Matt takes issue with the financial expenditures made on technology in school districts where there are other more pressing issues, like a comfortable, safe, and habitable learning environment. He writes, "Kids know how to use computers. I taught in Anderson for three years-the district is twenty-five percent African-American. Would they have been exposed to computers if they weren't in the schools? Probably not. Are they better students because they were exposed to computers? Certainly not." Which is a great point! We can't level the educational and technological playing ground by throwing much needed money into the wrong pot! We have to level the basic playing field before we can bring in new, flashy scoreboards. If we don't have an atmosphere that is conducive to learning and properly trained teaching staff in the public schools, computers in the school system will only serve to make poorly written and conceptualized papers and ideas "look a little flashier". So, once again we have a detail that is being ignored. How can we bring the (new) basics up to snuff without causing minority students to continue to fall behind?

Laura W. makes a good point when she says that "[t]he reason we don’t contemplate the computer enough is that we don’t want to, not that we don’t have to." and that we should one day be "able to utilize technology, such as new software programs or network utilities, in a truly worthwhile manner." There is a thin line between using technology in a "worthwhile manner" and simply throwing technology en masse into the classroom and teaching students how to use it just so that they can have the knowledge of various kinds of technology. This requires some re-education of university administrators as well as faculty members across the university. This adds another element to the belief that all composition teachers teach is grammar and mechanics, now it is expanding to the thought that all computers and composition teachers teach is computer skills. People have to be aware of the fact that we are not here to teach general software skills but to teach students how to use the right software to facilitate the dissemination of knowledge that they create a.k.a. using technology in a "wrothwile manner".

In her post on Selfe's essay, Laura P. wrote, "I do not think that technology literacy favours more racism and poverty than, for instance, literacy in the first place favoured poverty and discrimination." Which I think is an interesting point. So is technological literacy just as oppressive as "traditional literacy" or does technology just add another layer of oppression to an educational system that was founded upon, maintained by, and perpetuates oppression. I can't wait to see what she has to say about Tom Fox's 1992 JAC article "Repositioning.."

In Adrienne's entry for today she says that she has "a fear that they [computers] detract from the old school method of reading and interpreting novels." She makes a good point, but does the use of computers in the classroom mean that we can no longer use the old fashioned technology, like pens and paper. Is it possible to use the technology only when it can actually enhance the learning experience and let it go when it does not? Are we being forced (or does it sometimes feel that we are) to use all technology, all the time in order to make the financial expenditure worth it, or to the teach to the "new test" which is the job market?

In Catherine's post she states that "I do wish that she [Selfe] would have focused upon the fact that women make up the largest portion of those who live in poverty, and therefore make up the largest sector of people who are directly affected by the "techno-future." " This may be another one of those "details" that has been overlooked and that is now demanded the attention of critically minded scholars and educators. If we were to construct some kind of plan that would take all of these details into consideration and would give us the opportunity to form a more equal society, I wonder what the first steps along this path might be. How can we make sure that those minority students who have been historically plagued with a lack of material access, and currently experiencing a lack of immaterial access, catch up to those majority students who have always had access?