Don't Think of the Technologies (Tengrrl)

While reading Computers and Writing post-mortems (morta?), I found this from Tengrrl, someone well-known/ respected in the community.

Her presentation was of interest to me because it echoed a concept I had presented at the Academic Computing conference: it ain't the technology, it's the literacy instruction that matters.

Is it the collective unconscious? Are we all moving towards this sense of understanding that we need to impress upon the nay-sayers: it's not about the bells and whistles. Technology is a means-- that is what it is by its very definition (hate to resort to that sophomoric rhetorical device of proof by definition, but what the heck)! I can dig a hole without a shovel (or backhoe) and I can get a nail in the wall without a hammer, but technology facilitates the process-- it exponentializes (nsw?) what can be achieved, presenting new challenges, ways of thinking, and ways of creating, and opportunities for creation.

A longtime SCSU professor asked me, "What do you get out of teaching with computers? Why do you do it?" I responded, "It allows me to do my job."