Technology Philosophy

The computer as a technology for communication is difficult to classify. My philosophy of technology revolves around what the computer means to a new and developing literacy. For texts in our changing age, the computer is the means to compose, the medium through which communication is delivered, and in itself a maker of meaning. In the computer, then, we find the pencil, the paper, and a piece of the message. As this new technology evolves, so too will the meaning of texts, the way texts become read, and the way texts are created. Careful consideration by an instructor must be given to these new facets of literacy when teaching with technology. And parallel consideration must be given by students when composing or reading texts with the use of computers.

As an instructor, it is important for me to think of the reasons for composing with technology and what the technology may imply. By asking students to utilize Microsoft Word, for example, I may be reinforcing a technology that has a pronounced presence in the workforce, but that may not be the best tool for the student’s particular classroom task. By teaching them to use another publishing tool, such as Adobe PageMaker, I may be neglecting other, more common tools.

With these issues in mind, however, I realize that I must balance these with the fact that students must learn how to use something. They must end up writing with something. Approaching these software instruments as tools, then, requires that I emphasize them as just that: tools. Just like any other tool of a matching variety there are numerous brands and types with various different functions. Pointing out the commonalities between tools, then, teaches students that composing with technology may differ as much as the different tools available, but that they still have common aspects among them. Students may then find for themselves the best tools to use.

The utilization of reading with technology has similar considerations. Students should be made aware that there are different concerns for reading with and through technology. The way one reads with technology differs with the different forms that technology takes. As an instructor I attempt to demonstrate with students that various forms of electronic composition are read in these different ways. The way they approach reading an e-mail message, for example, is not the same way that they approach reading a PDF document. By pointing out these differences, students build connections between technology, audience, purpose, and finally meaning.

Meaning, the last issue, is also shaped by technology. I try to show my students that the decisions they make about composing with/by/through technology affects how their document is read or approached by their audience. Through demonstrations using technology, students see (for example) that the same text on an instant messenger means something different when found on a web page or in a Word document.

In essence, then, my philosophy of technology is approached rhetorically. Connections and articulations between composing, reading and meaning are combined with the network that forms the texts: why was the text made, for whom was it composed, what is its final purpose, etc. (and what does any of this mean)? Technology is not transparent, nor is it neutral or democratic. As an instructor, I try to make my students aware of this.