We live in an increasingly digital world. The application of literacy skills needs to be reconsidered in this context for young people to be able to thrive. But what does that look like in reality and how do we begin to define what this means?
Our Director of Education, Andrew Ettinger, launches our latest blog series with a discussion about where we find ourselves in 2025. Andrew will unpack the current literacy landscape and invite you to journey with us to explore the future of literacy over the next few months as we collectively become more equipped and empowered to adapt. All foregrounded by the question, how do we prepare young people with the literacy skills they need, not only for today but for an evolving world?
Why are we launching our Future of literacy project?
The way we read, write, and communicate is changing—fast. Literacy isn’t just about books anymore; it’s about navigating the digital world, understanding online content, and using technology to learn and work. Over the past decade, we’ve been exploring how digital advancements shape literacy, uncovering both exciting opportunities and real challenges. Now, with our Future of Literacy project, we’re bringing together educators, businesses, policymakers, and communities to rethink what it means to be “literate” in today’s world. We’ll be diving into what young people need to thrive—at school, in life, and at work—and what we can all do to make sure no one gets left behind.
The paragraph above was written by AI (ChatGPT) – could you tell? Does it matter? It’s pretty good, perhaps slightly bland, but sums up the work we are undertaking very well. However, there’s a level of nuance that doesn’t come through. For example, I’d never say literacy was “just about books” as I don’t think literacy was only ever about books either (what about poems, plays, talking and listening too?) and I think books are the greatest form of literary endeavour.
However, it took some work to get it here - to input my instructions and analyse ChatGPT’s outputs, I needed a high level of both traditional and critical literacy skills. I was able to produce a decent introduction using an AI tool by writing clear prompts and adjusting them to refine the output. I could then identify areas for improvement, error or misunderstanding by reading the results closely.
Similarly, the image for this blog was AI-generated by Google Gemini when I asked it to "illustrate the future of literacy." Very valid considerations about the obvious unbalanced representation of gender in the image aside, the resulting image arguably feels more reminiscent of a Tomorrow's World-inspired future. Perhaps there is a middle ground before we reach this version of the 'future of literacy' where children wear a full complement of VR headsets as is presented in this imagined classroom setup. However, we are inhabiting a rapidly evolving world and we need to be considering all the implications however far-fetched they might feel.
The importance of understanding the future of literacy in a digital-first world
Critical literacy “encourages readers to be active participants in the reading process”. As part of our response to England’s Curriculum and Assessment Review, we recommended that critical, digital and media literacy skills are embedded into all subjects across the national curriculum. We believe that these skills are crucial to breaking down barriers to opportunity, supporting mental wellbeing, and ensuring that every child, regardless of their background, has the skills they need to thrive.
In a digital-first world, literacy is even more important, as we need even more skilful reading, writing, speaking and listening skills to navigate the complexity of the different forms of communication and the proliferation of online media.
And so, as my AI-assistant says, after ten years of research we are now opening our Future of Literacy project to consider three key areas more widely in relation to the application of literacy skills in the modern world. Increasingly, and ever more rapidly, our engagement with the world – how we understand it and how we communicate within it – is through digital and complex forms.
The variety of communication tools and methods has many positives. Literacy skills can be honed through many formats and different forms of literacy can encourage people to explore literacy more widely (including books!). But there are also challenges. Evidence shows that digital divides – whether in terms of access to hardware, software, connectivity but also in terms of skills – are widening, which is further separating those who have and those who have not. Misinformation, inaccuracy and misunderstandings become harder and harder to identify, which can weaken trust and prevent people connecting with each other. And there is work to be done to build a shared understanding of best practice in how to use multi-modal literacy forms in the classroom and to further develop our knowledge of how schools and employers can work best together to prepare young people for the modern workplace.
Partnerships are key to this: over 100 leading employers have signed our Vision for Literacy Business Pledge, committing to use their reach, engagement and leadership to collaborate across the public, private and third sectors.
What we are aiming to do
So, over the next few months, we will be listening and talking to educators, policymakers, businesses, and families to form our calls to action. We’ll be focusing on these three areas:
1. Literacy for learning
It is essential that we prepare children from the youngest age through their schooling with the literacy skills they will need for life and for the modern world of work.
How can we use different literary forms to boost literacy in schools?
From audiobooks to ebooks to comics, there are so many ways to make reading and writing engaging for young people. Our research suggests that digital reading formats like ebooks can support literacy engagement - especially for reluctant readers. For example, after gaining access to ebooks:
- the percentage of disengaged boy readers who enjoyed reading on screens increased from 49% to 64%,
- while the percentage who enjoyed reading in print increased fourfold, from 10% to 40%
These statistics show that different reading formats can serve as a gateway to other forms of literacy (2 in 5 children and young people also told us that listening to audio had sparked their interest in reading books). But we need to make sure these tools are being used to support and enhance, rather than replace, essential literacy skills. It is also vital that we do not risk increasing digital and learning divides.
2. Literacy for life
Today, being literate includes the ability to navigate the online world effectively and reflectively. Media literacy, as defined by Ofcom in 2023 - “...the ability to use, understand and create media and communications in a variety of contexts” - is an ever-more foundational part of this picture.
We need to make sure young people have the skills to critically engage with digital content, whether they’re scrolling social media, researching a school project, or taking part in online conversations. Our research shows that children who participated in media literacy programmes significantly improved their ability to identify misinformation. Being able to navigate the online world in an engaged and informed way is also important for civic engagement and wellbeing. It can also be empowering - our research also found that more young people from lower-income backgrounds said that using social media made them feel like they could make a change in the world.
3. Literacy for work
The workplace is evolving fast, and the development of literacy skills needs to evolve to prepare young people for the future workplace to break down barriers to opportunity and fuel growth. Creating and understanding digital communications, interpreting data and building strong relationships are now essential job skills and the use of AI will become more and more integrated into working practices in the next few years.
Through the Future of Literacy project, we’ll be working with businesses to explore what skills matter most and how schools can work with employers to better prepare students for the modern workforce. This is highly important given that more than 4 in 5 (82.0%) of the teachers we surveyed agreed that students should be taught how to critically engage with generative AI tools.
We want to hear from you
Over the next few months, we want to talk to as many people as possible. We want to open the discussion around the challenges and opportunities and work collectively towards real-world solutions.
If you are a teacher working with digital forms of literacy in the classroom, an employer concerned about the literacy skills of your future workforce, or a parent concerned about your children’s ability to find their way in a digital-first world (like I am), then we want to hear from you.
If you’d like to get in touch to arrange a conversation please email futureofliteracy@literacytrust.org.uk
And just as a PS, if anyone is interested in a very fun exploration of the relationship between gaming, narrative, text and screen I can heartily recommend the game Split Fiction.