But others say the Internet has created a new kind of reading, one that schools and society should not discount. The Web inspires a teenager like Nadia, who might otherwise spend most of her leisure time watching television, to read and write.

ven accomplished book readers like Zachary Sims, 18, of Old Greenwich, Conn., crave the ability to quickly find different points of view on a subject and converse with others online. Some children with dyslexia or other learning difficulties, like Hunter Gaudet, 16, of Somers, Conn., have found it far more comfortable to search and read online.

What is different now, some literacy experts say, is that spending time on the Web, whether it is looking up something on Google or even britneyspears.org, entails some engagement with text.

Shanahan points to the more than 30 billion e-mail messages and 5 billion text messages that are exchanged every day as evidence of how technology “is raising the value of reading in our society, both as an economic and as a social activity.”

In coming years literacy will mean knowing how to choose between print, image, video, sound, and all the potential combinations they could create to make a particular point with a specific audience,” says Bronwyn Williams, associate professor of English at the University of Louisville.

“I think we often don’t give kids enough credit with their control over language,” says Eric Paulson, associate professor of literary education at the University of Cincinnati. “They can text ‘IMHO’ on their cell phones, write ‘my own opinion is’ in a school essay, and read ‘it is my belief that your scar hurts when Lord Voldemort is near you’ without getting discombobulated.” Switching from a language appropriate for a text message to a linguistic mode more appropriate for addressing a teacher or writing an essay is a practice young people can easily be comfortable with.

Brown and his colleagues invited 15 year old digital learners to participate as researchers at Xerox’s research center, and identified, through observations of their work, some dimensional shifts in their literacy practices. For these digital learners, they found: Literacy involves image and screen literacy: “The ability to ‘read’ multimedia texts and to feel comfortable with new, multiple-media genres.” “The new literacy, beyond text and image, is one of information navigation. The real literacy of tomorrow entails the ability to be your own personal reference librarian—to know how to navigate through confusing, complex information spaces and feel comfortable doing so. ‘Navigation’ may well be the main form of literacy of the 21st century.” Learning involves a shift from learning in an authority-based, lecture oriented environment to learning that is “discovery-based”– e.g. web surfing for both entertainment and information. Learning is active, involving mucking about vs. being told, and requires making good judgments as you find what you need and build on it. Learning has a social as well as a cognitive dimension.

ndeed, despite fears that the Internet would stunt the reading of books, the sale of books has continued to trend upward over the past several years. In 2005, sales jumped 9.9%, to $25 billion, according to the Association of American Publishers.

With such a large proportion of reading and writing taking place on the Internet, literacy has changed from a solitary pursuit into a collective one.