This article offers a theoretical rationale for the use of technology -- and particularly interactive electronic media -- in the classroom. The rationale focuses on two aspects of literacy development: the ability to consider multiple symbolic perspectives in the process of making meaning, and the ability to reflect on language. The tool of technology enables children to work with multiple sign systems simultaneously, thereby providing opportunities for them to reflect on language while constructing meaning from multiple perspectives in the social context of the classroom. How this resource is used affects literacy development in a multitude of ways. These theoretical constructs provide a foundation for suggestions for practice, presented in a series of classroom scenarios.

The article consists of the following sections:

• Introduction
• Theoretical Framework
       Multiple Symbolic Representations
       Reflecting on Language
• Classroom Scenarios
• Some Final Thoughts
• References

Carroll (e-mail maureenc@uclink4.berkeley.edu) is a doctoral candidate in Language, Literacy and Culture at the University of California at Berkeley, USA. Her background is in education and publishing, in both the academic and nonacademic worlds. She has taught at the elementary, junior high, and college levels in special education and reading and writing, and has served as a resource room teacher and an education research assistant. She is the cofounder of an educational technology curriculum development company, Bay Breeze Educational Resources.