Critical Issues Literacy Technologies: What Stance Should We Take?

Technology. The word seems unavoidable now in discussions of literacy theory and practice. Parents ask the teacher or school principal what the school is doing about computer literacy and networking. Li-brarians are alternately invigorated or distressed thinking about what new information technologies mean for their work. Teachers wonder about whether these technologies will improve children's literacy skills or take them forever away from traditional reading and writing. Theorists debate whether the book is dead. Nearly everyone struggles just to stay minimally aware of new technological develop-ments and their social implications. The question of what form literacies will take in a century likely to be denned by a new technological environment