post 9: "From Pencils to Pixles: The Stages of Literacy Technologies"

After reading Dennis Baron's, "From Pencils to Pixles: The Stages of iteracy Technologies," I'd have to say I don't entirely agree that the message of this piece involved him shruging at technology, founding it hard to imagine new technologies as fundamentaly changing the shape or nature of writing. He does claim that new technologies create new opportunities for fraud, however, I think his point was more along the lines of the evolution of technology, and how these evolutions (and evolutions to come) are affecting literacy. Pencils were infact considered technology when they were invented. They weren't (and aren't) as simple to make as you might think. You must have the exactly right amount of lead and clay proportions. You must also make sure the wood around it is stable enough not to break in a pencil sharpener, and the eraser must have the right consistency of rubber. The secrets of making pencils were as closely gaurded as computer companies software secrets are. From pencils and paper, to typewriters, to the first computers, to the modern day computers, what Baron wants us to really ponder is, "whether the computer will one day be as taken-for-granted as the pencil" (440).