Burniske, R. W. (2000). Literacy in the cyberage: Composing ourselves online.

Arlington Heights, IL: Skylight Professional Development. (236 pp., $32.95 pb, ISBN 1-57517-280-1)

The rapid growth of the internet has made online communication part of our daily life. Its impact on education can be felt through various government as well as grass-root initiatives ranging from equipping schools with hardware capacity to introducing curricular requirements for communication skills. Literacy theorists and educators have been among the first to pay attention to such impact (e.g., Bolter, 1991; Selfe & Hilligoss, 1994; Warschauer, 1999) and to make efforts to infuse network communication into literacy education (e.g., Leu & Leu, 1998). Two burning issues literacy educators have to confront are how to redefine literacy in the internet age and how to teach literacy accordingly.

Burniske's book has added to the continuous efforts by literacy educators to redefine and operationalize literacy and literacy education in the internet age. Burniske has focused on critical literacy as the core in his redefinition of literacy in cyberage. He classifies cyberage literacy into nine types of literacy: media, civil, discourse, personal, community, visual, global, evaluative, and pedagogical. Among them, media literacy's definition provides both a connection with other popular literacy definitions (such as computer literacy, electronic literacy, digital literacy, multiliteracies, etc.) and a cornerstone for defining and operationalizing his remaining types of literacy.

Using the rhetorical tradition as the defining basis, Burniske defines media literacy as "the ability to read and understand a communications medium by looking through the processes it enables, interpreting its signs and symbols, while also looking at the medium's impact on an author, audience, and message" (p. 16). This definition tends to move away from the narrow connotations of computer literacy or technological literacy and toward a broad process-based focus of communication and critical literacy, which recognizes the abilities of using language as a tool for communication purposes. Such a broad view of media literacy shares a similar social-cultural framework with other literacy researchers' perceptions of the computer-mediated communication in recent years (e.g., Leu, 2000; Reinking, 1995).

The author's application of the traditional rhetorical triangle--ethos (credibility of an author), logos (logic of a message), and pathos (emotional appeal to an audience)--in understanding media literacy is refreshing and provides a practical guide for developing the remaining types of literacy in the cyberage. Viewed as a communication process, cyberspace requires a critical stance of its participants to take part in its communication appropriately. Literacy educators will find the literacy challenge tasks in each chapter useful, both philosophically and practically. The literacy challenge tasks in each chapter based on the rhetorical trio reflect the valuable insight of a writing teacher looking for philosophical explanations of educational issues in cyberspace and are simultaneously practical in assisting students to achieve a critical stance. These tasks help students become sensitive to the crucial aspects of communication (the author, the message, and effect) in cyberspace when physical presence is diminished and replaced by words and images on a screen. An example will be the activity of dealing with "flaming" issues on the internet (Literacy Challenge # 2, p. 46). Allowing students to examine their own possible actions in such flaming situations sensitizes them to the existence of both an audience and importance of appropriate discourse. Case studies in the later chapters prove to be useful in supplying a narrative background and context of such literacy challenge applications. Literacy teachers will also appreciate the tips throughout the book with regard to the use and variations of the Literacy Challenge tasks.

While the book is insightful in defining media literacy and in offering a practical guide for developing critical literacy abilities in cyberspace, it tends to be less strong in convincing readers of the parallel importance of other types of literacy he defines. In fact, it would be more appropriate to regard the other types of literacy (excluding the evaluative literacy and pedagogical literacy) as merely aspects of media literacy. For example, civil literacy has been defined by the author as "the ability to read, interpret, and respect the moral and ethical beliefs embraced by a particular social group and apply them in a responsible manner" (p. 26). However, a comparison of this definition with that of media literacy will reveal that it is only an aspect of media literacy and not a different ability. The same argument can be made about discourse literacy, personal literacy, community literacy, visual literacy, and global literacy. The remaining two types of literacy--evaluative literacy and pedagogical literacy--are suggestions for appropriate strategies of learning and instruction rather than abilities as implied by the term literacy.

Because the author comes from an English and computer background mostly at the college level, the book is written for such an audience, with all the examples taken from college courses. While middle school and high school students can benefit from the activities suggested in the book and develop critical literacy abilities, their teachers need to make adaptations to utilize the activities suggested in the book. Besides English, other subject teachers can make use of the valuable activities in the book. Teachers in social studies, for example, can use many activities provided to develop their students' critical literacy ability required in the cyberspace. Websites indexed throughout the book can be a valuable resource for teachers who are looking for instructional examples and extension activities, especially for gifted and high ability students.

Gifted educators will find this book able to provide a bridge to connect their students' critical literacy ability with a conscious awareness of employing the ability in cyberspace. The traditional rhetorical trio--ethos, logos, and pathos--can further challenge gifted students to examine their own thinking processes when communicating, problem solving, and reflecting on a learning task. An example is the Literacy Challenge task (p. 43) of dealing with the concept of intellectual property in cyberspace.

The book is clearly written and will satisfy readers no matter whether they are looking for intellectual challenges or practical ideas.

REFERENCES

Bolter, J. D, (1991). Writing space: The computer, hypertext, and the history of writing. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Leu, D. J. Jr. (2000). Literacy and technology: Deictic consequences for literacy education in an information age. In M. L. Kamil, P. B. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.) Handbook of reading research, Vol. III. (pp. 743-770). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Leu, D. J. Jr., & Leu, D. D. (1998). Teaching with the internet: Lessons from the classroom (2nd ed.) Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon.

Reinking, D. (1995). Reading and writing with computers: Literacy research in a post-typographic world. In K. Hinchman, D. Leu, & C. Kinzer (Eds.), Perspectives on literacy research. Forty-fourth yearbook of the National Reading Conference (pp. 17-33). Chicago: National Reading Conference.

Selfe, C. L. & Hilligoss, S., (Eds.), Literacy and computers: The complications of teaching and learning with technology. New York: Modern Language Association.

Warschauer, M. (1999). Electronic literacies : Language, culture, and power in online education. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Reviewed by Liqing Tao, who teaches literacy education at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York.