Literacy in American Lives

Although this book is a bit outdated, because as Brandt states, what held true of valuable levels and kinds of literacy might not be true in the future. Her research is still fairly relevant today and I believe that she charts the changes in the standards of literacy very well.
The thing that I warmed to the most about this book is the way in which Deborah Brandt uses economic research into education to show her points. I liked especially, the example of how employers may use their own funds to provide an education to improve literacy in a certain area for certain employees. This way, the employer may be guaranteed to earn more money from this employee in the future because of their increased literacy. Because this book is older, there are issues which Deborah did not really have a chance to cover totally, simply because things have changed so quickly in the area of computer literacy standards of today.
Continuing with this thought I was thinking of my own literacy experiences growing up, thinking about others' experiences growing up now, who may not have even the regular opportunity to be "computer literate." These young, poor people live in many areas, even here in Madison. They might not have access to computers as often as we do. When I was growing up as a kid and teenager, it was the 90's. I was at the tail-end of Generation X. Since my parents did not (and still do not) own a computer at home or even know how to email. I didn't even get my first computer lesson until 2002, when I took a beginners level computer class and got my first email, this is way later than most other people I knew. The best places to play with computers in the early 2000's was at the public library, although you could either get a 15 minute computer or an hour-long computer to practice on. When I was in high-school, my school recieved some sort of grant because our scores were so low and they gave us one computer in every room for the teachers and students to use. Of course what happened there was that inevitably, the people who were already familiar with how to use a computer were the ones to play on them. This was the same at the public library. Since I didn't really know how to use one, even after my beginning computer class, I just kind of avoided them.
Flash forward to now, 2010. I have had a good 10 years to become acquainted to computers and have one at home but I still feel like I am constantly behind everyone else in my computer literacy. I think this is because I had such a slow and disjointed introduction to them. When you are uncomfortable with something, you tend to avoid it. Now, I have my husband to help me when I don't know how to do something on the computer and I think that even if I didn't have a husband who had dreamed at one point, about 10 years ago, of becoming a computer programmer, I would probably still own one. But I don't really know how comfortable I would be with one, if I had not had 10 years of uncomfortable computer training from taking classes in college. If I had just chosen to work a job that did not require me to use a computer, how computer literate would I be right now?
We do not all have the same skills in computers. A lot of adults and children cannot afford computers and therefore probably have an even harder time than I do. When I think of my own experiences, I also think about how someone else, with less materially than I have or have had in my life, might deal with the same issues. The children in most school districts are taught on computers, but how many have them at home? I know that they can easily access them at the public libraries but what if they cannot get to them?
Computer literacy is now, in my opinion the most important type of literacy, when it comes to getting into a better program in school, or getting a job. Unfortunately, we still live in a very uneven and unfair system here is the U.S. and people in other places around the world have it even worse. Look at the children in certain countries in Africa or the Middle East; they might not have a chance to even go to school, let alone enough time to become proficient in computer usage.
You asked us in class to think about our own and others' experiences with literacy. I have thought about it and I have come to the conclusion that our experiences differ more than they are the same. This is an issue that Deborah Brandt touched on but I really started to think about after I read most of the book and after the last class. How much has literacy changed since Deborah wrote this book? Will the gap grow even wider in the future? I hope not, especially with the web so easily at our fingertips, for some of us.
Literacy changes and we constantly have to learn more and more just to keep our heads above water. One of the reasons why I am so happy to be in this program is because there is such a push to become a computer expert in library work.