Gourlay, L; (2013) Posthuman literacies? Technologies and hybrid identities in higher education. In: Gourlay, L, (ed.) Digital Identity and Social Media. (pp. 29-36). IGI Global: Hershey, PA, USA.

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Abstract

Social media and mobile technologies have introduced new means of networking, particularly in affluent post-industrial societies. However, the centrality of communication to these technologies is not always acknowledged. Drawing on the perspective of New Literacy Studies (e.g. Barton 2001), this chapter examines digital media from the point of view of meaning making, discussing the complex ways in which multimodal semiotic resources are used in creating and maintaining digital identities. It argues that the use of these resources engages the subject in hybridity across digital, analogue, and embodied practice. The notion of "posthuman literacies" is proposed, drawing on Haraway's notion of the cyborg (1991) and Hayles' examinations of the posthuman (1999, 2006), examining meaning making in a context where the boundaries between analogue and digital, "human" and "machine" are disrupted, blurred, and ideologically freighted. It concludes with a discussion of how this analysis might apply to the context of higher education. © 2013, IGI Global.

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