In this issue: Literacies for Today

SESP professors and alumni examine learning with today's new media, including digital tools and graphic stories. Learning with comics is a research focus for associate professor David Rapp, who works with student researchers including Max Sutton-Smolin (right). Alumna Camillia Matuk (PhD10) studied student understanding of the World of Viruses educational comics series.

"Teaching computational literacy will be a no-brainer in the future," maintains SESP associate professor Bruce Sherin. Like most members of the Learning Sciences faculty, he believes that computational literacy is essential for 21st-century students. But what exactly is computational literacy, and what makes most learning sciences professors think of it as a must-have skill?

Like countless high school students across the country, a 16-year-old girl named Kaiyee sits down at her computer most days after school for some social networking on various web sites. But if you could look over her shoulder, you would see that Kaiyee (a pseudonym) is different than your average American teen checking her Facebook status.

Rosey Martinez, one of 13 children in a Chicago immigrant family, remembers when she was in fifth grade and an older sister asked her about college. "It's not for me!" she quickly retorted, echoing her friends. Now, however, she is a SESP senior and a campus leader at Northwestern. She explains, "My family helped me..."