Baron IWA

Baron starts off with his argument: writing technology will or can change literacy practices.	“The computer, the latest development in writing technology, promises, or threatens, to change literacy practices for better or worse, depending on your point of view” (423).
Baron also claims that not only will writing technology change literacy, but people need to remember that writing is a technology.	“…it is easy to forget that whether it consists of energized particles on a screen or ink embedded in paper or lines gouged into clay tablets, writing itself is always first and foremost a technology, a way of engineering materials in order to accomplish an end” (424).
This is the first stage of literacy technology: available to an elite few.	“The technology expands beyond this ‘priestly’ class when it is adapted to familiar functions often associated with an older, accepted form of communication” (424).
This made me think of Bryson criticizing those people who resist and are terrified of change. It also refers to the common line of thinking that “older is better” and a proclivity for nostalgia.	“And as the technology spreads, so do reactions against it from supporters of what are purported to be older, simpler, better, or more honesty ways of writing” (425).
Mixed reaction to brand new technology: trepidation as well as curiosity; makes me think of the reactions to Kindles, Twitter, etc.	“Although I’m not aware that anyone actually opposed the use of pencils when they began to be used for writing, other literacy technologies, including writing itself, were initially met with suspicion as well as enthusiasm” (425).
Reminds me of the printing press stuff in Brandt.	“The pencil may be old, but like the computer today and the telegraph in 1849, it is an indisputable example of a communication technology” (426).
Baron’s main point: writing is a technology and it was the first “writing technology.”	“Of course the first writing technology was writing itself” (426).
Again, recalls Bryson.	“Both the supporters and the critics of new communication technologies like to compare them to the good, or bad, old days” (427).
Brandt! Increasing literacy standards and people w/o money or of lower SES could not compete/keep up. Only accessible to wealthy.	“…writing technology remained both cumbersome and expensive: writing instruments, paints, and inks had to be hand made, and writing surfaces like clay tablets, wax tablets, and papyrus had to be laboriously prepared” (428).
I just liked this section. Highlights the importance of writing technology.	“ Writing…also permits new ways of bridging time and space. Conversations become letters. Sagas become novels. Customs become legal codes. The written language takes on a life of its own, and it even begins to influence how the spoken language is used” 428-429).
Another stage Baron mentions. To give documents credibility, seals, signatures, etc. added.	“In order to gain acceptance, a new literacy technology must also develop a means of authenticating itself…. Written documents did not respond to questions—they were not interactive. So the writers and users of documents had to develop their own means of authentication” (429).
I love this term. How can I become a futurologist? I just picture bong hits and wild speculation.	“Futurologists” (433).
Baron briefly mentioned at the beginning that some people think computers threaten literacy technology; this is one way technology can be threatening or dangerous.	“Of course the telephone was not only a source of information. It also threatened our privacy” (433).
Mis/Reappropriation kind of similar to what Brandt talks about, but this time w/ new technologies and their intended purposes. Manifest/latent functions.	“Similarly, the mainframe computer when it was introduced was intended to perform numerical calculations too tedious or complex to do by hand…Computer operators actually scorned the thought of using their powerful number-crunchers to process mere words” (434).
Again, only available to the wealthy elite few who could afford it.	“…they still had to come up with the requisite $5,000 or more in start-up funds for an entry-level personal computer” (435).
Another stage: new technologies imitate or incorporate the old technology to become accepted. It also became more affordable.	“Only when Macintosh and Windows operating systems allowed users to create on screen documents that looked and felt like the old familiar documents they were used to creating on electric typewriters did word processing really become popular. At the same time, start up costs decreased significantly and, with new, affordable hardware, computer writing technology quickly moved from the imitation of typing to the inclusion of graphics” (436).
ID theft. I also think about the unreliability of Wikipedia entries as well as photoshop.	“The security of transactions, of passwords, credit card numbers, and bank accounts becomes vital. But the security and authenticity of ‘ordinary’ texts is a major concern as well” (436).
Illustrative of adaptation and how attitudes change about technology overtime. Does everyone come around to acceptance?	“When we began to use computers in university writing classes, instructors didn’t tell students about spell-check programs on their word processors, fearing the students would forget how to spell. The hackers found the spelling checkers anyway, and now teachers complain if their students don’t run the spell check before they turn their papers in” (438).
I think this quotes speaks to how some older technologies are retained over newer technologies depending on the discourse community/subject. For instance, some people might like Kindles but maybe for lit. study, the actual text is better because of page number, highlighting/commenting, etc.	“Eraserless pencils are now extremely rare. Artists use them, because artists need special erasers in their work; golfers too use pencils without ersaser, perhaps to keep themselves honest” (438-39).