A Review on the Use of Technology to Develop Literacy

Abstract — Literacy has been accepted by the United Nations as one of the human rights. However, millions of people around the world are still illiterate. Technology, therefore, is believed to be able to improve the process of learning. This paper aims at reviewing some literatures concerning the issue that technology is now widely used in education as an instructional tool to enhance literacy. There are six important findings presented in this paper, i.e. technology does not need to be sophisticated; by using technology, the students’ motivation in learning upwards; the materials should be locally suitable; technology should be used as a complement and not the sole mean to teach literacy; technology can facilitate active learning, but at the same time it can distract the students; and technology can create a literacy-conducive environment. Index Terms — Instructional technology, literacy, education, computer assisted learning, e-Learning. I. I NTRODUCTION UNESCO defined literacy as "the ability to read and write with understanding a short simple sentence about one's daily life