This volume discusses the topic of literacy, new technologies, and education in the new global reality with the aim of highlighting polyphony in its approach. A polyphony that arises both from different local experiences and traditions as well as from different scientific and ideological starting points.

The strong local, ideologically and methodologically diverse scientific presence is dictated not so much by the need for a more "colorful" scientific production, but by the need for a joint exploration regarding "what is actually at play" in the new global order and how we can take it seriously into account in our proposals for the formation of the new school.

In an effort to transcend the traditional confinement within the limited national boundaries of the local and the contemporary confinement within the restricted approach to the global, the texts contained in this volume convey relevant experiences from various geographical origins - Greece, France, Australia, USA - China, Japan, South Africa - while simultaneously contributing to the highlighting of the reasons -and thus the ideological, political, and historical components- that may deeply connect this geographical diversity, extending the discussion to literacy and education issues, as they have been raised until now.

The following texts are included:

• A.-F. Chrisidis: "Local and Global and their Social Content"
• Anna Misiou: "Literacy: Two Historical Examples"
• Mary Kalantzis & Bill Cope: "New Technologies and New Learning"
• Carmen Luke: "Multiliteracies in Local - Global Contexts"
• Wan Shun Eva Lam: "Literacy in a Second Language and Identity on the Internet: The Case of Chinese Immigrants in the USA"
• Ryuko Kubota: "Do Japanese Written Texts Really Symbolize Indirectness? Globalization and Literacy Education in Japan"
• Sofronis Chatzisavvidis: "The Pedagogy of Literacy in Practice: The Case of Second Chance Schools in Greece"
• Jean-Pierre Jaffre: "Literacy in France: A Deadlock Situation?"
• Mastin Prinsloo: "Local Thinking, Global Action: New Literacies as Localized Resources"
• Dimitris Koutsoyannis: "Re-examining Research Regarding Children's Digital Literacy Practices. An Example"