Thinking on Selfe

Proponents of a nation-wide increase in technological literacy such as Cynthia Selfe delve into the educational, social, political, economical, and moral tangents associated with the inundation of technology.  Her general thesis states that technology bolsters the historic idea of furthering "progress, economic prosperity, capitalism, education, and democracy" (26) that can be broken down into one simple formula:  

America + Technology = Happy.  

In my life, I was on the precipice between a minimal and an all-encompassing inclusion of technology.  Throughout my education, work, and social life, I started to observe how technology not only advanced at an alarmingly rapid pace but also become superfluous in all that I did.  

But, for the sake of maintaining a succinct blog with as few irrelevant digressions as possible, I will discuss the effects of technology on the educational part of my life.

Class structure went from only using a textbook, then to a projector, then to a SmartBoard, and finally to including laptops.  For starters, this had a direct effect on student involvement; more students were able to relate to the technology being used, and their enthusiasm doubled their academic efforts (70).  The energy and initiative behind the actions of the Clinton administration bled into the education system.  Despite any one teacher's lack of proficiency in the ways of technology, the class had a communal knowledge from which to work, and through a communal dialogue, progress was made (70).

Of course, the flip side to the inclusion of technology within the realm of education lies in the separation of fundamental techniques and skills that can be pushed to the wayside when one is distracted by the allure of shiny things at the front of the classroom.  In Sven Birkerts's Gutenberg Elegies, he states that students who are "barred from reading and writing by becoming prisoners of electronic media" suffer heavy losses in the areas of literary and rhetorical competency (33).  Therefore, to include electronic media as the epicenter of an educational environment undermines a student's ability to retain and improve fundamental skills.  In other words:

America + Technology= Destruction.

As I said before, I was a "hybrid" in terms of experiencing life with and without a proliferation of technology and digital media.  Seeing as I am now a college student and a contributing member of society, I would assume that the inclusion of technology in my education was, for the most part, beneficial.  I can use technology to my advantage in my academic and professional career.