ABSTRACT
Throughout history, technology has frequently played a dominant role in defining what skills have been considered important. For full participation in contemporary information based society, additional skills on top of reading, writing and using audiovisual media are required. This can be explained by applying seven communication capacities related to the internet (Van Dijk, 1999):
Speed. The internet allows instantaneous worldwide communication. The amount of available information in a specific period of time is very large compared to traditional media.
Reach. The potential social and geographic reach of the internet is worldwide. Although only a small part of the world's population has internet connectivity, the internet allows access to innumerable addresses and contacts.
Storage capacity. The massive amount and variety of online information, very different in quality, puts new demands on people who have to use it.
Selectivity. Users have to choose between Web addresses, menu options, online applications, and information to find the material they seek.
Stimuli richness. The internet combines text, sound, speech, images, and video. Although this richness supports mental access, it also requires more mental capabilities to process the various stimuli.
Interactivity. Interactivity makes internet use more attractive, stimulating, immediate, involving, and participatory. However, internet use is more demanding, since it requires many cognitive resources (Bucy and Newhagen, 2004).
Complexity. Compared to the more traditional media, the use of the internet is more complex. Websites allow for information in which illustrations, graphs, images, and video can be used. Unfortunately, not all websites achieve this in a usable manner.
