Ch. 6 Selfe: Technology and Literacy

Selfe, Cynthia L. "Technology and Literacy: A Story about the Perils of Not Paying Attention." Computers in the Composition Classroom. Eds. Michelle Sidler, Richard Morris, and Elixabeth Overman Smith. Boston: Bedford / St. Martin’s, 2008. 93-115. Print.

A link to the article.

Cynthia Selfe argues that by not paying attention to the ways technology is being used and taught, we are perpetuating the ideological framework that has defined literacy and illiteracy in the wider sense and in regard to technology itself. She argues that the concept of technological literacy was fueled by an economic move in the early to mid nighties to both create international dependency on the US for technology and create a self-perpetuating cycle of consumers (those who have learned the technology). She says that this binary (literate/illiterate) has been used to both supply workers for manual labors jobs in society, secure cash flow to those that are creating new technologies, and perpetuate the existing class system. Ultimately, the movement of "technological literacy" has only changed the tool or criteria used to determine literacy vs. illiteracy. She argues that we need to pay attention to what technology and our teaching of (and with) it are doing. We should be teaching students to critically analyze the technology and the related social issues. We need a broad definition of literacy skills, and work toward getting access to poor and minority students and citizens.

I thought that the article brought together a lot of what we've been reading, and the concerns were real ones not just in 1999, but today as well. When she mentioned the cycle of technology learner and consumer, I wondered if that was the case with the pencil as well. If someone was taught how to write, they would then need the tools to continue to do so. Literacy is certainly socially constructed; even as far back as classical rhetoricians. Many argued that in order to speak well, you needed to learn how to be orator. Simply being born, learning to speak, and using that language did not make you a rhetorician. It was used then to separate haves from have nots. It also made me wonder if it's gotten any better. Have we taken Selfe's advise and started paying attention?

I thought that the Journal of Literacy and Technology was pretty relevant to this article. And the Intel Education Site brought up some interesting questions (and fit was what Selfe was trying to argue?)