If accounting educators are to achieve the goal of advancing technologically literate students, the AICPA's Accounting Education Executive Committee (AEEC) believes that the accounting curricula must be revised to incorporate information technology (IT), both as a content component and as an instructional tool. This information is nothing new. However, the road to achieving this objective may be - with the key to success falling in the hands of the accounting educator and their willingness to become or be considered technologically literate.

What Does it Take?
So, what are some of the traits that one must possess to be deemed technologically literate? More than possessing a list of traits, technological literacy involves an attitude of life-long learning, the ability to be open-minded, and the willingness to accept the validity of new and seemingly unconventional educational tools. As a technologically literate educator, you can play a critical role in facilitating an IT-rich classroom of the future in the following ways:

• Identify the relative importance of Internet-based resources and information. The Internet provides students with easy access to volumes of information undreamed of in prior generations. However, it is unrealistic to expect students to possess the insight required to determine the information resources that are truly relevant and reliable. A technologically literate educator can serve as a guide to help students work through the information sifting process and provide them with the skill-set necessary to make these determinations on their own. The majority of the credible resources educators currently use are accessible on the Internet.

• Provide students with methods for organizing knowledge. Research has repeatedly shown that one of the factors that differentiate technological experts from novices is the expert's ability to effectively organize and structure his or her knowledge. You can facilitate learning by providing students with methods for organizing and structuring their knowledge and teach them how to similarly organize new bodies of knowledge for themselves. Instruction may include classroom exercises as simple as creating efficient electronic filing systems, and could become as advanced as demonstrating the practical use of new software tools available in the retail marketplace.

• Test student comprehension and provide feedback using IT resources. The Internet provides us all with a new communication media that can be used to enhance learning and test comprehension. For example, you can use IT to enrich and enhance the testing process by using email to conduct interactive examination of students in a manner that combines the best features of traditional oral and written examinations. This can be accomplished with an individual student or, in some cases, in a group (chat-room) setting. Group support software also can be used to enhance discussions and debates or to facilitate brainstorming sessions.

• Show students how to apply concepts in new contexts. Since transferring skills to new settings is one of the most difficult steps in developing expertise, IT can be used to help student understand how to apply their newly-acquired skills in situations that differ from the context in which that knowledge was initially required. Not only will the students become more familiar with using the wired world for educational and business purposes, this method will allow the opportunity to gauge comprehension when the student is outside of the traditional classroom setting.

Adopting an IT-enhanced instructional method is not an easy undertaking. While significant time and energy are required to make this transition, these basic steps may help educators to begin the integration process. Your own familiarity with and use of the Internet and other technology tools is the first step on the road to technological literacy.

It is also important to keep in mind that while students may feel they are already technologically literate as a result of their own experiences using the Internet and other electronic media, it is unlikely that their experiences have been focused on accounting. While the students may understand new media and how it works, they rely on educators to provide solid roadmaps, tools and resources for locating the appropriate and credible information resources. Just as you facilitate student learning using traditional accounting tools, your guidance is needed to direct students toward technological literacy in the wired world..