Baron Freewrite

Baron has several general stages that literacy technology goes through. First, he states that as a technology is developed, it is only used by a few people who are either the inventors of the technology or who want to hold to the knowledge either because of privilege or because it is unfamiliar to the general public or potentially because the technology is very expensive. Then, as knowledge of the technology spreads, the original or “priestly,” as Baron puts it, caste of holders of this technology become mediators between the common person and the technology itself. As further knowledge of the technology spreads, the common people start using the technology for themselves and eventually, as the knowledge base becomes broader and the technology becomes cheaper and more available, it is widely used and adopted. I think that these are very good general stages that can be widely applied to literacy technologies. For example, mechanical pencils were once a new invention, probably fairly expensive compared to regular pencils and only used by people who had access to them. I’m sure they were not sold everywhere. Gradually, as they became less expensive and more varieties came about, more people used them and now one can buy twenty mechanical pencils for a dollar. I think Ong would agree with these stages of technology. The web 2.0 technologies are a briliant example of these stages in that not only are more people willing to use the technologies because they are getting easier to use and to learn how to use, but people are also more willing to learn. This is especially true of computer programming, also.