phrase "digital divide" was coined over 10 years
ago to raise questions about who has access to wired
environments and internet resources. These questions
often centered around how economic factors—as well as
race, gender, age, and disability—create inequalities
in technological literacy and the availability of
technology. How does the proliferation of mobile
devices and networks (e.g., handhelds and Wi-Fi) and
new forms of internet publishing and wireless
communication (e.g., blogs and texting) bridge, change
or widen the digital divide? Who uses these
technologies, and how do they use them? We invite
submissions which take up these questions of digital
agency and access in a variety of ways. Submissions
might address but are not limited to the following:

-What new barriers or opportunities have blogs, text
messaging, cell phone email, photoblogging, PDAs and
smartphones, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, etc. created? Do these
shift focus from passive reception of information to
active production of content?

-What happens to students in computer environments who
are somehow "less prepared" than their peers? What
kinds of learning environments foster development of
necessary technical skills? How are skills deemed
"necessary" or "sufficient"? What are the criteria?

-With the emergence of technological knowledge amongst
youth, is the professoriate now placed on the "other
side" of the digital divide? If so, how does this
divide affect classroom pedagogy?

-What is the impact of new technologies on political
discourse? How can new technologies be used for
effecting social change? For example, does street
journalism challenge the corporate hold on journalism?
To what extent has texting, versus voice calling,
become the means of spontaneous social organization
and protest?

-Given the syndication of blog rolls and/or the
distinction between blog authors and blog readers, are
blogs a form of peer-to-peer news?

-Are the "old divides" of gender, class, race,
(dis)ability, and age still visible? What are the new
divides?

-How and for whom has content aggregation changed the
Web?

-How are the affordances of mobile devices shaping the
modes and media of internet communication, such as
multimodal browsing, audioblogging, and podcasting?

-How has the Internet confronted barriers of distance
and disability in telephone communication? Have video
and speech relay services changed our conceptions of
phone use and phone users?

Submissions are due by July 1, 2005. For submission
instructions, see
<http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/currents/fall04/submissions.html>.

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Received on Thu Mar 10 2005 - 15:27:44 EST