Technology Awareness

The words "technique" and "technology" come from the word "techne" and refer basically to the tools we use and how we use them. Writing is a technique, and it's also a technology. The technology is the written or printed word; the technique is how we use words, or think through words, as a means of communication, expression, investigation, etc.

Learning how to write, practicing the technique/s of writing, means finding a place for "writing" in our lives as one communication zone among others.

I like this quote, from novelist Toni Morrison: "If writing is thinking and discovery and order and meaning, it is also awe and reverence and mystery and magic." [Note to self: should transfer that quote to Commonplace Book later.] I like the way Morrison (in one sentence!) manages to balance to aspects of writing that are crucial to this course: (1) writing as "thinking" and (2) writing as "magic" or, as I see it, using writing to notice things and think through what we see/hear as a process of trans-formation.

So, "technology awareness" week is all about becoming aware of how the technologies we use shape our lives, actions, and learning. The problems we had in class the other day are just as valid (necessary?) as the overall success most people had working with their laptops. To be aware means recognzing when it works and when it doesn't -- and this goes for our developing writing "techniques" as well. Sometimes, that writing work will not work, will break down, won't play right...

Meanwhile, let's also stress the point that these laptops are little writing tools or engines, not to mention production studios and design platforms.

My next "lecture" -- How to Liberate Your Laptop! -- will develop this idea.