Literacy is being re-defined by the presence of technology in...
Technology defining literacy
Literacy is being re-defined by the presence of technology in our schools and our society. No longer does literacy mean only the ability to read with comprehension and write with clarity. Today’s students are being asked to use technological advancements across the curriculum, from mathematics to language arts, from music to exercise
science. Technology has been part of the educational system since the personal computer was introduced in the 1980s. More recently, with the advent of the Internet and advanced software, technology has become a part of the daily lives of the majority of Americans. We are shifting into a new age. Benjamin (1995) writes that schools are microcosms of the society that exists outside the schoolhouse. With this theory in mind, Goodman’s observation sheds a great deal of light on what restructuralists identify as the three waves of school reform. According to Goodman, the „first wave‟ of school reform was in response to this countrys rural, farm-based society; the „second wave‟ school system was established for the industrial age; and now a „third wave‟ of school change is needed for
the coming „information/technology age‟.
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