Digital Literacies

 As we get older and as the generations pass us by, technology is quickly becoming a huge part of our everyday lives.  Whether it’s from being able to use a credit card and having instant money at our fingertips, or being able to look any question we have up on Google.  Even though our generation is generally pretty good with technology, there is a lot more that our high school teachers could have taught us. We were not allowed to take our computer to school and if we did then we would get in trouble. High school teachers don’t realize that everything in today’s world revolves around technology.  It is their job to teach us how to use, and do things that will make us successful in life.

I personally want to be a Mechanical Engineer. I will be in a computer all day long and using technology every day. In high school, we did have computers in the engineering classroom but we didn’t learn everything there is to know. At Oakland, expect to learn all of the advanced technology that there is to offer.

Personally, I do like to write and do my assignments through a blog or an email. I feel like it’s not as formal and that it’s more of my opinion than it is anything else. Students being able to express the way they feel through a blog is a lot better than having to turn in a paper.

Literacy Timeline

*2 years old. My first word was “Hi”

*I learned how to play soccer before I knew how to do anything else.

*My dad would always take me fishing and hunting and he would name an animal and tell me how to spell it.

*5 years old – old elementary didn’t teach people how to read until they were in second grade.  Went to new elementary – Didn’t know how to read at all.

*Mr. Nader – First grade teacher- Came out of first grade at a 5^th grade reading level.

*Little women was one of the first big books that I read. All of the Harry Potter books followed it.

*All in all I never really liked to read but my mom and dad helped me out a lot when I was little.

Mother Tongue

        In Mother Tongue, Amy Tan wrote about how her mother used to speak to her and how it made her see the world differently. The language her mother used was vivid and direct. It helped her shape the way she saw things and made sense of the world. She believed that her mother’s English reflected the quality of what she had to say. Amy used to also have to speak for her mother and call stock brokers for her and doctors. She solved arguments for her mother when her mother couldn’t understand the English. The people that used to talk to her mother at department stores, restaurants, and banks used to pretend not to hear her, understand her, and did not give her good service. But with her mother’s English, it made her write her books in a different way visioning her mother as her reader. I like that Amy Tan did this. I’m also glad she used her mother’s broken English as a road to write books for people who spoke “limited English."

Why Writing is Important

                Being a Mechanical Engineer will force me to step outside of my comfort zone when it comes to writing and public speaking. Neither one of these things is something that I am very good at. Writing and English classes were always a struggle for me.  Taking this class will help me to be more comfortable and to prepare myself for my profession. Being able to speak to people and or write about the ideas I will have in the engineering field is essential.  The kind of writing I will have to do is not difficult, just something that I am not good at. I will definitely have to work on being able to thoroughly express my ideas through writing and presenting.  I am hoping that this class will be able to help me with my insecurities when it comes to writing and by the time I achieve my bachelor’s degree I will be able to communicate properly with my colleagues and coworkers.