Debate about the role of technology in literacy and learning often stops as soon as someone says casually, “… But technology is only a tool.” Historians of technology would argue that while it is certainly a tool, tools change the way we organize ourselves and ultimately the way we think. The car was a tool that enabled faster travel; its widespread use, however, lead to modern highway systems, new social organizations, urban design and economies, to name only some of the large scale impacts over time.

Technology has been a major force in spreading literacy. The printing press is the most frequently cited invention that made reading accessible to the masses; the invention of the pencil, less well-known, had a similar impact on writing. Now we have electronic communication with worldwide networks; are reading and writing with these tools the same process?

In the past century, a proliferation of new media has added another dimension to the notion of literacy. How do traditional print, media and technological literacies connect? Are they different from one another? Does one precede or underpin the others? Is the order in which we learn them important? Are literacy teachers equipped to teach them?

Canada has some of the most advanced communications networks in the world. Yet the impact on adult basic education and literacy has so far been relatively narrow in terms of teaching students, managing programs and training providers. Disparities of access can be as great between regions as they are between developed and developing countries. We have some programs operating on the cutting edge and others using tools from the 19th century.

Funding guidelines often prevent programs from acquiring technologies, and government agendas to invest in getting technology to the general population frequently operate in isolation at every level of jurisdiction, duplicating expenses while leaving gaps in access.

When funding for technology is available, it is often restricted to equipment when investment in training is the key to high quality sustainable implementation.

Despite the barriers, there are still many innovative and promising uses of both old and new technologies in the field of ABE and literacy in many countries. This Institute will bring together several outstanding organizations and individuals that are pushing the limits of possibility in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K.

We will invite participants to consider questions we have raised and to pose others that are critical to their own practice. Our focus will be on the ways that technology can be used to create communities of practice rather than on showcasing individual technologies.