Selfe : Technology and Literacy: A Story about the Perils of Not Paying Attention

Technology, Class, Race, and Gender

        Cynthia Selfe is one badass lady. In her article, "Technology and Literacy: A Story about the Perils of Not Paying Attention", Selfe outlines some serious issues involving technology and its ideological goals. Selfe points to the political and economic underpinnings of large scale technology imperatives, specifically the Clinton-Gore administrations huge push for technological "literacy". However, Selfe exposes that in order for the large scale program to work the US needed to take advantage of emerging markets overseas in order to fund it and expand it. The economic influenced the technological here and promoted at the same time the administration politically. This type of correlation points out the gaps in technological literacy in terms of social ideals. Specifically, we can see through the lens that Selfe uses that technology isn't bridging any gaps between the rich and the poor in terms of a "universal technical literacy", in fact, it actually serves as another way in which the dominant class, race, and gender maintain stability. 

         If we, as instructors, don't turn a critical eye towards technology and its rapid proliferation in the past decade or so, we lose it completely. Once we lose it, as Selfe points out, it becomes even more dangerous. Losing sight of technology and its social and pedagogical implications puts it in to the oppressive category and will be utilized to keep things like class, race, and gender in its place. Selfe takes a point to examine the idea of access in terms of technological literacy. If we look critically at who has access to certain technology it can be clearly defined that certain poorer classes and minorities have a huge disadvantage when it comes to even coming in contact with technology most of us take for granted. An example of this from my current semester in graduate school seems to be in order here. I have been in classes this semester that the syllabi have been structured around the preconceived notion that I have access to some sort of computer roughly 90% of the time. I don't own a printer, because I cannot afford it, and there are many other options I have access to technology wise to remedy that situation. However, these types of social stratifications within technology actually work to exclude me in the classroom. This doesn't discourage me, but it does cause me to bring up these facts in the classroom and luckily I'm among faculty that are critical and open to different ideas and methods for delivery of information. 

       This leads me finally in to the idea of a situated literacy. We have to take in to account the local as well as the global when developing technological imperatives for a community. The overarching "big brother" approach that the government tries to employ further narrows our lens for critically thinking about and implementing certain technologies. We have to consider the social dynamics of each individual locale in which technology is to be implemented to give the best possible outcome to the students using said technology. If we do not teach students about the social and critical implications about the technology they use we may end up with similar ethical and moral dilemmas outlined by Katz in terms of the Nazi rhetoric. These types of critical dialogue help and further the technological literacy that our students will have when going in to the world. It allows them to question the ideologies and implications of the technology they use, or won't use, in regards to certain situations. Overall, Selfe has it right when she says we cannot just let technology slide under the radar. We have to grasp it and expose it to create a critical narrative of technology and its effects on our culture as a whole.