Post 9

In “From Pencils to Pixels” Dennis Baron Argues that although technology has advanced dramatically in recent decades, this increase in innovation does not necessarily indicate that there will be an equally dramatic change in literacy.  In the previous articles that we have read regarding literacy, authors suggest that advances in technology have made an equally big impression on (especially children’s) ability to learn various types of literacy.  I agree that Baron shrugs a bit at technology in this article.  One way that he does this is by looking at past examples of revolutionary steps in literacy.  For example, Baron discusses the church and its role in allowing or prohibiting the ability of the people to read and write.  However, I think that he reaffirms his point in another way.  Baron discusses the pencil as a technology in one section of his article.  He explains here that when people began to write things with the pencil, the gap between spoken language and written language widened.  Even in classes today, the notes or essays we write contain completely different language and structure than our spoken words.  He writes that “human witnesses are interactive” in contrast to written language, which is not.  By pointing out these basic facts about written language, Baron establishes that even if technology provides a new way to record literacy, it will have the same pitfalls as previous methods of writing.