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     This chapter describes a personal odyssey of the author (Can Computers Turn Teaching Inside-out?) a theoretical approach to education which emerged from this odyssey (Can Computers Transform Education?), and a reconsideration of the concept of literacy within this alternative educational system (Can Computers Redefine Literacy?).

      The odyssey explores three successive visions of the use of the computer in education (Outside-in Vision, Inside-out Vision, Interactionist Vision). Those visions could be considered as based, respectively, on three metaphors of the computer in education - computer-as-source, computer-as-tutor, computer-as-prosthetic.

      The theoretical approach explores three other metaphors of the computer in education - Computer-As-Positive-Prosthetic, Computer-As-Production-Studio, and Computer-As-Corpus-Callosum. Those visions, based on teaching as an inside-our rather than an outside-in process, could serve as a foundation for an alternative educational system.

      Traditional education is based on the limited concept of literacy. Stretching the concept of literacy to embrace media literacy and computer literacy continues to privilege print and to preserve an antiquated educational system based on talk-and-chalk (Proliferating Literacies). The alternative educational system, implied by the theoretical approach presented here, would be based on the acquisition of skills in using our various communication tools (Acquiring Skills). Language is only one of those tools.

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