En Los Dos Idiomas: Literacy Practices Among Chicago Mexicanos

"Therefore these men were motivated to to learn to write because of a combination of factors: first, those with whom they wanted to communicate were in another country: second, they felt a personal obligation to maintain these relationships and to maintain them personally: third, a cultural tool, writing, was available for this purpose; and fourth, others were able and willing to share their knowledge of this cultural tool."476,En Los Dos Idiomas: Literacy Practices Among Chicago Mexicanos,Marcia Farr. This essay is about the study of a social network where the
Guanajuato rancho means that those, who are over 35 years old learn to read and write, overcoming many barriers. Their motivation leads the members to use the literacy learned for religious, and personal to communicate with family and friends who still live in Mexico. This desire to learn to read and writing skills leads these older men and other members of the social network to Ifrico -to learn on their own outside of formal schooling or to learn to speak, read and write English on their own from many personal teachers who offer the opportunity to learn. This learning by Mexicanos here in America is wonderful.

How and why is writing a technology?

Ong said , "Although we take writing so much for granted as to forget that it is a technology, writing is in a way the most drastic of the three technologies of the word. It initiated what printing and electronics only continued, the physical reduction of dynamic sound to quiescent space, the separation of the word from the living present, where alone real, spoken words exist(22). This quote explains that writing initiated all of the new technologies. Thewrittenwordbegan the forward movement of technology, the progress the the human race has made in language and communication begin with the writing down of the alphabetic to form words. Using the sound of our voices we created speech, and using these words we now listen to hear what others are trying to communicate. We now have language and begin to tell each others stories which become our history. This new history is memorized and now we start to record history. From the words that we speak we create an alphabetic and now when this spoken word is placed on an object that we can all read, this object being paper, fur, etc. We now have a way to recording our thoughts. We can now communicate with others with this new technology the written word.

From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technologies

"Andrew Sledd (1988) pessimistically views the computer as actually reducing the amount of literacy needed for the low end of the workplace: "As for ordinary kids, they will get jobs at Jewel, dragging computerized Cheerios boxes across computerized checkout counters".83,From Pencils to Pixels: The Stage of Literacy Technologies, Dennis Baron. Here the author quotes Sledd who believes that the average person will only be involved with the computer when he uses the computer at work. Here the person is a checkout cashier at a Jewel's supermarket and the scanning of boxes is the main use the cashier has for a computer is her life. The quote states the belief that ordinary kids don't really have much use for the computer unless it is used at work. Here a computer is part of the job and it's usage is only because it is needed to complete the job. Is this quote true for the youth of today?

I disagree, because today you need to use a computer to find a job, and to apply for the job before, you begin to use it on the job. The computer is sometimes used to communicate with the Human Resource Dept. to schedule an interview for a job. After obtaining the job the computer is used to complete your job duties, this is standard today for most jobs involve using a computer to various degrees when at work. The youth of today begin at an early age using the computer in school, and at home with video games. Using a computer is standard for the children of today who learn to use the computer in the second grade. It is harder for those who are older to relate to the using of computers in their daily activities. For many years I truly avoided a computer but I was exactly forced to learn, understand and use the computer to exist in my daily life. Because finding a job, attending school, communicating with others, are all done by using a computer. I am still learning the who's, what's and where's of computer usage, but I am beginning to enjoy my time using a computer.