For one, “Using [these] sites to communicate, collaborate, and create means learners use and can develop a wide range of literacy skills,” the report suggests. Students, for example, learn about copyright issues and what kinds of permissions service providers require, important digital literacy skills that can help develop creative, social, or entrepreneurial skills.

A growing number of educators are also starting to recognize the benefits of other Web 2.0 tools, where users can include video and photo-management sites. “Educators and other professionals are increasingly using social networking services to form communities and connect to others who share their interests,” the report adds. “In addition to providing a whole community with useful information about a school, college, organization or event, a profile on a social network sends a clear message to learners that you are aware of the types of spaces they enjoy online.”

Social networking sites are also used to organize activities, events, or groups to showcase issues and opinions in order to make a wider audience aware of them. These sites can also hone debating and discussion skills in a local, national, or international context, the report says.

The purpose of this report is to inform the public—and especially people in a position to affect policy—of the urgent need for technological literacy. The report and its recommendations provide only a starting point. The case for technological literacy must be made consistently, on an ongoing basis, in light of the technological developments of the time. As Americans gradually become more sophisticated with regard to technological issues, they will be more willing to support measures in the schools and in the informal education arena to raise the level of technological literacy of the next generation. In time, leaders in government, academia, and business will also recognize the value of widespread technological literacy to their own and the nation’s welfare. The journey promises to be slow and challenging but unquestionably worth the effort.

Change increasingly defines the nature of literacy in an information age.  Literacy is rapidly and continuously changing as new technologies for information and communication repeatedly appear and new envisionments for exploiting these technologies are continuously crafted by users. Moreover, these new technologies for information and communication permit the immediate exchange of even newer technologies and envisionments for their use. This speeds up the already rapid pace of change in the forms and functions of literacy, increasing the complexity of the challenges we face as we consider how best to prepare students for their literacy futures. Today, continuous, rapid change regularly redefines the nature of literacy.  This simple observation has profound implications for literacy education.

The continuously changing technologies of information and communication are largely driven by these global forces in the nature of work.  As individuals or organizations identify problems, gather information, and seek solutions, digital bits become faster and cheaper than atoms (Negroponte, 1995) and in a highly competitive context speed, information, and cost become paramount.  Most of the technologies of literacy are driven by these three considerations.  Successful information and communication technologies allow faster access to more information at a cheaper cost than alternatives. Moreover, the globally competitive context in which we find ourselves ensures that new technologies for information and communication will continually be developed, resulting in continuously changing literacies and envisionments for literacy.