ABSTRACT
In the course of writing this book, I conducted interviews with a number of teachers about their integration of new technologies into education. I talked with teachers in rural, urban, private, and public school settings. I talked with teachers who worked with adult learners and with young children. The similarities in these teachers' experiences were more striking to me than their differences. The teachers all had a sense that literacy was an important measure of a learner's integration into society, employability, and general social success. Nonetheless, access to computers and other digital technologies is still very problematic for educators who work in poor, or geographically isolated communities. For that reason, analog technologies such as video or radio are only beginning to be used in the classroom. Teachers are still struggling with the uses of electronic tools, in general, and are only beginning to envision what they will do when they have access to multimedia digital networks. In the meantime, there is optimism that many of the concepts they explore in working with a wider range of media beyond print, will serve them well as digital media becomes more ubiquitous.
