Running head: My Literacy Narrative

[My Literacy Narrative]

[Leesa Carroll]
[University of Texas at El Paso]
[English 1311]
[7/11/14]
[Paul La Prade]




My literacy narrative begins with my first memorable encounter with technology.
As a baby of the 90s technology was slowly but surely advancing, and from day one I
was learning because of it. I recall a very slow and large home computer sitting behind
the doors of my family desk, the two basic options for a 4 year old was the painting
selection or solitaire. If you were really technologically advanced you were able to
purchase a floppy disk, insert it into the computer and play games. A major technological
sensation of the 90s was the VCR, a movie or video player that required a VHS
videotape that youd have to separately rewind before being able to watch. I remember all
cellular phones and home phones having antennas, and being forced to memorize my
parents numbers because caller ID and contact lists were non-existent. Eventually
technology advanced past the floppy disk, into what we still know today as the CD, past
the VCR and VHS to the DVD and DVD player, and past the antenna phones into our
current smart phone.

How technology influenced my literary skills
Going back to the 90s although technology wasnt nearly as advanced, as it is
today it did form an impact on my ways of learning. At Edgmere Elementary school I can
recall large computers in the computer lab with box shaped backs and colored borders the
usually had a colored half eaten apple logo on the backside. Within the first few weeks of
my second grade class with Mrs. Torres we walked down to the school computer lab and
practiced our typing skills. We would sit in front of these colored computers and type a
given sentence, without looking at the keyboard. Although I admit I still look at the
keyboard, these practices helped me to become a well off typist. Back in those days we

were also required to read library books and when we finished our book we were
encouraged to take what the referred to as an AR test on the same colored box like
computers. On this AR test we were asked multiple questions from the book wed read if
you passed points were added to your annual score. The difficulty of the book depended
on the number of points you received. Moving into my middle school years I was given
my first cell phone and even though they werent allowed within the walls of school I
was continuously practicing my reading, writing, and typing skills elsewhere. Then the
social media network Myspace was developed which also allowed a continuation of my
literary skills outside of my English class. The literary progression dependency wasnt
limited to school campus anymore. This lead into a different way of learning without a
teacher or professor present, and by the time I reached high school, technology had
spread like wild fire. Everybody had the latest devices; remember the logo of half eaten
apple I told you about? They were now producing and selling devices like mad men, one
production of which contained multiple songs and albums of your choosing known today
as the Ipod. They also created a mobile phone, which not only contained all of those
songs, but you could also access the Internet, we know them today as Iphones. In high
school everyone had these devices and not only were we no longer limited to our home
computer we could now take the internet with us wherever we went using social media
sites, watching videos, thus exceeding educational learning.

How technology influences my literary skills
Overtime technology has advanced and so has the resource opportunities for
students, today in kindergarten classes kids are using tablets for basic educational

instruction such as coloring pages, learning ABCs or just practicing numbers. In schools
this day in age technology is expected, almost every student is required to have a
computer. The truth is that we are constantly practicing our literary skills daily, through
the resources of technology, expanding the limitations from books and manual labor-like
resources. Tweeting, texting, posting, watching videos, listening to music/radio shows,
even watching television shows we are day by day absorbing and learning new
vocabulary, spelling or how to better articulate ourselves. In a sense its almost like we
practice what we are using in our classrooms, but outside of the classroom just by turning
to what we consider entertainment, and by no means even crosses our minds to be
considered learning. The generation today is in now way like the generations Malcolm X
and Sherman Alexie grew up in, they both learned from manually reading actual paper,
hard copied books. I read books at recess, then during lunch, and in the few minutes I
had left after I finished my classroom assignments. Alexie, Sherman, 1997 pg 131,
Writing about Writing. Technological resources are continuously advancing at a
ridiculous rate and before you know it books will be much like the floppy disk,
VHS/VCR, and antenna phones, unfamiliar and outdated.