We should think about what we mean by literacy. If you say, "He's a very literate person," what you really mean is that he knows a lot, thinks a lot, has a certain frame of mind that comes through reading and knowing about various subjects.The major route open to literacy has been through reading and writing text. But we're seeing new media offer richer ways to explore knowledge and communicate, through sound and pictures.
Seymour PapertUntil very recently, most knowledge was inaccessible to people who couldn't read text. But this is changing. The computer opens up other channels of gaining knowledge. If someone is blind, we now have very good machines that will read to him. If someone can't recognize letters, he also will have access to knowledge through sound and images.
Seymour PapertWhat the gears cannot do the computer might. The computer is the Proteus of machines. Its essence is its universality, its power to simulate
Seymour PapertNothing could be more absurd than an experiment in which computers are placed in a classroom where nothing else is changed.
Seymour Papert