Abstract What constitutes learning in the 21st century will be contested terrain as our society strives toward post-industrial forms of knowledge acquisition and pro- duction without having yet overcome the educational contradictions and failings of the industrial age. Educational reformers suggest that the advent of new technolo- gies will radically transform what people learn, how they learn, and where they learn, yet studies of diverse learners��� use of new media cast doubt on the speed and extent of change. Drawing on recent empirical and theoretical work, this essay critically examines beliefs about the nature of digital learning and points to the role of social, culture, and economic factors in shaping and constraining educational transforma- tion in the digital era. Keywords Technology �� Computers �� Internet �� Digital �� Learning The future of learning is digital. In the US, the national student���computer ratio for public schools has fallen from 168:1 in 1983 (Anderson & Ronnkvist, 1999) to 3.8:1 in 2005 (Market Data Retrieval, 2005), with movement accelerating toward one computer per child programs, based on laptops or other mobile devices (Greaves & Hayes, 2006 Warschauer, 2006). Businesses, the military, and other institutions have computerized at an even more rapid pace (Castells, 1996 Lanham, 1993) and home computers and high-speed Internet access are now becoming commonplace in not only high but also low-income US households (Rainie & Horrigan, 2005). There is little doubt that this rapid diffusion of new technologies will broadly impact the nature of learning and literacy. As Ong (1982) wrote, ������Technologies are not mere exterior aids but also interior transformations of consciousness, and never more than when they affect the word������ (p. 82). For a historical example, it is useful to consider the development of the printing press, which contributed to a major transformation of literacy, learning, and scholarship in the second half of the last M. Warschauer (&) University of California, 2001 Berkeley Place, Irvine, CA 92697-5500, USA e-mail: markw@uci.edu 123 Learn Inq (2007) 1:41���49 DOI 10.1007/s11519-007-0001-5 The paradoxical future of digital learning Mark Warschauer Received: 27 September 2006 / Accepted: 10 January 2007 / Published online: 13 March 2007 �� Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007

millennium. In the centuries after the Gutenberg revolution, the notion of reading changed from oral performance to silent comprehension the notion of writing changed from copying manuscripts to original creation and the notion of scholarship changed from mastery of a few religious texts to examination of a wide field of knowledge (Eisenstein, 1979). There is reason to believe that digital technologies will in the long run have as much impact on learning and literacy as the printing press had (see, for example, discussion in Harnad, 1991), and, indeed, this transformation is already under way (see Leu, Lankshear, Knobel, & Coiro, in press). However, technology does not transform learning and literacy by itself, but only in conjunction with other social and economic factors. For example, the earlier changes in learning and literacy mentioned above occurred over several centuries and resulted not only from the invention of the printing press but also from the Protestant Reformation and the industrial revolution (Eisenstein, 1979). With a broad post-industrial social and economic transformation well under way (see Castells, 1996), at least in the US and other industrialized countries, the tran- sition to digital literacy may well occur faster than the earlier transition to print literacy. But it will not be instantaneous. We thus find ourselves in a transition between what Bolter (1991) called the late age of print and others (e.g., Attewell & Winston, 2003) have called a post-typographic society. This transitional stage suggests that the future of learning in the 21st century will be quite complex, as we strive toward post-industrial forms of knowledge acquisition and production without having yet overcome the educational contradictions and failings of the industrial age. In the remainder of this essay, I examine the paradoxes that emerge when we examine three widely accepted beliefs about the future of digital learning, related to what people learn, how they learn, and where they learn in the digital era. The what paradox: new versus traditional literacies The first paradox relates to what students need to learn in the new digital classroom. A wide range of organizations (e.g., North Central Regional Educational Laboratory & the Metiri Group, 2003 Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2004) and individuals (e.g., Gee, 2003, 2004 Lemke, 1998) have argued that the literacies of the print era are being superceded by a new set of digital-age literacies, the most frequently mentioned of which are information literacy and multimedia literacy. Information literacy refers to the ability to define what sorts of information are needed locate the needed information efficiently evaluate information and its sources critically incorporate selected information into one���s knowledge base understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information and access and use information ethically and legally (American Library Association, 2000). Though the need for information literacy pre-dates the digital era, its importance has now greatly expanded in a world where vast amounts of unfiltered data are available online. The ability to draw on draw rote answers is inadequate in a world where yesterday���s answers are outdated faster than ever. Education must equip students to aim further ahead of a faster target. Castells��� (1996) in-depth analysis of the US and world political economy under- scores the crucial value of information literacy in today���s world. As his landmark 42 Learn Inq (2007) 1:41���49 123