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Adults who totally don’t know how to read and write would benefit greatly from these courses.

Education has been greatly improved since the dawn of the Internet, and it has made the improvement of literacy available to more people. Stay-at-home moms, for instance, can note a thing or two from reading websites and study in their spare time.

774 million adults (15 years and older) still cannot read or write – two-thirds of them (493 million) are women.

The Internet has become so pervasive that to be truly literate in 2006 demands some degree of technological fluency or at least familiarity. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 73% of American adults had used the Internet or e-mail as of March 2006. For the first time, the National Association of Adult Literacy—the most wide-ranging U.S. study of literacy—will test computer literacy in its 2008 survey that measures overall literacy. 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.

Online literacy programs are an excellent addition to reading strategies in schools and volunteer centers. Helping someone learn to read can be a very rewarding experience on a personal level but volunteering to help organize literacy programs is also an important contribution to the local community and greater society. On International Literacy Day, September 8, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) noted that globally there are 774 million illiterate adults and 75 million illiterate children. Illiteracy continues to be an elusive global problem, but in the age of the internet, the battle against illiteracy can be won.