Expanded
Understanding of Literacy
Leu (2000) discusses the changing understanding of literacy that has resulted from its interaction with technology:
"Change increasingly defines the nature of literacy in an information age. Literacy is rapidly and continuously changing as new technologies for information and communication repeatedly appear and new envisionments for exploiting these technologies are continuously crafted by users." (p. 743)
"Within just 20 years, we have seen the widespread appearance of, among others, word processing technologies, electronic database technologies, multimedia/hypermedia technologies, e-mail technologies, and Internet technologies. Each has helped to redefine the nature of literacy, and each has seen new envisionments for its use redefine the technology itself." (p. 746)
Meyer and Rose (2000) also call for an expanded definition of literacy:
"Our concept of literacy has been based on the assumption that print is the primary carrier of information in our culture and that the most important skills are those that enable students to understand and express themselves in text. The new definition of literacy is based on a different assumption: that digital technology is rapidly becoming a primary carrier of information and that the broader means of expression this technology makes possible are now critical for education. Text literacy is necessary and valuable, but no longer sufficient."
