Homeless Adults, Technology, and Literacy Practices

• In Event: Underserved Youth, Homelessness, and Suicide

Abstract

Although research has explored the perspectives of the homeless on technology use, few studies have focused on understanding this population’s technology uses for literacy purposes, as opposed to more general technology uses, such as acquiring the skills to improve their station in life or the uses enhancing public health or social services. Utilizing symbolic interactionism as a conceptual framework, this qualitative study examines the technology use for literacy purposes among adult homeless and the attitudes and the meanings that these participants have for it. The findings suggest diverse technology uses and participant positioning themselves in binary terms on a continuum of information technology literacy. Other responses indicate differences in the conceptions and uses of technology for literacy purposes.

Authors

• Ewa McGrail, Georgia State University

• Gertrude M. Tinker Sachs, Georgia State University

• Tisha Lewis Ellison, Georgia State University

• Nicole Denise Dukes, Georgia State University

• Kathleen Walsh Zackery, Cherokee County Board of Education, Canton, Georgia