Page 14 from “Literacy and Technologies Linked”

“Finally, the technological literacy practices and skills characterizing official schooling environments often affect technological literacy practices at home (e.g., the use of a home computer and the WWW to complete homework assignments or to practice approved literacy skills) and shape corporate practices (e.g., the design and marketing of educational software packages and hardware products for use on home computers).”

After reading the passage, I noticed how the author was right about many things. That if I didn’t learn about technology in school I would probably not practice it at home nor learn different software if I was not requested to do so for the workplace. We seem to not push ourselves hard enough into learning new and improved technologies. We appear to develop a routine where we only use the ones that we were taught to use and stick with them. If I never received training in Microsoft Word, I would most likely just use notepad that comes with my Macintosh Computer or not even know how to use writing software.
Literacy practices are extremely important and can allow students to go home and work with technological literacy practices. As a future educator I hope to incorporate technology constantly in my lesson plans and activities with my students. What educators use and teach in the classroom impacts a student’s life immensely.

Do you use software that teachers or bosses did not instruct you to use?