I have always thought that if someone was described as 'literate,' that meant they had the ability to read. Never before had I thought about it in terms of technology. Our world today revolves around the ability to use different literacy technologies. A person without basic word processing skills is seen as unemployable by many. In a few years, people who aren't able to create and maintain a web page may be in that same position. As discussed in The Disappearance of Technology: Toward an Ecological Model of Literacy, in order for an individual to participate in society they must be literate in that society's current literacy technologies. These literacy tools have become embedded in many people's lives. That is, they are used so often that they tend to disappear. As an educator it is very important to remember that these technologies that we hardly see are going to be new for some of our students. Some of our students will have a lot of experience with literacy technologies, some may have even more experience than the classroom teacher. Other students come to us without any knowledge of how these technologies work. It is our job to even the playing field.
    Literacy technologies are constantly changing. While it is hard to predict what the technologies will be in the future, one thing is for sure-- what we use know will become embedded even further into our daily lives. If people don't know how to use current literacy technologies, they will more than likely have a difficult time with the literacy tools of the future. Educators need to help all students become comfortable with technology.
    It is important for students to be able to use the internet as a tool. Some students do not have the luxury of having internet access at home. For these students it is especially important that we help them develop critical reading and critical thinking skills in respect to the world wide web. The web has lots of valuable information as well as lots of erroneous information. Children need practice in using the internet so that they can determine the good information from the bad information. Donald Leu has written a good article to help teachers integrate the internet into the classroom. In this article he describes the changes taking place in content area reading with an emphasis on the internet. He includes many links to to teachers who are doing a good job helping their students use the internet. He also lists a number of mailing lists, and how to subscribe to them, that have the potential to provide many new instructional strategies to help overcome common challenges.