After reading “Becoming Literate in the Information age: Cultural ecologies and the literacies of technology by Hawisher & Selfe’s I found the article to be interesting. I enjoyed learning about the evolution of computers and like how the authors compared two very different people as far as culture, age, and background and their need to learn technological literacy. I learned that technological literacy is always evolving. I think I can relate to Melissa when she says the statement “a computer is be used by skilled people. And it was so far out of my grasp.” I can relate to that feeling. I personally am not a tech savvy person, and I feel like I grew up in an era where computers were around and used my make like “easier”. However, with the advancement of the new technology, I find myself struggling to keep up although I grew up in an era where computers we very present. I also enjoyed this reading because it speaks about major historical events that happened and how the technology was able to help people become aware of these events through broadcasting, and email which was relatively new. James Paul Gee’s Literacy, discourse and linguistics: introduction was very difficult for me to read, I found myself getting lost in the text and having to re-read many paragraphs to get a grasp of what the author was saying. From my understanding, the author talks about saying things in the right way and having the appropriate body language, values, and beliefs to align with what you are saying or writing. The author talks about discourses, primary and secondary. Primary discourse is our first discourse, and we learn this from our families, and peer groups, primary discourse shapes how we view the world. The author also describes discourse as rules that people follow when writing. Discourse is important in writing because you need to know yourself when writing. You must know what you believe in, what you value, and an overall understanding of yourself to write to the appropriate audience. Discourse is not something you can pick up a book, study, take a test and become an expert. You learn discourse by being a participant of that group. The difference between literacy and discourse is that literacy is something that can be taught, but discourse is only learned through experience over time.
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