Selfe Technology & Literacy in the Twenty-First Century

 

 

        Literacy and Technology Linked: The National Project to Expand Technological Literacy

 

 

 

             The ability to read and write is a must, in order to survive in the world we live in. Therefore, illiterate people are considered barbarian, uneducated, and an outsider of social norms. Literacy education has been one of America's top priorities in institutions\schools. Selfe explains that "literacy has historically been considered "the most significant distinguishing feature of a civilized man and a civilized society" and illiteracy has been understood as a condition that carries with it the most "dreadful social and personal consequences" (pg.17). Literacy not only gives us access to read and write, but is also able to mark other societies as inferior. This ties literacy to the ideas of race, class, and economics because of who you might picture when you think of an illiterate person. When I close my eyes for a second, and think of who I picture as an illiterate person, the person whom I picture is an African American slave. I picture a slave because they were denied an education and forced to be illiterate.  

 

            Literacy isn't just a neutral term, but a word that exists. Selfe calls for us to pay attention to terms we think are neutral but are in fact not neutral at all. She gives an example of this throughout her case study of underdeveloped, poor schools not having access to computers unlike privileged, rich schools do. The  "purpose is to convince teachers of English studies, composition, and language arts that we must turn our attention to technology and its general relationship to literacy education. On the specific project to expand technological literacy, we must bring to bear the collective strength of our profession and the broad range of intellectual skills we can muster as a diverse set of individuals. The price we pay for ignoring this situation is clear and shameful recognition that we have failed students, failed as humanists, and failed to establish an ethical foundation for future educational efforts in this country" (pg.5).  As technology advances and it is being pushed on to teachers, her concerns get tied into literacy that has become more entrenched and invisible. 

 

          Selfe gives us two definitions of technological literacy. First, she defines technological literacy as "computer skills and the ability to use computers and other technology to improve learning, productivity, and performance" (pg.10). Then she defines it as "a complex set of socially and culturally situated values, practices, and skills involved in operating linguistically within the context of electronic environments, including reading, writing, and communicating" (pg.11). Expressing the importance of computers, Selfe points out that computers in classrooms are often out of the hands of educators. It has now become an educational social norm to use computers. We use them on a daily basis even if we are away of using them or not. Selfe states that "computers are rapidly becoming invisible" (pg.22). Everywhere we go we are exposed to a computer. For example, we pay for our food on campus through computers, our smartphone cellphones are computers designed as a phone, gaming systems are now high tech computers, and cars have computer systems in them. We tend to not think about technological literacy simply because we know how to use it; it is the norm.