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Literacy, Technology and Society: Confronting the Issues

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Literacy, Technology, and Society: Ancient Issues
"Technologically" Outdated
Confronting issues
Literacy, Technology and Society: Confronting the Issues
Literacy, Technology, And Society: Confronting The Issues

Literacy, Technology and Society: Confronting the Issues
Gail E. Hawisher , and Cynthia L. Selfe
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0132275880

Book Description

Designed to help readers become critical thinkers about technology not simply consumers of technology. The readings span a broad range of topics and genres (and include alternative readings available on a World Wide Web site connected to the book). An abundance of writing-to-learn and writing-to-communicate assignments provide practice in crafting reflective pieces, thoughtful analyses of issues, argumentative discourse, research proposals, multimedia projects, and other kinds of electronic writing aimed at on-line discussion groups.

Customer Reviews:

Literacy, Technology, and Society: Ancient Issues.......2005-11-18

"Literacy, Technology, and Society, Confronting the Issues", edited by Gail E. Hawisher and Cynthia L. Selfe is a textbook made up of a collection of essays that were published in popular presses from around the world. The essays are all based on technological issues. Specifically, the essays regard issues of social life, education, ethics and law, gender, and government. The text also offers comic relief with cartoons, interesting images, and advertisements. After every essay there is a "Thinking and Re-Reading" and a "Writing and Learning" section to help understand and elaborate on the essay.
The essays in the text are quite interesting and informative and even though they are based on technological issues they can be understood by anyone who does not know much about technology. Although the essays are interesting and informative the text was published in the year 1997. Because technology evolves rapidly some of the issues in the text are distant from the issues we have with technology today.
"Literacy, Technology, and Society, Confronting the Issues", is a very enlightening textbook concerning interesting topics of technological issues. The only problem with the book is that it is timeworn considering how technology has advanced since the year 1997. I believe that the book was much more practical eight years ago than it is today.

"Technologically" Outdated.......2003-10-15

"Literacy, Technology, and Society" by Gail E. Hawisher and Cynthia L. Selfe did not impress me much. The book contains articles about the combination of technology and other aspects of society. I found the articles to be very outdated and not consistent with today's technology. I expected the book to be helpful in introducing the thoughts on today's technological advancements and problems that occur, instead I found myself reading articles that were written in the late 80's to the early 90's. It boggled my mind, I felt as if I was reading a history time-line of the "new and amazing" Internet. The Internet today is definitely not as controversial as it is presented in some of the articles. A perfect example would be "Welcome to Cyberia" written by M. Kadi back in 1994. Kadi seems to think of the Internet as this terrible new thing that is only used by rich white males and costs $120 per month. The author seems so bitter towards the same service that many Americans use on a daily basis today. It is very outdated, quite boring, and somewhat pointless. There are actually a few positives about this book that I will explain, but they do not outweigh the negatives.

I purchased this book for my Intro. English college course, luckily there were many used books available and it was priced at about $38, which is a pretty good deal compared to many other textbooks. But, now that I have actually read some of the content of the book, I realize why there were so many used books. There is no use or value in this book beyond a class required text. I cannot see myself using or referring to this text for any purpose in the future. It cannot even be used as a very credible reference because all of the contents are taken from other sources. Even though there are many faults, there are a few good aspects of the book.

The text is organized in a easy and simple manner. Even though all of the articles deal with technology, they are separated in specific categories. These categories are organized as follows: Social Issues and Technology, Education and Technology, Ethics, Law, and Technology, Gender and Technology, and Government and Technology. The organization allows for teachers to pick a focal point on assignments. We had class discussions on articles in specific sections in this manner. The professor assigned articles (usually with opposing views on a topic) and we discussed them in class. Discussing the articles is a beneficial to students because it is interactive learning. (But I cannot credit the text with that, because it depends on who is teaching the class).

What I found helpful was the questions at the end of each article. Answering the questions makes the reader think and read critically about the style, tone, and different writing mechanisms in the article. They help in deciphering the articles more in depth than just words and ideas.

