Technology in the Composition Classroom Credo

“Access to technology is not the liberating or empowering thing that we expect it to be. As composition teachers, deciding whether or not to use technology in our classes is simply not the point – we have to pay attention to technology. When we fail to do so, we share in the responsibility for sustaining and reproducing an unfair system that enacts social violence and ensures continuing illiteracy under the aegis of education.” –Cynthia Selfe

I believe:

1: That our notions of digital native and digital immigrant are problematic; as students today, in the various parts of the United States and the world, still lack access to technologies and to teachers who know how to effectively use them. That by assuming all students have access to technologies, we do a disservice to students and further perpetuate the dominant power structures already in play in society.

2: That literacy entails socially constructed practices; that is, what determines a person to be literate is socially constructed. That we have a responsibility, as composition instructors, to ensure that students are literate in writing across various social situations. Those situations may be dependent on the specific context of both the teacher and students in question; some students will engage in different social situations than others. Just as one should not only teach digital literacy, one should not only teach print literacy.

3: That composition teachers have a responsibility to ensure that all students have access to literacy practices; that teachers not let their personal prejudices and biases affect the types of literacy they engage in and teach in the composition classroom.