The impact of technology and the accelerating technological change is one of the themes that often comes up in discussions about why we face literacy and numeracy problems in the 21st century.
The relentless march of technology and increasing technological complexity mean that the demands of work and life have changed significantly in recent years compared to previous generations.
Adult learners today face literacy and numeracy demands today that simply did not exist before. Or at least they did not exist in the same way due to the increasing integration of computers, mobile devices, and the internet in our daily lives and work.
This change is highly visible and means that we all need to develop new “literacies” including digital literacy in order to keep learning and address gaps that could emerge between the “technologically” rich and poor.
Your learners are likely to be at a disadvantage if they can’t access online resources and services for work or daily life.
Some questions to think about
Let’s pause for a few moments. The questions below are not assessed, but thinking about your answers to them will help you with the assessment task.
- What impact has technology had on your trade or industry?
- What about the impact on how you teach or assess?
- What can you do to help encourage digital literacy?
