I enjoyed this article. I found myself admiring Melissa and her ability to move into the digital age. I thought it showed great confidence to cheat on her job application. My sister has had several job interviews in which she was asked if she knew a certain program or computer language and her standard response is "Does it come with a manual?"
Although I am a couple of years older than Melissa my computer upbringing was quite similar. And just like Amy's mom I had to type all of my college papers on an old fashioned typewriter, although I was the envy of all my friends because mine was ELECTRIC. It wasn't too bad actually until you had to change a footnote. My first computer was loaned to me by the school district so I could pass the district's computer skills compentancy test.
When I read about Brittney's computer experience it made me think about the Lankshear and Knobel article and the "schoolification" of good ideas. Although I'm not familiar with high school curriculum I would be surprised if it has changed much since I was there. How challenging to re-write instructional practices asking students to complete assignments that the teacher can't complete. It is easy to keep doing what you know and because perhaps you've seen it work for years.
I have seen in many elementary school classrooms the use of computers to teach phonics skills. The reason behind this is that it makes the learning fun. But if we don't examine whether or not the phonics skill is sound teaching in the first place than animating the practice doesn't make it more beneficial.
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I remember both our incredibly modern "word processor" that was my older sister's--a glorified million pound typewriter with a screen larger enough for four lines of hard-to-read text. Wow, was that thing awesome.
Everything I've read for my lit review recommends a lot more teacher training, especially in the area of technology--seems like it's hard to squeeze training on so many important issues of professional development. Some states (I think, I might have made this up) actually require a masters degree to teach.
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