Baron

Before You Read:
The technologies I use for writing are computers, phones, I pads, and Pencils.

Summary:
In his article, "From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technologies", Baron attempts to show how technology has changed through out the years. He argues that people have failed to see writing as a technology and can't comprehend what is going on when we write.

Synthesis:
Baron's article can relate to McCloud's in some different ways. Baron's article talks about digital fraud and what we look at can not be what we actually think it is, which is what McCloud was talking about with masks. Baron's article also relates to Brandt's because they both talk about sponsorship.

Question for Discussion:
The Unabomber targeted computer scientists for elimination because society was starting to become too dependent on communication technologies. He used typing to write and wrote to express his ideas on this topic.

Thoughts:
I liked this article. I found it to be interesting and very informative. I learned about things that I didn't know before about writing and technology of writing.


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Response	Quote
I like this quote because I think that we often forget writing is a very important technology. We are constantly using it and it has been around for a long time.	“When we write with cutting-edge tools, 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.”
Having new technology makes it easier for fraud. We have to be careful when we are using new technology and to use it for good, and not for manipulating texts.	“While brave new literacy technologies offer new opportunities for producing and manipulating text, they also present new opportunities for fraud.”
Language is very interesting. The pronunciation of letters can have different sounds to them.	“The written language takes on a life of its own, and it even begins to influence how the spoken language is used.”
Some people are scared of change and like the way things are now, so they don’t want to embrace what’s new.	“As the old technologies become automatic and invisible, we find ourselves more concerned with fighting or embracing what’s new.”
We think that pencils are old because of all the new technology, but it still is a communication technology that we use a lot.	“We assume that pencils are a natural way to write because they are old—or at least because we have come to think of them as being old.”