A very good aspect is the additional appendices at the end of the book. They help aid the reader in a deeper understanding of an issue and clarify unanswered questions the reader may have about a specific article. Appendix D: Bill of Rights, helped me comprehend the way Jesse Lemisch, who wrote "The First Amendment Is Under Attack in Cyberspace," actually interpreted the First Amendment, and which specific part the author feels most strongly about, in this case the freedom of speech. Another good addition are the Extended Writing Activities that are inserted at the end of each section. They're another tool to help the reader go more in depth with the articles and think more critically of what he or she is reading.

As for the overall appeal of this book, it is boring. It is all black and white with some poor attempts at making it entertaining by employing random technological advertisements. They don't quite do the trick. I found myself getting bored and sleepy while reading the articles. This is in part because many of the articles are too wordy and lose their effectiveness.

I would not recommend this book as a good instructional tool, especially in technology. "Technology," the word itself hints towards advancement, new things, and new knowledge. Everything in this book is old, outdated, and passed. It reminds me more of a history book about the Internet, than "...,Technology, and Society."

Confronting issues.......2003-10-15

"Literacy, Technology, and Society" written by Gail Hawisher and Cynthia Selfe, really confronts the issues of technology. This is a book enriched with articles discussing the different matters of technology. The authors' opinions in these articles vary to the opinions of cited work. While readers go through these articles it will be obvious that the book was designed to help students think critically about articles covering various issues on technology. In my opinion, "Literacy, Technology, and Society " can serve as a good and useful introduction to college students during their earlier years while taking English classes. Most High School students do not do enough readings in English classes and college has definitely higher standards and more requirements that have to be satisfied. The articles presented will satisfy the need for understanding and practicing critical thinking, for both beginners and those who are interested in more knowledge of technology.
Regardless of the negativity of some articles due to the complications or understanding such as "Myth information" written by Langdon Winner on page 42. The organization of other articles throw off readers because the paragraphs are not connected. An example is, Common Law for the Electronic Frontier, written by Anne Branscomb on page 315. In some other articles information given by the author was outdated such as in Welcome to Cyberia, written by M. Kadi on page 37. Inaccurate information and lack of citation is another complication such as in Paul Strassmann's article "Information Systems and Literacy" on page 134(show and example here and cite it). Also "Welcome to Cyberia" written by M. Kadi on page 37. Steve Silberman's article "We're Teen, We`re Queer, and We`ve Got E-Mail" on page 58 was not even cited. Finding these negativities about these articles prove that I have been thinking critically while reading them.
Some articles really deserve to be read because the issues they discussed are very informative and interesting and some have not been introduced before. "We're Teen, We're Queer, We've Got E-mail" and "Welcome to Cyberia" are examples of this.
We're Teen, We're Queer, and We've Got E-mail" is an article written by Steve Silberman. This article shows how homosexual teenagers can benefit from the internet, more precisely by E-mail. Gay teenagers have difficulties expressing themselves and revealing their identities to other people because they fear of being not welcomed. However this article unmasks the kind of people who can be participating online. This point came through a gay teenager's writings :"I would like to write to someone that I can talk to about issues I can't talk about with my friends" (Silverman p.59). In the article, "Welcome to Cyberia", the author informs us about technology and at the same time complains about the cost of entering the cyberspace or internet, and the limited numbers of individuals who choose to spend their free time on line. These two factors, cost and time, will definitely affect the diversity of the online Population. This fact is shown when the writer says: "People are drawn to topics and folders that interest them and therefore people will only meet people who are interested in the same topics in the same folders" (Kadi p.40). The article " Information Systems and Literacy ", defines the word literacy and presents communication in different ways and times. Also, the writer presents data and charts that support the given information in the article even though they were not accurate. Barbara Kantrowitz In the article " The information gap " compares the students in poor and rich schools, and the ones who use and do not use computers regularly. She tells the audience to all share the same problems which create the information gap. She uses the word choice to make the article clear and easy to understand to all types of readers. The article has all three different rhetorical appeals. The example of the two students Kantrowitz started the article with falls under the emotion or pathos rhetorical appeal because it gets the reader's attention when he/she feels bad for Michael who had no computer at home. Then, logic comes along because the information provided in the article is true and visible to readers. Authority is also presented in the quotes given in the article which certainly support it. The article in general is well organized and the writer's ideas are connected to each other, they don't get the reader lost or make it unable to see the connection of sentences. However, the article's length didn't affect the issue the author was trying to present. The article " The First Amendment Is Under Attack in Cyberspace by Jesse Lemiseh, tries to persuade the readers that the first amendment is being attacked. The author stated that to accomplish the purpose of persuading the readers that the first amendment is under attack in cyberspace, he has to describe the many obstacles to free speech that are later encountered in the article: " censorship, capricious rejection of messages, and a sacrifice of freedom to personal messages" (Lemiseh, p 277) . I found the articles above greatly interesting and made the whole book get my admiration. I am sure there is more similar articles listed in the book which I have not read yet.
One other negativity about the book is the price of it. I think it is a little too much for it. $51.00 can buy a lot more than one book. There should be a more encouraging price for the people to purchase it even it is not required.
Despite the negativities, I believe the book is still good and can be very useful to all types of readers. This information given in it is very valuable.

