Literate Lives in the Information Age : Narratives of Literacy From the United States

This book chronicles the development of electronic literacies through the stories of individuals with varying backgrounds and skills. Authors Cynthia L. Selfe and Gail E. Hawisher employ these stories to begin tracing technological literacy as it has emerged over the last few decades within the United States. They selected 20 case studies from the corpus of more than 350 people who participated in interviews or completed a technological literacy questionnaire during six years of their study. The book is organized into seven chapters that follow the 20 participants in their efforts to acquire varying degrees of technological literacy. Each chapter situates the participants' life-history accounts in the cultural ecology of the time, tracing major political, economic, social, and educational events, factors, and trends that may have influenced--and been influenced by--literacy practices and values. These literacy histories are richly sown with information that can help those in composition and writing studies situate the processes of acquiring the literacies of technology in specific cultural, material, educational, and familial contexts. These case studies provide initial clues about combinations of factors that affect--and are affected by--technological literacy acquisition and development. The first-hand accounts presented here offer, in abundant detail, everyday literacy experiences that can help educators, parents, policymakers, and writing teachers respond to today's students in more informed ways.

This book chronicles the development of electronic literacies through the stories of individuals with varying backgrounds and skills. Authors Cynthia L. Selfe and Gail E. Hawisher employ these stories to begin tracing technological literacy as it has emerged over the last few decades within the United States. They selected 20 case studies from the corpus of more than 350 people who participated in interviews or completed a technological literacy questionnaire during six years of their study. The book is organized into seven chapters that follow the 20 participants in their efforts to acquire varying degrees of technological literacy. Each chapter situates the participants' life-history accounts in the cultural ecology of the time, tracing major political, economic, social, and educational events, factors, and trends that may have influenced—and been influenced by—literacy practices and values. These literacy histories are richly sown with information that can help those in composition and writing studies situate the processes of acquiring the literacies of technology in specific cultural, material, educational, and familial contexts.

These case studies provide initial clues about combinations of factors that affect—and are affected by—technological literacy acquisition and development. The first-hand accounts presented here offer, in abundant detail, everyday literacy experiences that can help educators, parents, policymakers, and writing teachers respond to today's students in more informed ways.

"This volume traces digital literacy as it has emerged over the last few decades within the United States. Through their research, [the] authors ... chronicle the development of electronic literacies in the stories of 20 individuals with varying backgrounds and abilities. The authors selected the case studies from a corpus of more than 350 people who participated in interviews or completed a technological literacy questionnaire during a 6-year period. Each chapter in the volume situates the participants' life-history accounts in the cultural ecology of the time, tracing major political, economic, social, and educational events, factors, and trends that may have influenced, and been influenced by, digital literacy acquisition and development. These literacy histories are richly sown with information that can help the reader situate the processes of acquiring digital literacies in specific cultural, material, educational, and familial contexts. The first-hand accounts presented here offer, in abundant detail, everyday literacy experiences that can help educators, parents, policymakers, and writing teachers respond to today's students in more informed ways"--Back cover Contents......Page 6 Acknowledgments......Page 8 Introduction: Literate Lives in the Information Age......Page 10 1 Cultural Ecologies and the Literacies of Technology......Page 40 2 Privileging—or Not—the Literacies of Technology......Page 70 3 Complicating Access: Gateways to the Literacies of Technology......Page 92 4 Shaping Cultures: Prizing the Literacies of Technology......Page 118 5 Those Who Share: Three Generations of Black Women......Page 142 6 Inspiring Women: Social Movements and the Literacies of Technology......Page 170 7 The Future of Literacy......Page 192 Conclusion: Stories From the United States in the Information Age......Page 220 Appendix......Page 244 References......Page 250 F......Page 260 P......Page 261 Z......Page 262 C......Page 264 G......Page 265 P......Page 266 U......Page 267 W......Page 268 Cultural ecologies and the literacies of technology Privileging, or not, the literacies of technology Complicating access : gateways to the literacies of technology Shaping cultures : prizing the literacies of technology Those who share : three generations of Black women Inspiring women : social movements and the literacies of technology The future of literacy. Reporting the emergence of technological literacy in the US, this study chronicles the stories of several individuals in their efforts to acquire varying degrees of such literacy. It situates their accounts in the cultural ecology of the time, tracing factors and trends that may have influenced or been influenced by literacy practices and values This book reports authors' research in electronic literacy, chronicling the development of electronic literacies through stories of several individuals with varying backgrounds/skills. For scholars/students in composition, literacy, communication, techno