ABSTRACT
The term literacy has been increasingly extended to include domains other than reading and writing. There is now talk of mathematical literacy, media literacy, musical literacy, computer literacy, and so on. Janks (1997, p. 249) observed that the concept of multiliteracies “deprivileges the print-based verbal sign and makes way for oracies, visual semiotics, multimodal literacies.” In a discussion of electronic literacy, Topping (1997) predicted that traditional skills of reading and writing are likely to lose their place in today’s world of advanced technology, with many new ways of disseminating knowledge through interactive multimedia services. He hypothesized that basic literacy skills may not be relevant when a computer can transform speech directly into writing and that, one day very soon, books may be cherished as antiques and people will forget what they were used for.
