Sunday, January 14, 2007

Reading Notes 1/14/07

"Technology and Literacy: A Story about the Perils of Not Paying Attention"
Feb. '99 -Cynthia L. Selfe


  • Technological literacy-ability to use computers and other technology to improve learning, productivity, and performance
  • CCCC-Conference on College Composition and Communication
  • By allocating the responsibility of technological decisions (often times to a single staff member), the result is that computers are rapidly becoming invisible
  • Computer technology=cultural strangeness
  • Organizations deal with technology in a piecemeal fashion, creating little focus being paid to technology
  • PAY ATTENTION to how literacy is linked to technology
  • Not paying attention to technology is an unfair system (in my opinion-for students especially, it is doing them the injustice)
  • what's are role in all this...
  • One idea that might be a release for us to not pay attention is the fact that literacy and computer technology is deemed a socially progressive movement
  • American Narrative: Clinton-Gore administration '96
  • Getting America's Children Ready for the Twenty-First Century
  • Document refers to use of computers for reading, writing, and communicating as well
  • Plans shortcomings: not enough $ allocated and not enough to the correct places per state
  • Also, not enough allocated to the correct places by government. Lack of punctuality on allocations (and generation of funding) AND not enough guidance to teachers and students
  • ***Must do a better job of paying to attention to technology issues that affect us
  • Lessons created from the different perspective on literacy that technology issues provide
  • 1)Efficacy of large-scale projects/myth of literacy
  • Primarily schools serving poor students and students of color have less access to computers
  • Literacy and Technology link: race and socioeconomic status
  • (this opportunity) will "help give all young people the opportunity to grow" is erroneous. It "deflects attention from the complexity and real political difficulties"
  • 2) Literacy is always an political act (motivated by political agenda) as well as an educational effort
  • Global Information Infrastructure (GII) and the national one (NII)
  • Not so much the plan it self but a spark of the nation would help the expansion of technological literacy
  • The plan's downfall in Selfe's eyes: not a consistent production of individuals acquiring technological literacy
  • These deemed "illiterate/unskilled" individuals are necessary to sustain the American economical system
  • Teachers who are teaching students how to "use" technology in the classroom, and those who virtually see it as "just another instructional tool" are both missing the point.
  • Situated knowledges-approach
  • It will also takes societies and schools working together
  • Typical sites for critically informed action on technological literacy:
  • Curriculum committees, standards documents, and assessment programs (diverse range of literacy practices and values)
  • Professional organizations (activism)
  • Scholarship and research (keep the research coming)
  • In LA and English classrooms (learn the technology and become critical thinkers about technological issues and social issues surrounding its use)
  • Computer-based communication facilities (serve as teaching environments for both students and teachers to learn)
  • In districts that have poor schools and students of color (more equitable distributions of technology)
  • In our voting
  • In pre-service and in-service educational programs for teachers (or soon to be teachers)
  • In libraries and public places
  • As for teachers (and for everyone), make a commitment to literacy and technology everyday.
  • Do the best to our personal abilities

"'Among the Greatest Benefactors of Mankind': What the Success of Chalkboards Tells Us about the Future of Computers in the Classroom" Spring 2000

-Steven D. Krause

  • Basic question: will computers take the lead as chalkboards have?
  • Technologies that have profound influences on how we teach: pens, paper, desks, chalkboard
  • Chalkboard not viewed as technology but as natural (Krause arguing this is not actually true-chalkboard is a technology just as a pen is)
  • Chalkboards don't push the envelop to change how writing is taught
  • Writing = humanism; technology is something that gets away from that enterprise
  • Krause finds himself agreeing with Cynthia Selfe (technology is inevitable, but, at times, negatively affecting our literacy)
  • Will we consider computers "natural" in a school setting in the future, like we now view chalkboards as natural?
  • Chalkboard=innovation of early 19th century
  • In Lancasterian schools in Philadelphia, chalkboards facilitate large group instruction (usually a teacher/student ratio of 1 to 284)
  • However, this was good compared to a past in which there was an absence of any previous systematic approach to learning (many went to school who would not have originally had access)
  • Chalkboard's 20th century cousin=the overhead
  • The chalkboard was here to stay
  • Praise for chalkboard, why not so much for computers?
  • Chalkboards (easy to operate/low-maintenance); Computers, essentially the opposite
  • Chalkboards don't do, they enhance what teachers are already doing
  • 1. We are not willing to change how we use computers (right now we are just interested in using them for enhancement)
  • 2. It is pedagogy that motivates the use of technologies, not the technologies that motivates improvement in pedagogy.
  • ***Computers are not universal yet because teachers do not see how computers enhance pedagogy
  • Technology misuse (computer)=not training the teacher computer-based writing pedagogy
  • Forcing teachers to use computers in the teaching of writing will do little good without changing the way writing is taught!
  • Definition of computer will continue to change
  • Future for computers and writing pedagogy is still unclear
  • If computers are to become "natural," we need to work harder in our pedagogical approaches

