How globalization is changing our literacy and culture.

Abstract
This paper will give you a view on how our civilizations literacy has come to a stand, how Europe as a conquering civilization has soaked up many cultures and how we are a mix of many influences. Followed by how globalization has been changing this literacy, and especially how this has been changing with the upcoming of the new media. Of course does new media not only have advantages but also has many disadvantages, which both are explained in this paper. And what have been the influences of our multi-cultural society and what effects globalization has on different cultures.

Introduction globalization
What is globalization? Globalization is often thought of as an economic terms, but globalization is much more than that. It also means that cultures, societies and economies are coming together. This also influences the way people think about education and literacy. Every culture has its own way of thinking and working, and modern society brings all these methods together with influences of many cultures.

History in Europe
Europe has always been the conqueror of the world, in the past as a military force and nowadays as an economic force. This has enabled Europe to come in contact with many different cultures. And our own culture today is a mix all these influences we have had in the past. We have soaked up all new cultures and mixed them with our own. One of the greatest influences on our own literacy must have been the crusades (11th 12th century). Europe was much less advanced then the Middle East during the crusades, many technologies and technics were brought back from the crusades to Europe. The most important one must have been the Arabic numerals. These are nowadays the foundations in a wide array of aspects in our lives, from economical to scientific. Another great influence has been the discovery of the New World (15th -17th century). People started to explore the world and came in contact with new cultures. This was the start of urge to explore the whole world and by so absorbing new cultures and habits. World War Two brought an injection in our culture with the American way of life. A new era of mass production and western luxuries had begun. Globalization has always increased literacy throughout history, but nothing can compare to the influence that the new media, and more specific the internet, had on our literacy.

Peters Vincent 2010

Influence of new media

The greatest change in literacy in the last century is the invention of the internet. It has grown exponentially, and is firmly embedded in the lives of many. Modern communication has become a way of life. There are so many devices and technologies that give users the chance to interconnect with each other, Mobile phones, PDAs, Laptop and much more. The internet is by definition a worldwide collection of data and information, it has grown rapidly to almost endless amounts of information. This abundance of information has changed the way people interact with information. More information means its harder to find specific information. This is why people do quick scans of the content to see if there interested in that specific topic. So the internet has changed to a chunked and to the point way of delivering content. This change also fits perfectly in the modern life pace.

Advantages of the Internet

The most obvious advantage is the large amount of data available on the internet. People can find quickly and globally any information they want. The internet is the great indiscriminator, everybody has the same rights on the internet. You cant get judged by traditionally discriminating features such as religion, skin color, etc. Because youre mostly anonymously, people view you as a blank canvas and cant have any prejudices. It gives people also a chance to communicate without the restrictions of borders and cultures. Its the first time in history that has been able to communicate with people easily without the restriction of time and space. Internet has also become a podium to distribute thoughts globally, their voice can be heard by potentially millions of people. There are no restrictions anymore to get your voice out. This has also created opportunities for people to have a great influence on the world, which in previous times maybe have been lost due to lack of an influenceable audience.

Disadvantages of the Internet

People have the tendency to believe things more easily when they read it. This is because in the past most written text in books and media is written by people who have great knowledge of the particular subject. This has become a great problem in an age where everyone has the possibility to write anything they want and easily distribute it through the internet. It can even be done anonymously. Many of the information on the internet is shared in this way, no author or sources are included. I also think that the massive amount of information available is holding us back to really deepen our knowledge on specific topics. Why would we learn this information if its so easy to access. One click of the mouse and you have all the information you want.

Peters Vincent 2010

People these days also have the sense that they know the world. You can visit foreign places online, read about their culture, get exotic food in the supermarket, etc. This has disconnected people with the real thing. They are experiencing it from a distance and only see the top level. There is no depth and real experience involved with these virtual encounters.

Traditional media
One of the earliest ways of mass media is the printed book. With this invention knowledge exploded due to the fact that it now was easy to mass produce and easily distribute information. Scientifically, cultural and general knowledge and information spread through Europe through the medium of books. But there is also an aura around books, that their elitist and that they need dedication. Traditional media mainly consist of information by words, this is rapidly changing from a word culture to a visual culture. The most common form of media is the TV. It is for the users an eye on the world. It is also adopted as a pedagogical medium. Now more than ever you can find educational
programs on TV.

Influences on Culture
Globalization has connect the whole world, there are few things undiscovered. This has given us the possibilities to taste the cultures from around the world, and also integrate some with our own culture. These days there are also many institutes that are trying to preserve and distribute cultures. Many are controlled by the UNO, and more specifically the UNESCO. Which tries to bring countries of the world together on topics as education, culture and scientific research? Other organization are the World Heritage and the EU cultural capital, a yearly changing city which represents the culture of Europe. The thing thats the most drastically changing is language. More and more languages are disappearing. And English is becoming a world language. Of course this has many advantages like communicating with different cultures and easily finding information online. In contrast to history, for example most of the scientific books in the late past were written in Latin, and by so only available to people with higher education. This global knowledge of a single language has liberalized information. But languages are also a part of an individual culture and by globalizing language were also destroying parts of some cultures. The danger with this globalization is that cultures are becoming trends, we experience everything so shortly in our lives. This makes new experiences short and shallow. So culture is becoming a consumption article rather than a experience. On the other hand cultures are also fading and losing their personality. This is also feeding counter reaction for this globalization, nationalism and conservatism are growing to preserve certain cultures.

Multicultural society
More and more people are living closely together, this has made big cities a patchwork of different cultures en heritages. This diversity creates a mix of different think and work attitudes. This has made our culture Eclectic. Were taking different things from many cultures and combining the best in our own. Peters Vincent 2010

Conclusion
Throughout history Europe has taken many influences from different cultures and combined them with our own. But the greatest change of globalization to literacy must have been the invention of the internet. This made it possible for the first time in history to communicate without the restrictions of space and time. And global knowledge has exploded. But it has also made our knowledge shallower and we view information very fast and in chunks. Culture is spreading quickly throughout the new world and people are capable of experiencing the whole world. But it also is responsible for the fading of different cultures which promotes counter reactions such as nationalism and conservatism.

Peters Vincent 2010

References
Papers: Globalisation, Literacy and Society: redesigning pedagogy and assessment (2003) by David Johnson and Gunther Kress The Evolution of multicultural Education in the United States: A Journey for human Rights & social Justice by Carl A. Grant, University Wisconsin-Madison Media Literacy as a Tool for Perceiving Globalisation by Prof. Dr. Remzi Y. Kncal Explore the influences to Taiwan students information literacy with the Urban-rural differences from the perspective of globalization by Chin-Hsien Liao Globalization, Literacy Levels, and Economic Development(2008) by Alok Bhargava Commentary on Hybridity, Globalisation, and Literacy Education in the Context of New York Citys Chinatown (2006) by Bettina Fabos Literacy education in the context of globalisation(2010) by Luke, Allan and Iyer,
Radha and Doherty, Catherine

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusades http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_capital http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Capital_of_Culture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Educational,_Scientific_and_Cultural_Organizati on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eclecticism http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondialisering http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_colonization_of_the_Americas#Cultural_impact http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_numerals http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy

Other websites: http://www.crusades-history.com/Effects-of-The-Crusades.aspx

http://thoughtsandconfusions.blogspot.com/2007/09/evolution-of-literacy.html

Peters Vincent 2010