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 Æ Computers Æ Internet Æ Digital Æ 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
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