Reflection

Midterm Reflection Comp Theory

750 Words

Cynthia L. Selfe's article "Technology and Literacy: A Story About the Perils of Not Paying Attention" was the reading that hit me the hardest. The piece was about the importance of technology in this day and age and why it is a grave mistake for composition teachers to disregard technology or treat it as an optional tool. Computer literacy is essential in this day and age but writers tend to be humanists and we have the tendency to look down on things not having to do with the human condition. We tend to also believe our paper and pen is the only technology that we need. "Allowing ourselves the luxury of ignoring technology, however, is not only misguided at the end of the 20th century, it is dangerously shortsighted." Selfe seemed very passionate about composition teachers making technology apart of the curriculum. "We need to recognize that if written language and literacy practices are our professional business, so is technology." She also stresses being alert and paying attention to the system they are apart of. Selfe addresses the concept of literacy as a political act, which reminds me of the Brandt article sponsors of literacy. She uses the Clinton-Gore Getting America's Students Ready for the 21st century initiative as an example. Selfe explains why the initiative was thought of in the first place. It all has to do with the political context of the time. Clinton-Gore was preparing to enter the white house and the economy of the U.S. was stagnant. There was a widening in the gap between the rich and the poor, and the United States was threatened by the growing economies in the east. The plan was to make the United States a technological nation. To make that vision possible, children needed to be familiar with computers so when they grew up they could enter jobs that required computer literacy. Yet the computer distribution sadly echoed the systematic oppression of minorities. Students from lower income families barely received the same level of equipment as students from higher income families. When they did receive computers there were no adequate programs in place to teach them how to use the new technology. Selfe ends the article urging teachers to "resist the tendential forces that continue to link technological literacy with patterns of racism and poverty. I really liked how Selfe connected computer literacy to real world problems. This article made me realize how everything connects. What we're learning in class really came to life for me with this reading.
From Pencils to Pixels by Dennis Baron was the text that helped me realize that writing is a technology. That statement kept getting repeated in class but I could never fully understand how writing could be compared to a computer. Baron compared people from this time who are wary of computers to famous people from the past such as Plato who was wary of writing when it was "new". That comparison really did it for me. Seeing Pencils and Paper as technology was very eye opening. One concept I found really interesting was our suspicion of new technology. First it was writing, phones, then calculators now computers. Once the technology becomes normalized it becomes invisible. By invisible I mean it no longer is thought of as life changing. Before this class I thought it was natural to write down what you thought but this class has made me realize writing is relatively new in human history and there are oral communities who think absolutely differently from people who write. Writing has an affect on the brain, which is amazing to me.
When I was first introduced to the terms cognitive rhetoric, social epistemic rhetoric, discursive practices, pedagogy and the concept of writing as a technology I was a bit lost. During our talks as a class and further analyzing the texts we were given to read I realized it was just the wording of the articles that confused me. I now know that cognitive rhetoric is the idea of following a process, a structure. Social epistemic rhetoric is the idea that knowledge is collective and has to do with society. Discursive practices is the analysis of institutions that have established what is the truth in a society. Pedagogy is the method of teaching a theoretical concept. And like I said above, seeing writing as technology just took time.

By the end of this semester I hope the question of why in this day and age literacy isn't more rampant/ accessible is answered. I also want to know why certain forces seem to want to keep it that way. I would also like to know the larger meaning of writing theory, what am I supposed to do with what I learn in this class and how can it help my writing? Lastly I want to know if having a whole field based on writing has changed anything major in our world.