Literacy, Technology and Society: Confronting the Issues.......2003-10-15

I have read many reviews for books and textbooks, but none are going to be as useful for both students and teachers alike as this one. Literacy, Technology, and Society: Confronting the Issues is a compilation of essays and articles most of which have appeared in periodicals. Even though the book does a decent job in trying to get the reader to be critical of various aspects of writing such as style and context, and does try to familiarize the reader with a more technological aspect of writing composition, for many reasons which I will discuss in this review, I cannot recommend the use of this book.

A great majority of the essays which the book presents to the reader are biased, presumptive, un-factual, and most importantly severely antiquated. The latter of the flaws completely negates the purpose of the book; technology in today's society. In reading the books preface, the reader is informed of the authors' intent, of which can best be summed up when the authors write, "the essays and accompanying apparatus are intended to immerse students in the kinds of reading, writing, thinking, and activities that foster critical inquiry and response." The authors also states that they believe another audience, one in which is involved with working in computers and composition studies, would be able to use this text as a resource for their on teaching. I might be wrong in thinking this, and I mean that sarcastically, but I do not believe that college students who are involved with working in computers would be able to benefit from articles so absurdly outdated.

"Welcome to Cyberia" written by M. Kadi, is prime example of how old and antiquated some of these articles are. Kadi's entire article is based upon a now false premise that internet costs, on average, approximately $120 a month for limited internet access. She states that because of the approximate $120 a month internet fee, that the internet itself is severely limited in its diversity. To come to this amount, she describes internet connection rates ranging from $3 to $10 an hour! But that's not where it ends. My favorite example of how grossly outdated this article is can be found in this excerpt: "for purposes of this essay, we will examine the smallest of the major user-friendly commercial services-America Online (AOL)." No one in America could argue that this could be any more false. American Online is now, by far, the LARGEST online community. Literacy, Technology and Society: Confronting the Issues... yeah right. How can you confront the issues if, because their so outdated, the quote on quote "issues" don't even exist any more.

The organization in this book is also very poor. It is divided into 5 sections; Social Issues and Technology, Education and Technology, Ethics, Law, and Technology, Gender and Technology, and finally Government and Technology. One great example of the book being organized inadequately can be seen in the Information and Technology section. The authors choose to put the article, The Information Gap, by Barbary Kantrowitz, into this category. The entire premise of Barbara Kantrowitz's article is the gender gap in the use of computers and technology. This article is misplaced, and should be located in the Gender and Technology section, not the Information and Technology section. Disorganization greatly destroys the credibility of any book especially, and I don't know how to stress the word especially enough, in a textbook.

I would also like to use this article to point out a great example of how biased and generalized some of the articles in the book can be. Kantrowitz writes her thesis and her entire article, describing how much of a gender gap there is in technology and computers, completely based on one example. How can you make any assumptions on as grand of a scale as she does, based on one article? It blows my mind.

I could not get past the fact that so many of the essays in the book were are biased, presumptive, un-factual, and for the most part outdated. My recommendation is not to buy this edition of this text, and for teachers not to use this in their curriculum. I would hope that the authors come out with a completely updated and revised edition, one in which they paid more attention to the articles found in it.

Literacy, Technology, And Society: Confronting The Issues.......2003-10-15

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