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But do social networking sites have any educational benefits? Aside from helping students to make new friends, do social networking sites facilitate learning? The answer seems to be that they do. The National Literacy Trust found that social networking sites and blogs help students to develop more positive attitudes toward writing and to become more confident in their writing abilities. According to one of the studies, 49 per cent of young people believe that writing is “boring.” However, students who use technology-based texts such as blogs have more positive attitudes toward writing. Whereas 60 per cent of bloggers say that they enjoy writing, only 40 per cent of non-bloggers find writing enjoyable. The study also showed that students who write blogs or maintain a profile on a social networking site tend to be more confident about their writing ability. More than 60 per cent of students who blog and 56 per cent of students who have a profile on a social networking site claim to be “good” or “very good” writers, compared with only 47 per cent of those who don’t use online formats. Having a blog also affects writing behaviour. Students who are active online are significantly more likely to keep a journal or write short stories, letters or song lyrics than those without a social networking presence. According to the ­research, 13 per cent of students have their own website, 24 per cent write a blog and 56 per cent have a profile on a ­social networking site. Of the five kinds of writing that students engaged in most regularly, four were technology based: 82 per cent of students sent text messages (77 per cent of these messages were notes, answers to questions asked in class or remarks about homework assignments), 73 per cent used instant messaging, 67 per cent sent e-mails and 63 per cent wrote on social networking sites. The study also explored why young people who lack confidence in their writing ability perceive themselves to be poor writers. Although the reasons varied with each age group, 20 per cent of the older students attributed their poor writing skills to the fact that they do not write much.

Dr. Spencer Jordan, a creative writing teacher in the School of Education at the University of Wales, notes that web ­technologies encourage young people to write confidently about things they enjoy. He notes, “When I was a kid, I used to write in exercise books kept in a drawer, but now that young people write on the web, there’s a whole ­community out there to read their work. It’s interactive, and that makes it more appealing to them.” Jordan believes that encouraging students to share their writing boosts their confidence in their writing abilities.

Brown and his colleagues invited 15 year old digital learners to participate as researchers at Xerox’s research center, and identified, through observations of their work, some dimensional shifts in their literacy practices. For these digital learners, they found: Literacy involves image and screen literacy: “The ability to ‘read’ multimedia texts and to feel comfortable with new, multiple-media genres.” “The new literacy, beyond text and image, is one of information navigation. The real literacy of tomorrow entails the ability to be your own personal reference librarian—to know how to navigate through confusing, complex information spaces and feel comfortable doing so. ‘Navigation’ may well be the main form of literacy of the 21st century.” Learning involves a shift from learning in an authority-based, lecture oriented environment to learning that is “discovery-based”– e.g. web surfing for both entertainment and information. Learning is active, involving mucking about vs. being told, and requires making good judgments as you find what you need and build on it. Learning has a social as well as a cognitive dimension.