Literacy and Technology

Today, more than ever, people need strong literacy skills to keep pace with our increasingly complex world. In a "high-tech" information age there is a widening gap between the literacy we have, and the literacy we need, to meet new and higher demands on our skills.

In a world of fast-paced technological change, technology has a significant role to play in furthering the development of literacy. Learning technologies can expand access to the widest possible variety of learning experiences for adult learners. More than providing just an alternative learning method, learning technologies can provide more creative and powerful ways to learn.

To do this effectively, learning technologies need to be designed in consultation with learners and practitioners and in accordance with principles of good practice in literacy education. Partnerships between the technology and literacy communities can foster and develop: cooperative learning models that support interaction among learners and instructors, curricula that are relevant to learners' lives and lead to the development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills as well as language literacy, adaptations to a variety of learning styles and environments, technical training and support for literacy practitioners, and innovative ways to increase social access to technology for literacy learners.

Technology also has a significant role to play within the literacy field as a way to network, communicate, share information and resources, reduce isolation, and provide professional development and training for practitioners: “An electronic infrastructure does for the literacy community what the railway did for this nation. It links scattered communities and maximizes opportunities to share resources and ideas.¹”

The use of learning technologies in the adult literacy field

We were interested in finding out what literacy practitioners think about the learning technologies they use in their programs and how these could be improved. We gathered information through interviews with literacy practitioners and a literature review. The first section describes desired features in instructional software, followed by a brief analysis of issues related to hardware, technical support and training, and access to technology in the literacy field.