In 1455, Johannes Gutenberg's invention of movable type rapidly made the printed word more accessible. "Gutenberg's invention brought about changes, and it is interesting to speculate on the major possible parallels between the changes that flowed from Gutenberg's invention and those that can come from fast computing and the Internet (King, 1997, p.4, 4)." The context of literacy changed from being a religious vehicle to being a secular vehicle of mass communication. The impact of mass-produced secular information created a tremendous rise in the literacy rates of Western Europe. "The effect on communication and the spread of ideas was huge. Barriers between scholar and citizen, between the learned elite and those who needed to learn, were broken down (p.4, 4)." Following the American Revolution, leaders such as Jefferson viewed literacy as "central to the survival of government as informed citizens made reasoned decisions at the ballot box (Leu, p.4)." By 1959 the United Nation's published its "Declaration on the Rights of the Child: Principle 7," declaring "the child is entitled to receive free and compulsory education, at least in the elementary stages (Langford, 1998, p.5)." Today literacy is considered a universal right. Its definition has changed greatly from the ancient river civilizations to modern-day travelers on the information highway. Today literacy involves more than the ability to read and write. Linda Langford, in her article "Information Literacy: A Clarification," cites studies done by Kuhlthau that tie the definition of literacy to the current information needs of a society. Kuhlthau found that "to be literate was not only to recognize when information was required, but involved the ability to construct one's own knowledge through a process that gave meaning and self-interest to the notion of learning throughout a lifetime (Langford, 1998, p.5)." Part of today's literacy challenge is being able to deal with vast and rapidly escalating amounts of information. According to Langford, the "mere ability to read and write is being translated into the ability to read, write, and to develop the capacities to understand, absorb, assimilate, and digest the images being transmitted electronically with the added capacity to communicate these images electrographically (p.5)." Donald Leu (2000) has also studied the ever-changing definition of literacy. He applies the term "deictic" to literacy definitions (p.3, 6). He explains that "deictic" refers to words whose meanings change quickly. Words such as "today," for instance, change meaning literally overnight. Leu explains that it is not so much the passing of time the affects the meaning of literacy, but rather rapidly emerging new technologies and the envisionment of how these improved technologies might be used. Leu explains the difficulty of conducting long-term studies on the impact of technology integration into the curriculum on improved student learning. In classrooms, for instance, educators would no longer consider students to be high-end consumers of technology for simply being able to use a word processing program (p.22). In this age of rapidly changing and wider access to technology, the Internet, and an enormous variety of sources of information, new skills are needed in order to be literate. It is no longer sufficient for students to assume that an author is an expert and that the information is valid. Books have traditionally been edited and published using established standards for authenticity of information. There is no master editor or publisher for the World Wide Web. It is up to the recipients to make meaning of the information. With so many types of informational sources available - text, video, animation, primary source documents, records of data - it is critical that our students learn to process through these sources and make analytical choices concerning the information (Pickering-Thomas, 1999). Accepting information at face value is no longer an option. According to Jeooek, the true meaning and underlying bias is not always apparent, especially to researchers with emerging information literacy skills. "Instead of drowning in the abundance of information that floods their lives, information literate people know how to find, evaluate, and use information effectively to solve a particular problem or make a decision (Association, 1994)." With the reality of rapidly changing technologies comes the problem of assessing the implications and outcomes for acquiring literacy. In this information age, few would disagree with Donald Leu's belief that "accessing information, evaluating information, solving problems, and communicating solutions are essential to success in this new era (Leu, 2000, p.5, 2)." As more states and districts weave technology strands into their standards, educators might have some concern about the literacy level of a student who could answer the questions at the end of the chapter, for instance, but who could not use word processing, email, electronic databases and spreadsheets, hypermedia, and Internet technologies. Each of these technologies "has helped to redefine the nature of literacy and each has seen new envisionments for its use redefine the technology itself (p.5,2)." Technology is changing literacy and literacy is changing technology. Leu raises a concern that in the rush to be wired, many districts have concentrated more on technology itself rather than its use in the classroom. Obviously there is a need for increased and continued staff development in order for today's teacher to be prepared to teach today's student. Unfortunately, even in the best of situations where wiring and hardware are matched by effective staff development, districts may not be able to furnish the public with evidence of improved student learning. Often by the time a comprehensive study is completed, whatever tools and technologies were involved have become outdated and are no longer used in the classroom. Leu predicts that it will be awhile before assessments can keep pace with the technologies used in classroom studies (p.25). In the meantime, technology - and the definition for literacy - will continue to change.