Abstract
Imagine that you do not have access to your Blackberry, your cell phone, digital camera, laptop, or the World Wide Web. Imagine that this level of power and this level of language have all been denied to you. Finally, imagine that you are in a situation where information is filtered, withheld, distorted, or narrowed in the name of protecting your safety or even merely to control your thoughts and behaviors. Imagine those things; and you now have the intersection of critical literacy and technology.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Hypertext: A collection of media that can be easily viewed and accessed within a Web page and does not need to be viewed sequentially.
NCLB: Federal legislation titled No Child Left Behind created in 2001 and which has met with considerable debate about its efficacy and goals.
Critical Literacy: The use of reading and writing to achieve political action and social equity.
Paulo Freire: A founder of the notion that literacy and education can help those who are oppressed to become more powerful and in control of their lives.
Ubiquitous Technology: The use of technology that is seamless, transparent, and fully surrounding the user.
Critical Pedagogy: The observation that teaching strategies are differentiated between income levels of various groups resulting in more powerful learning opportunities residing with upper income levels than lower income levels.
Hypermedia: Various kinds of multimedia linked together. A blended word that combines hypertext with multimedia.