Introduction

In today’s digitalised knowledge society, writing is a key skill for accessing and maintaining social relations, civil rights, democratic influence, and a successful professional life. In practices such as ‘snapping’, ‘chatting’, ‘texting’, and ‘mailing’, writing has become an all-pervasive communicative practice in everyday life. In Nordic literacy research, the dramatic changes in mass literacy have been termed “the new textual society”, indicating that working life, education, and everyday life have become dependent on the written word to an unprecedented extent. The educational community is keen to discover what the current turn in mass literacy means for the individual student’s learner biography and how associated challenges are met at subject and educational levels. The issue of digital Bildung has been high on the agenda in Danish educational discourse, going hand in hand with more nuanced discussions of the effects of technology as a tool for student learning. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.