Editor’s Message

In the age of the Internet, it is easy to equ ate technology with surfing the Web, but there are many other forms of technol ogy, even specifically of digital elec-tronic technologies, that play important ro les in the development and practices of literacy. One of these is the online writin g center. Some versions of online writ-ing centers are akin to the online chat roo ms to which many teenagers devote much of their after-school time. Online, real-time, or synchronous commun ication has a long tradition in computer systems for education, going bac k at least to the PLATO system in the 1960s. But, in its earliest manifestations, online communication, whether real-time (as in an online chat) or asynchrono us (like e-mail), was not considered directly educational. It was a fun part of the system to be used after the real learning had been accomplished. Today, h owever, both of these forms are see-ing wide use as legitimate media for learni ng. Proponents of online writing centers find value in the enthusiasm of par-ticipants and the fact that participation in the center means extensive reading and writing. Many instructors see great be nefits in the writing and reading ex-hibited in the centers, yet others questio n their value or highlight problems. These diverse views suggest that we need to explore more deeply to discover exactly what happens online. In our investigation of technology and lit eracy this month, we are led by Kevin Leander, a former secondary schoo l English teacher now teaching at a university in the United States. Kevin has done in-depth studies of literacy in high school and college settings. His resear ch has revealed the complex interplay of technologies, physical space, discourse, and social interaction in everyday learning settings