143 FEATURE ARTICLE Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 58(2) October 2014 doi:10.1002/jaal.335 © 2014 International Reading Association (pp. 143–152) The Potential of Digital Technologies to Support Literacy Instruction Relevant to the Common Core State Standards Amy C. Hutchison & Jamie Colwell Digital tools have the potential to transform instruction and promote literacies outlined in the Common Core State Standards. Empirical research is examined to illustrate this potential in grades 6–12 instruction. T he Common Core State Standards (CCSS) place a significant emphasis on the use of digital technology to promote domain specific literacy in grades 6–12 learning and instruction. Additionally, to improve adolescents’ col- lege and career readiness, the national standards em- phasize what literacy research has indicated for years: evolving modes of reading, writing, and communi- cating require a reconsideration of literacy integra- tion in content area classroom contexts (Coleman, 2011). The Common Core standards also include the use of digital tech- nology in middle and high school education (National Governor’s Association & Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010). Thus, now more than ever, teachers have to con- sider how digital tools may be effectively uti- lized in their content curricula to build literacy skills among adolescents. Further, adolescents are avid consumers of digital technology in their everyday lives (Madden, Lenhart, Duggan, Cortesi, & Gasser, 2013), and research sug- gests that more concerted efforts are needed to con- nect students’ out-of-school literacy practices to their in-school literacy practices (Hinchman, Alvermann, Boyd, Brozo, & Vacca, 2003/2004; Hutchison & Henry, 2010) to bridge traditional and new literacies (Moje, 2009). The research base in this area is new, but rapidly emerging. Reports of research on the use of digital technology in literacy have quickly grown over the previous decade, and researchers, using empirical evi- dence, have offered multiple implications and sugges- tions for integrating digital tools to support literacy in middle and high school classrooms. These suggestions are ultimately useful, but the rapid pace at which digi- tal technology has emerged has created a somewhat overwhelming repository of resources from which teachers and teacher educators can draw insight into promoting literacy with digital tools. Thus, the pur- pose of this article is two-fold: First, we wish to draw attention to the ways that the use of digital technology Amy C. Hutchison is an assistant professor of literacy at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA; e-mail amyhutch@iastate.edu. Jamie Colwell is an assistant professor of literacy at Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, USA; e-mail jcolwell@ odu.edu.. Authors (left to right)