Qoute #1

The technology expands beyond this "priestly" class when it is adapted to familiar functions often associated with an older accepted form of communication (71).

The target audience for new literary technology is normally a very small and selective audience and starts with a very limited communications base. With the high price of new technology and consumer frugalness, many inventors keep new technology to themselves and their target audience first before mass marketing. When the first VCR was produced, it could be purchased at the cost of a house and car note combined. The first high definition television was astronomical in cost. As competitors copied/invented their own brands of these products that were cheaper/cost effective, the price became affordable to the general public. Though pricing made these items marketable and affordable to the general public, one marketing strategy that no one can predict is attitude/aptitude. People do not like to give up their comfort zones. New technology has stiffened the stand of old stalwarts.

Some people (believe it or not), still have dial phones over touch or push button phones. Some people do not own or even want a cell phone. You would think that the majority of these people are elderly, but many yuoth today resist technology either because of illiteracy or no interest. Many elderly resent cell phones because it seperates them from a by gone era they refuse to relinquish. They are the evil neccesities of invention to them. So technology in its greatest aspirations is geared toward age appropriateness and discourse appropriation. Those who have the means enjoy technology at ease in their private spaces (home, business, etc.), while those who lack the means may have limited access (school, library, etc.).

With the potential fear and harm that may come from computer technology/usage as evidenced in modern day computer piracy, identity theft, people spreading computer viruse to make political statements or whatever, the distrust of modern technology can be understood. Yet progress cannot be afraid of the abusers of technology. A nation that promotes the best in civilized applications must have the best for all of its citizens. I advocate that fear should not be a proponent of viewing the worst of technology, but at it advantages.

The discourse proponent of technology has an obligation to train the best future leaders for the American people. That is the paradox of discourse with the duty to train the best in the proposed dominant discourse, but the best aren't trained in the discourse that is not dominant. New technology does cost, and minority persons who cannot afford such cost will not be included in its initial usage. The computer labs in Glendale, Waukesha, New Berlin, and other well off communities do not resemble the computers they have in the labs at MPS. The technology is quite different in cost and efficiency.

Do writing and computer literacy go hand in hand? As technologies yes, as equals no! You cannot research the internet through your pencil ( at least not as of yet). A computer cannot write in cursive letters (again, at least not as of yet). So the concepts of writing as a technology and computers as a technology works well together. This stands upright until someone invents something else in the future where we will all have to leave our comforts and start learning again!