Wysocki and Selfe

I liked Wysocki's essay and the way she described New Media. What she says seems to go with the idea that knowlege is socially constructed. She says that "writing, like all literate practices, only exists because it functions, circulates, shifts, and has varying value and weight within complexly articulated social, cultural, ...religious, ...ecological, political, artistic, ...and technological webs." (In the actual text she repeats "political" which i think is interesting, but beside the point.) This is something to think about when we see how the curriculum changes to integrate technology.

What really interested me, though, was Selfe's case study about David. His story is a really good illustration of the diversity of literacies, and how literacy is equated with intelligence. In our Education classes we have learned a bunch of stuff about the different kind of intelligences: mathematical, musical, linguistic, etc. But we haven't really discussed literacies as something that vary from person to person or even that there might be more than one kind to begin with. When instructing students who will all have different backgrounds and histories with writing, these multiple definitions of literacy are importnat to keep in mind. It can be easy to discourage someone who doesn't have a firm grasp on Standard English from pursuing writing. But, when we look at David's story, we can see that this could be a huge mistake.

I recently read an essay by Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club, in which she talks about how Asian-Americans are often encouraged to study mathematics and engineering, because they just don't seem to have as much of a grasp on the subtleties of the English langauge. Amy Tan herself was almost put into this category, stereotyped as good at math and bad at English. Fortunatley, she recognized her gift and kept on writing. Her writing style is simple, but there is depth in its simplicity. If she had listened to her professors and stopped writing, we would have missed out on the beautiful stories she tells.

Amy Tan's story doesn't quite have to do with technology, but it does show that literacy is something that changes from person to person. It seems that almost anyone can find their own way to play with language, if they are properly encouraged.