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Selfe Summary

This essay is fairly outdated as it was written 21 years ago when technology was just becoming introduced and widespread in society and in the educational field. I feel that today, the technology issue is no longer an issue as everyone is well versed in the use of technology, especially in schools.

Selfe’s audience is other English and Composition teachers. She wants to make sure that students are literate in the use of computers and how important that teachers are in helping them. Her exigence, or problem, is that too many students don’t know how to use technology or that it is taking away human interaction. We learn that we can help our fellow humans out when we understand what is going on around us and if we know how to use technology and pass that information along, the world becomes a better understanding and more critical thinking environment.

The Selfe essay is about the use of technology in the classroom. While it is up to each professor if they use it or not, it should be a skill possessed by all teachers. The aritcle states that teachers should choose to use technology in the class and teach their students how to use it to their advantage and how to use it beneficially for their education. On page 415, the writer says that ignoring, or not paying attention to, technology “ensures social violence and continues illiteracy”. This is an extremely confusing and seemingly outrageous comment which holds no merit. The article continues to say that literacy in the United States is linked to technology. This is in reference to jobs requiring computer skills and college degrees, schools adopting the widespread use of computers in classes, and most homes having computers in them. If further states that teachers are the ones that stand to end illiteracy and that qualifies for technology as well as simply reading and writing. This means that teachers should make sure that their students grasp how to use a computer to help them achieve success in secondary education and with the job aspects and performance. It states that if written language and literacy are a teacher’s professional business, then technology is as well. Along with teaching students how to use computers, teachers also need to show them how to be critical thinkers about technology. Not doing so could lead to a culture in which human interaction is replaced with with technology.