Beowulf, the oldest piece of English vernacular literature, was copied into one manuscript by two distinctive scribes around 1000 A.D.  Although the manuscript dates from the late tenth century, spelling, linguistic, and textual details suggest that the poem itself was probably composed several centuries earlier (although its exact date is the subject of much debate).  Although some might think it odd that the first piece of English literature involves not Englishmen, but Geats and Danes, Michael Swanton, in the introduction to his prose translation, notes:

        Most of the historical characters referred to in Beowulf are well-known figures from Migration
        times when the Germanic tribes of northern Europe began their great journeys . . . forming
        new kingdoms . . . and laying the foundations for medieval and modern Europe.  The
        Anglo-Saxons recognized themselves as part of this movement, and long preserved
        detailed traditions respecting their origins -- much as European immigrants to modern America
        often preserve quite precise oral information as to their antecedents (7).

Swanton also suggests that the poem was well-known and liked enough that it was not only copied by various scribes in different parts of England, but also "seems to have been imitated in parts by certain writers of both poetry and prose" (1).

While not necessarily a learning technology in and of itself (like say, the invention of writing), Beowulf is important to literacy nevertheless, not only because it reveals the ways in which literature can be used to preserve tradition that before had only been preserved orally, but also because it worked toward creating a cohesive cultural identity for the people who were reading and copying it.  The manuscript also provides modern scholars with insights into early English linguistics, as well as religious and social values.

Some websites for you Beowulf fans out there:

http://www.engl.virginia.edu/OE/Beowulf.Readings/Beowulf.Readings.html - You can click on the links to see part of the poem in Old English, and you can listen to someone reading it.

 http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/poems/beow_doe.html - This site offers Old English, along with an interline modern English translation.

http://www.uky.edu/~kiernan/welcome-old/1993.html - Here you can see images of the original manuscript, and read about digital preservation and restoration of medieval manuscripts.

Work Cited:
Swanton, Michael, trans.  Beowulf.  Manchester, Eng:  Manchester University Press, 1997.