n the mid 1960s, Marshall McLuhan explained that conventional literacy caused us to trade an ear for an eye, and in so doing, trade the social context of the oral tradition for the private point of view of reading and writing. To him, television was the first step in our "retribalization," providing a common social experience that could serve as the basis for dialogue in the global village.2
However, television told someone
else's story, not ours. It was not until Web 2.0 that we had the tools to come full circle and produce and consume social narrative in equal measure. Much of the emerging nature of literacy is a result of inexpensive, widely available, flexible Web 2.0 tools that enable anyone, regardless of technical skill, to play some part in reinventing literacy.
Literacy Uses: Student uses are described as technology stories Adaptive Uses: Learning is telling the same stories with new tools Transforming Uses: Learning is creating new stories with new tools Schools will be able to increase their visible impact with technology by intentionally focusing their equipment and staff development resources on the combination of literacy, integrating and evolving uses that works best for their students. View a sample mapping of learning uses in schools comparing their actual (present) and preferred (vision) uses across the three categories identified in theTechnology and Learning Spectrum chart.
