21st Century Educational Literacy

Promoting greater educational technology literacy is a great challenge for educators at every level of school systems - from parents to elementary and secondary teachers, to primary administrators and to central administrators. There are several struggles that impede that process, though. Technology costs money and requires that we break through one of the most formidable obstacles in all of education - tradition. New technology also requires time to learn and requires resources that aren't always available even if the finances exist to purchase them. Most of all, though, employing new technologies in the classroom requires courage. This is because it often requires breaking away from the pack even if the pack was a comforting group.

The pack is usually where tradition is king, and where the adage, "tradition stunts original thought" is usually exemplified. This "tradition" has also led to classrooms that favor the use of skills to teach information rather than using information to teach skills. Web 2.0 tools offer the greatest opportunities to come along in a century to break through this tradition. Changes that can be instituted with these new technologies will require that the content of courses be re-examined, but that's been long overdue anyway. This is another reason why it takes courage to promote these changes, because promoting the use of new educational technology takes leaders who are willing and able to institute tough changes and get others to follow.