In Dennis Baron's From Pixels to Pencils, he employs many outside sources and references in order to make his argument stronger. His major claim in the academic piece is that as technology evolves and new forms of technology come about, they will be integrated into society and into the educational systems. To support this claim he has a continuum that discusses how technology evolves and eventually become ubiquitous in society. He uses the introduction of the pencil to bolster this claim about the continuum of technology. Baron discusses how Thoreau despised the use of a pencil rather than embracing it even though he spent much of his life perfecting the pencil with his father's pencil making company. Even though knowledgeable people like Thoreau were against the use of the pencil, it still became very widespread and changed writing and the way students are educated. 

He uses the academic book, Ancient Literacy by William V. Harris to argue that accessible technology is imperative to to having a literate population. In Harris' book, he attempts to discover how many people could read and write in the Ancient Greece and Rome. He does this by exploring the spread of literacy and some of the literature that was spread due to the changing technology. Harris examines each era and period of the Greek and Roman Empires and compares the various writing and technological systems. Baron uses this evidence to help bolster his claim that technology has a great effect on literature and writing. This is important to his claim that technology and literacy are both dependent on the accessibility and price of it. Baron paraphrases Harris by using the statistic that no more then ten percent of the Ancient Greek or Roman citizens were literate. He also uses this piece of evidence to enhance his claim about technology becoming affordable and ubiquitous. By using this piece of evidence, Baron makes his claim stronger because he makes the connection with his thesis and the main points of Harris' book. 

One of Harris' sources is a book by Frederick A.G. Beck called Greek Education 450-350 B.C. Beck's main focus in this book is to explore educational systems and the effects that they had on Greek society and life. He discusses all aspects of education including the effect of poetry, gender roles in education, and whether or not virtues can be taught. His major claim is that the main purpose of Greek education was to make productive and informed citizens to keep the direct democracy going. The evolution of the Greek education is also discussed within this book. Beck makes this claim based on substantial evidence in books and primary sources that explicate many aspects of the Ancient Greek educational system. Though Beck's book isn't quoted or paraphrased within Harris' book, it can be assumed that it was used to help build the argument that discusses the literacy levels of the ancient world. It can also be assumed that the book also adds to the claim that literacy levels and education has evolved as time has gone on. This would indirectly help Baron's claim about education because it shows changes in education and how education changes with the times and with societal changes. 

The claims made in Harris' and Beck's books do not complicate the major claim that Baron makes in his article. Harris discusses how highly accessible technology is very necessary to have a literate population. Beck's book explores the evolution of the Greek educational system as it changes between 450 and 350 BC. Neither of the claims complicate Baron's major claim because they both offer support to the idea that ubiquitous technologies change society and the educational systems of modern day and in the past. They support Baron's idea because they demonstrate evolution of the educational systems. In Beck's book, he discusses the various changes that have occurred in technology and their effect on education and literacy levels within a given society. The only complicating facet that Harris and Beck present is the idea that they only get their claims based on the Ancient Greeks and/or Romans. By only limiting their research and findings to the Ancient Greeks and Romans, it may suggest that they are the only ones that have had technology effect the evolution of their educational systems.  

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