"Time's Person of the Year: The Computer" Jan. '83

-Otto Friedrich

  • Just in the first paragraph, I realize this was the extent of our computer knowledge by this date.
  • "This passion is partly fad, partly a sense of how life could be made better, partly a gigantic sales campaign" (interesting take)
  • Friedrich argue the personal computer is the "end result" of the technological revolution. Is that so, or is it just the beginning?
  • The computer is now accessible to millions...here comes the information revolution
  • What affect will all of this have? Dehumanization and unemployment? Or a spark in new industries?
  • Comparing telecommunications to canals, highways, and railroads
  • End of WWII ENIAC, the first fully electronic digital computer was built in U.S., costing $487,000. Today (1982), a personal IBM computer costs $4,000.
  • Looking ahead, the computer industry sees pure gold.
  • Estimate: 80 million personal computers in use by end of century
  • In '82, the surface has been barely scratched for the computer industry.
  • Video game...a teenage fad, doomed to go away like the Hula Hoop and Rubik's Cube (not to sure about that)
  • Argument that these games have educational value
  • These games promote the "user-friendliness" of the computer
  • Personal computer: help with the idea of working from home
  • Electronic mail, databases via dial up (I almost forgot that's what we used to have to do. I don't believe it has its name as WWW yet.)
  • A doctor says that one day he accessed the computer 3x's in 12 minutes (imagine that!)
  • Farmers are even jumping on the bandwagon
  • The office is even giving way to the computer and joining the network. No more typewriters
  • Office professionals a could save 15% of time if they used technology now avail.
  • Electronic message system could eventually make "paper" obsolete
  • "Suspicious" of this new equipment, and scared to death of it
  • Why should anyone have to go to work in an office at all? Is the great megalopolis about to be doomed by technology?
  • The Third Wave -Alvin Toffler (The home will become an "electronic cottage)
  • Work is more about the social intercourse, a community
  • Personal computer, robots, customization
  • Advance of computers in medical field
  • Computer crime
  • Unemployment: get more work done by fewer people
  • "It is a tool to help the rich get richer." -Katherine Fishman (I think we can say that is not necessarily true)
  • The user will be able to carry out many functions simply by pointing to a picture of what he wants done rather than typing out instructions
  • Quality electronics coming from Japan
  • Use of computers to teach children about computers
  • Will the the computer change the very nature of human thought? (higher IQs, higher level of thinking?)
  • The personal computer can "greatly increase the forces of both good and evil." -Nils Nilsson

"Time's Person of the Year: You" Dec. '06

-Lev Grossman

  • The few, the powerful, the famous shape our collective destiny as a species
  • Individuals we could blame for a disturbing 2006 (Bush???)
  • Community and Collaboration!!! (Wikipedia, You Tube, MySpace)
  • Helping one another for nothing (wow, what a concept, seems to be it's been around for quite sometime). This will change how the world changes
  • Tool making the possible=THE WEB or Web 2.0
  • It's telling us about how Americans live.
  • An explosion of productivity and innovation from the masses
  • Grossman calls this a passion (is it truly that?)
  • You: seizing the reins of the global media
  • Web 2.0=a massive social experiment (w/ no road map)
  • Staring at a computer screen, who's out there looking back at you?

AAK

No comments: