Conclusion

Just as the military tends to train to fight the last war rather than the current one, colleges tend to provide technology for the last technological paradigm rather than the current one. While I dream of the day when I can have my students record and edit their audio essays in a sophisticated campus technology lab staffed with knowledgeable assistants, the reality is that by the time my institution has such a lab, I will be working to anticipate a new set of “skills, aptitudes, knowledges, dispositions . . . young people will need in the world of the next two decades or three, in order to be able to live productive, fulfilling lives” (Kress, 1999, p. 66), and I will be dreaming of a new lab to accommodate a new assignment I’ve worked up for my students. It is unlikely that my students will ever come to my classes already owning the technology I may wish they did. It is equally unlikely that my institution will be able to provide the technology I want when I want it for the assignments I am creating. It is not necessary that my students actually own the technologies themselves or have them provided by my institution; what is necessary is that students be provided opportunities to develop the literacies associated with new technologies.

Next: References