From encyclopaedias to search engines: Technological change and its impact on literacy learning

This article discusses the evolution of information for research and teaching purposes as a result of the change the Internet has brought to our literacy classrooms, depicted in the shift from encyclopaedias to search engines. Exploration of how computer literacies can support students' traditional literacy development as they move from learning to read to reading to learn in the middle years of schooling is improving pedagogical knowledge. Flood, Lapp and Flood identified that computers and other forms of multi media facilitate the use of electronic texts, such as email, podcasting and wikis, and thus require new conceptions of literacy and literate behaviours. Using the analogy of the transition from encyclopaedias to search engines this article chronicles some of the changes observed in an upper primary classroom. New technologies are transforming current literacy practices and challenging what it means to be literate. Literacy instruction is being both intentionally and unintentionally adjusted to take advantage of the opportunities presented through mediums such as search engines. The new literacies will build upon the solid foundational skills of comprehension, writing, spelling, vocabulary development, phonemic awareness and phonics in order to prepare our students for the unimagined literacies of the future. The goal for teachers remains that students need to be equipped to become critical thinkers, problem solvers, innovators, effective communicators and collaborators and self directed learners.