"Pencils to Pixels"

"Pencils to Pixels"

1. The author says that the computer is a gateway to literacy. Although, I don't truly believe that people necessarily have to use their computers for literacy.
2. Writing is an engineering of materials to accomplish an end.
3. Pencil is a technology because it is made through an engineering process to put our thoughts onto paper.
4. Plato believed that it would weaken the memories stored in our mind.
5. Written word can be more accurate because people tend to think before they write. But, they are not very interactive. On contrast, word that is spoken is active but not very deliberate.
6. Thoreau thought pencils are better than other technologies such as telegraph, because he thought those technologies are just illusions.So he devoted 10 years to improve pencil technologies.
7. Telephone combined the aspects of speaking and writing situations in new way. The introduction of the telephone for social communication required considerable adaptation of the way we talk. Just like the writing, communication using telephones emulated the facial expressions and gestures so it changed the way we communicate.
8.Although it was considered to be too difficult at first, people adapted to the technology and use it for their writing regularly.
9. The computer has changed the way we write, and therefore has changed the meaning of literacy. Also, the technology is still developing rapidly so it will change the literacy even more.
10. The author defines literacy as an ability to adjust to new technologies for writing in such a developing world.

"Writing in the 21st Century"

“Writing in the 21^st Century”

1. developing new models of writing, designing a new curriculum supporting those models and creating models for teaching that curriculum

2. in spite of cultures that devalued writing, prohibitions against females and against blacks, and in spite of being too young.

3. We the people need to write more and we need to urge others to write more.

4. Reading can have a control on society, while writing is almost allowing a break of control.. People tend to involve reading with sensual and emotional pleasure and tend to involve writing with pain or isolation. I can relate to the reading, I love to read a good book in my bed or somewhere outside when the weather is nice.

5. People relate writing to hard work. It is not seen as good fun or an enjoyable break it makes you think really hard. It feels like your brain is being fried on a pan.

6. Process writing is a series of overlapping steps that most writers and authors use when creating some form of writing.

7. Self-sponsored writing is a writing that belongs to the writer, not to an institution, with the result those people- students, senior citizens, employees, volunteers, family members, sensible and non-sensible people alike-will want to compose and do- on the same page and on the screen and on the network- to each other. It is basically free writing and composed for absolutely anyone. I tend to follow this style of writing on the social media sites, such as Facebook or Twitter. That is all.

8. The 21^st century is the Age of Composition because people are starting to involve themselves more heavily and sometimes just for the fun of it. People, basically, are just contributing to the world of writing, even the lost ones. Apparently, this is the time for the Age of Literacy because we are all connected to it via Internet and such.

9. I think the “so what” to this entire article is that literacy is constantly being defined as something new, and it will always change. Now, we are a world that is defined through the Internet and social media. I think it is saying that literacy is everywhere and involves everything.

10. Literacy has a big relation to physically reading and writing text and how we should be able to do both just as the average person can.

Be Aware: Ambient Awareness

The main argument in “A Brave New World of Digital Intimacy” is about how Facebook and other social media websites can create a multitude of relationships among users. Mark Zuckerberg created the news feed to keep users updated with their friends and family members over Facebook. The news feed provides the most recent information that involves you, your friends or acquaintances. I believe that this definitely shortens our attention span, because right when we log on to the computer or click the app on our phone we are immediately exposed to social media. It is instant access, therefore we look and read data for a quick five minutes and then we lock our phones, or turn off our computers. I always enjoy the scrolling and the “quick data” kind of deal, but I do understand that it is probably not the best thing for literacy. We don’t read or analyze or dig deeper into anything, it is a quick scan and then we are finished.. until the next hour. The article refers to “ambient awareness” as being able to notice someone’s mood through his or her body language. I definitely do some cyber stalking myself sometimes, and if I see someone that I have never spoken to or met sometimes I will feel like I know them through looking through pictures or reading something they’ve posted. I feel as if I’ve got a good grip on who he or she is in reality, but truly I don’t. I do think there is a downfall to ambient awareness; you do not take the time to actually get to know someone, or ask someone about his or her day or their life for that matter because you feel like you already have a good idea of what is going on. Ambient awareness is slowly shutting out personal relationships with actual physical contact. An ambient update is an immediate update taken from social media. An example would be if you were sitting on your computer and your friend immediately posted something about her new baby brother or the amount of money he or she raised in a charity event. It keeps us closer to social media. The class discussions we have had on literacy often involve the connection to no analyzing and no deep structure digging, but only surface work. We are a people who are slowly being conformed into a life of slightly reading things… we skim; we read through it all so quickly, and forget that a deeper meaning exists. People in their 20’s feel pressured to stay connected to Facebook and other social media websites because they have to be on their A game for something that could be posted about them, or involve them in anyway. Things are posted constantly all throughout the hours.. constantly. I feel like this article follows very close behind the Gin article. I think it is an alert, notifying us to just be careful not to get sucked into a life of skimming and flipping without much involvement in digging deeper. We are being warned not to follow too closely behind cyber relationships and instant access.