The Ongoing Technological Literacy Learning Process

"He’d never say no. That would be treason. Books are sacred. How could anyone not like to read? No, he’ll just tell us that the descriptions go on a little too long. Reassured, we return to our television set. Though his comment might set off a passionate debate between us and our near and dear. “He thinks the descriptions go on too long. What do you expect, this is the visual age. In the nineteenth century, writers had to describe everything.” “That’s no reason to let him skip half the pages!” There’s no rebuttal. Why bother? Upstairs, the century’s child has already gone back to sleep.” --Daniel Pennac, Better Than Life

My struggle with writing this blog, learning how to link pictures, videos, documents, etc. was very challenging and eye-opening for me. Because I am not completely comfortable in the materiality of this particular environment, it helped me to realize that some of my students, who may thrive creatively in one type of media communication, may be acutely uncomfortable in the materiality of the formal writing process. I hope to be able to overcome my techno-anxiety more and more and to incorporate technology more into my teaching of writing with Visual Argument, Visual Essays, and allowing students to use computers as well as more primitive tools such as crayons and glue and cut out papers to compose documents. I hope to incorporate Audio Composition as well, as a teacher at my school recently had good success with Audio Essays recorded with digital recording devices. I will take heed of the warnings of the Greeks and realize that there will always be a fear of “new media” technology, but as the art of oral storytelling and public speaking rhetoric has not disappeared, as Plato feared it would, so will not the best of what writing and communication has always been will not disappear. New media technology will just add to the effectiveness of the art of composition. And also add to the fun. For I did have fun figuring out how to do all of this. And if learning new things can be fun, then the chance of the Epic Fail becoming the Epic Success will be all the greater. The best is yet to be.