What being fluent in technology means.

I just finished reading Kate Williams peice on Literacy and Computer Literacy: Analyzing the NRC’s Being Fluent with Information Technology

I found it very interesting. In it she goes and describes 11 thesis on litereacy and further goes to describe what that means for us as students, parents, culturally, and for members of society.

The Thesis are as follows:
1. Literacy is a technical skill.
2. Literacy is conceptual.
3. Literacy is historical.
4. Literacy is social.
5. Literacy is intertwined with power.
6. There is a literacy divide between school and home.
7. Bridging different literacies is desirable.
8. Literacy theory is in crisis.
9. Literacy problems suggest that democracy is threatened.
10. Literacy theory is cultural hegemony.
11. The digital format integrates literate forms of communications with non-literate forms.

The thesis that I find most interesting are 9 and 10. I feel like this can be related to the Marxists idea of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. If the lower masses are computer literate and don't have the necessary materials, competency, or fluency to engage a digital world then  how can they make informed decision in a democratic state? This is making the less now have much less. Knowledge is power then we are leaving these computer illiterate people behind.

If the upper classes of society can dominate on the digital sphere then that is leading to cultural hegemony.  These people go out and become lawyers, engineers, politicians, important people in society because they have the knowledge to get there. Our country is only as strong as our weakest link and as the proletariat is being left behind, its only making it worse, as a state, country, and globally.

-Comrade Chris