Technology and Literacy: A Story About the Perils of Not paying Attention

11/2/09

This article by Cynthia Selfe is an eye opening essay on Technology and Literacy. The Author argues that teaching the use of computer and technological literacy is just as important as teaching reading and writing to today's youth. Selfe later discusses the race and/or socio-economic divide of technology. She talks about how it is more likely that white children have access to computers and the internet at home or school than a child of afircan american or hispanic heritage. She gives us some shocking statistics on the matter: 73% of white kids owned a home computer compared to 32% of African Americans. Obviously technology is a growing field and will help provide the next generation numerous opportunities to succeed but if we do not teach children, espically the children who may not have access to technology, we are setting them up for failure. Also if we do not teach technology in schools to the 68% of african american's who do not own a home computer we are further the socio-economic trends that have plagued this country's history and are furthering the trend of a poor minorty class. It really comes through in this paper that teaching technology to America's youth is very important for cureent anf future teachers. Not only to provide an opportunity to those kids to succeed in life, but also to try and break free from the socio-economic line that is so prevalant in American culture. Technology is the key to doing just that if only it was stressed more in a child's early education.