#technical literacy

Consider learning a foreign language. Before the Internet, reading books, newspapers, or magazines in a foreign language might have required some sort of effort. Getting audio or video material in the same language, might have been possible either through  cassette, CD, cable TV, or VHS. Speaking and writing were limited to telephone and letter writing, and ultimately, travelling to a country where the language was spoken could possibly have been one of the best ways to practise it and test your real life ability on it.

Technology has changed all that. Most of the aforementioned resources and learning tools are one click away. We have numerous mobile apps to help with word meaning, pronunciation, and much else besides. Technologies such as Google Hangouts and Skype allow us to have actual conversations with people anywhere in the world really, provided they have access to a computer and an Internet connection. There really is much we can do on our own, at our own pace, and as many times as we need it. Learning a foreign a language is, of course, an example I picked at random, not least because I'm an EFL teacher. But the examples of technology revolutionizing the way we do things today are far too many to need rehearsing here by me.