The transition from classic literacy to the multiliteracies, now at one’s fingertips, has created an almost uncharted journey of education and learning. This is especially true in regards to the teaching and the study of reading and composition. In fact, students are “chasing literacy,” most of them with much trepidation. Author Daniel Keller (2011) avers that this “paradox of literacy,” is a result of an “accumulation” of knowledge which has led to a “culture of acceleration” (p.4-5).  

Dealing with the choice between “fading and emerging” literacies is often an issue, not only for the student, but also for composition pedagogy. Certainly, each approach holds both advantages and disadvantages. Keller (2011) writes: “Threaded throughout these moments are teachers and students, (re) situating themselves among the literacies piling up and spreading out around them” Both stakeholders, like kids in a candy store, seem to be mesmorized by the huge amount of digital and non-digital literacies along with their various sub-literacies(p. 7, 61).  

Just one Google search will bring about hundreds if not thousands of links pertinent to one’s quest. Students could spend days researching a paper that might only take a few hours to write. Moreover, when researching, how does one read all the plethora of information? Students are not the only ones trying to keep their heads above water in this ocean of information. Teachers have to decide what literacies are relevant. Now, in this digital world, the list of literacies and sub literacies get bigger by the cyber-minute. How does the educator choose? With so many choices, educators cannot research everything that is presented. Picking the wrong lesson wastes everybody’s time. To be sure, both students and educators need to find a solution and need to find one quickly.