"Teachers often feel fortunate when they find themselves presented with classroom computers; however, many feel less fortunate when they soon discover that they are not offered much training; much outside support; or a cultural context that embraces the use of technology for educational, professional, and personal communicative purposes” (287). According to Technology and Literacy Education in the Next Century: Exploring the Connection Between Work and Schooling by Linda D. Labbo, David Rainking, and Michael C.McKenna (1998), in the “not-so-distance past”, “A traditional concept of literacy a the ability to read and write print on a page has dominated schooling and adequately served the literacy demands of he society and of the workplace” (273). However, in the present, or what they call the “emerging economic digital era”(273), this concept is changing. In the new digital workplace, “an enhancement of old skills, development of new skills, and understanding of digital forms of literacy”(274) are required. In the new basic literacy experience of many university students, they are expected to be “digitally fluent, possess the ability to quickly acquire digital literacy”(274), or to become digitally fluent by the resources, such as computer labs and coursework provided by universities (274).

   Labbo, Reinking and McKenna provide a “brief discussion of the unique features of digital text” (275), “identify key concepts about digital literacy as those concepts relate to technological trends in the workplace” (275), and finally, they describe “a select set of innovative instructional uses of technology that have the potential to transform digital literacy education” (275).

      Most of most absolute and unique features of some electronic texts relate to the format of hypertext: electronic documents structured as nonsequential or nonlinear clusters of information, and multimedia programs: integrate various symbolic forms of digital data such as text, images, icons, video or sound clips. 

      The authors point out few “innovative instructional uses of technology” (281) that goes with the previously given key concepts of workplace digital literacy. The classroom-based ideas they share in the article are the result of their various researches and studies, and these researches investigate a variety of issues related to “how digital forms of text are revolutionalizing how literate acts occur within society, the workplace, and the schools” (281). They assume that “the mere presence of technology in the classroom will not result in innovative classroom applications” (Greenleaf, 1994; Weir, 1989), and thus, they note the role of teacher as “guide, facilitator, coach, coparticipant, lesson writer, and evaluator”. The innovations that they give include ”a) instructional innovations in reading and composing with hypertext, b) instructional innovations in accessing information on the Internet, c) instructional innovations in computer-mediated communication, and d) instructional innovations with sociodramatic play and CDs” (282).

      As instructional innovations in reading and composing with hypertext, Meyers, Hammet and McKillop (1998) discovered from their research that “Teachers who expect students to work in collaborative groups on hypermedia projects provide unique opportunities for students to gain digital literacy” (282). Similarly, Reinking and Watkins (1996) found that usage of hypertext give positive effects on “students’ social interaction, collaboration, and organization of information” (283).

Instructional innovations in accessing information on the Internet, or the effective use of the internet in the classroom support students’ learning experiences, and it is depend on how teacher uses, structures. First, educators “need to find out district policies related to appropriate Internet usage” (284), and second, they “should start early in the year to demonstrate, directly teach, or conduct internet guided tours involving navigation strategies in the course of whole group digital experience”(284). In addition, Leu and Leu(1997) suggest that teachers should become familiar with and target educational websites.

     Beach and Lundell(1998) posit that “unique opportunities to develop digital literacy occur during computer-mediated communication”, such as real-time chat and e-mail. They discover that “students constructed shared perspectives, understood the contexts and consequences of the text as it emerged on the screen, and reflected on their roles in the online discussion”. E-mail exchanges give opportunities for the teachers to become an advisor and become what Labbo and Field (1996) refer to as a “generative curriculum”: “a course of study in which the topics and resources for study are generated by the questions students raise, the ideas they share, and problems they encounter” through e-mail exchanges (286).

Instructional innovations with sociodramatic play and CDs are shown by Labbo’s  (in press) discover that through occasions to playfully interact with digital resources, children gain their concepts about digital literacy by learning the computer usage such as “access information, store and retrieve data, maintain correspondence, and achieve communicative goals” (286).

     Even though computers are present in classrooms, they are not currently transforming educational practice or traditional notion of literacy into digital environment. There are many innovative instructional uses of technology in literacy classroom for students to become digitally fluent, but it can occur when “teachers receive the support and equipment necessary to become digitally literate” (287).

Work Cited:

Labbo, Linda D.; Reinking, David; McKenna, Michael C. Technology and Literacy Educcation in the Next Century: Exploring the Connection Between Work and Schooling. Vol 73 (3): 273- 289, 1998.

See Article:

Technology and Literacy Education in the Next Century: Exploring the Connection Between Work and Schooling