- "Faculty of English departments are rarely (if ever) consulted in institutional matter of computer literacy. Who is at fault here? Should English faculty take a more active approach?
- Past: advantages of word-processing programs for literacy
- Teachers of writing=focus on critical concerns NEED= more focus and broader on functional concerns of technology
- Students need both, plus rhetorical and visual literacies
- Just addressing critical concerns causes failure in 3 ways: attending to such functional concerns as 1. "managing online environments, 2. participating in online activities, 3. dealing with technical problems" (472).
- Just learning the "simple and fundamental" is not adequate!
- "Critics have argued that limited approaches to teaching functional skills overlook culture contexts, focus on vocational requirements, and reinforce social norms and values" (472).
- We need to do more than just maintain status quo...this is causing domestication and dehumanization of students (in other words, it's not fair, and we're cutting students' education short)
- Functional literacy has been focused on "highly specific, stabilized skill sets detached from particular social contexts" (473). This thought process...even damaging
- Functional technological literacy should (like Levine explains) "reflect the needs and motivations of the groups served, and should aim for a self-sustaining standard--one which permits pupils to make independent use of what the have learned without further help from an instructor" (473-4)!!!!
- Functional literacy should be about more than just survival
- Pg. 475= reasons that justify a functional approach. However, we shouldn't be satisfied with universalizing
- Parameters for functional literacy should be set around: educational goals, social conventions, specialized discourses, management activities, and technological impasses
- Educational Goals
- Be mindful of what is important to students
- Computer mediated users vs. functionally literate users (empowered users)
- Functionally literate users="confront skill demands, collaborate online, and explore instructional opportunities" (476)
- In other words, "further their educational goals
- All about computer control (being alert to technological limitations)
- Pg. 478 interesting discussion of use of computer as "glorified typewriter"
- Hmmm, interesting concept, style sheet. I'm not quite sure I know what this is.
- Online environments can suit individuals needs
- Similar to Yancey: "Design multiple arrangements that reflect different perspectives and educational goals" (479).
- Deliver individualized content in a creative and convenient manner
- Social Conventions
- Essential="decoding the expectations that have been adopted in socialized network spaces" (481)
- Pg. 482= the social forces of online discourses that shape the rate of participation
- Are you playing by the rules of computer etiquette?
- Thinking about social conventions in actual computer-mediated communications is a good exercise
- Focus=to be able to discern "productive modes of engagement" (483)
- Specialized Discourses
- While learning internal and external sketches of a typical computer system may be helpful, so should other discourses be emphasized
- There is really no such thing as a "coherent disciplinary discourse" (484-5)
- Pg. 485 Gives examples of what students/teachers need to know in computer-supported classrooms. A good rule of thumb for knowing the technology is being able to talk about it using the jargon or "language of...the technology" (485)
- Online environments are important as well
- Classes ahead of the game merged the computer industry, the print and publishing industry, and the broadcast and motion picture industry (486). In other words, they looked outside the box at the possibilities (which today is reality) of interdisciplinary relationships, specifically in regards to technology.
- Problem (at least for English teachers) technology gets the instrumental rather than pedagogical approach
- What may be needed is immersion and uninterrupted time in technological contexts
- Or, Selber offers some pedagogical strategies: use of advanced search engines and engage the specialized discourses of software programs or technologies. (Sounds like the place where the basis for our next project has come from :)
- Management Activities
- Sorry, I can't help but think about Britt during this section (and her management of her online world)
- Online management goes beyond housekeeping
- Possibly Selber should give students more credit when he argues that at least some students "assume that the Internet holds everything" (489).
- Interesting discussion about management of information, I have not played with the Windows Vista software, but I think it would be interesting to see the management of info on this system vs. older systems (is it moving more toward a time-oriented architecture?)
- Automated management activities that are already active and helpful: detailed filters, resources for personalized homepages, bookmarking, and shareware programs for maintenance (490)
- An important question: What managements activities can students solely turn over to the machine?
- "Management activities...unite technology and literacy in ways that require social judgements" (492)
- Filter assignment (this seems a bit basic, but might be fun); I understand how it plays a role in management activities
- Technological Impasses
- Lacking computer-based expertise "needed to solve a writing or communication problem" (493)
- Teachers should focus on performance-oriented impasses
- Computer anxiety
- Intervention and processes useful in classroom settings: First, assessment; Second, treatment; Third, adaptive computing; ***Fourth, instituting collaborative support systems; Alternative, micropolitical approaches (495)
- Assessment w/collaboration could be helpful (sounds like a helpline via e-mail)
- List of what teachers should do. Most importantly, don't run away from the issue when your student is asking about a technological impasses that you yourself do not know how to answer. "Take advantage of campus-wide resources!" (495)
- To overcome technological impasses both students and teachers need to make a shift in thinking (less dependence to machine) Semantic knowledge is the key
- Simple heuristic: "part 1-phrase an impasse as a qualitative question"; part 2-"locate the qualitative question in a classification matrix derived from empirical research on user-aided design" (I think this Selber is basically saying, ask the interpretive question); part 3-"appropriate forms of assistance" (497)
- Not only will this help a student get their problem solved or question answered, this way of thinking will allow the student to become more resourceful and "discover effective ways to work through performance-oriented impasses" (497)
- Social Problem
- Selber's basic point: "students must learn to work with computers in productive ways" (498).
-AAK
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