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patkept624

Can social networking boost literacy skills? - 0 views

  • 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.
gjcpri

Researchers Say the Social Web Improves Kids' Literacy (Geeks Say 'Duh') - ReadWrite - 1 views

  • According to a recent survey of around 3,000 kids, those who text, blog and use social sites such as Facebook have better writing skills than their less technologically inclined counterparts. This hardly comes as a surprise to us tech geeks who spent our younger days alternating between writing critical theses on esoteric forums and getting…
  • When researchers asked the children to rate their writing skills, 47 percent of those who were non-bloggers and didn't use social networking sites said that their writing skills were good. The online set projected higher levels of confidence; of those who maintained blogs, 61 percent said their writing was good or very good.
  • He continued to say that online engagement can lead to offline creativity, such as story writing and song composition.
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  • Our research results are conclusive," said Douglas. "The more forms of communications children use the stronger their core literary skills." Or at least, the more children are accustomed to using the written word, the more confident and comfortable they will be with written communication in general.
David Bird

Your brain on the internet: a response to Susan Greenfield - 1 views

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    Whenever I hear dire predictions concerning the social impact of new technologies, I recall a similar prediction made nearly 2,500 years ago. In the Phaedrus, Plato recounts a myth, according to which an Egyptian god approached King Thamos and offered him the gift of writing.
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    I read Mrs Greenfield's argument, and at first it sounded like she was going with technology is improving the minds of our generations but as you go on you find shes coming more and more into the light that technology is bad. I do not know how much of a help this website is going to be but I hope it helps in someway maybe in Religious/Mythological approach.
David Bird

Assigment - 14 views

Who would be the leader... coordinator... researcher... etc...

animedragonx

How the Web Has Changed Literacy and Learning | Educational Technology Newsletter - 0 views

  • 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.
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    explains how literacy has changed
animedragonx

Literacy and Text Messaging | MIT Technology Review - 0 views

  • Shanahan points to the more than 30 billion e-mail messages and 5 billion text messages that are exchanged every day as evidence of how technology “is raising the value of reading in our society, both as an economic and as a social activity.”
    • animedragonx
       
      i like this one
  • In coming years literacy will mean knowing how to choose between print, image, video, sound, and all the potential combinations they could create to make a particular point with a specific audience,” says Bronwyn Williams, associate professor of English at the University of Louisville.
  • “I think we often don’t give kids enough credit with their control over language,” says Eric Paulson, associate professor of literary education at the University of Cincinnati. “They can text ‘IMHO’ on their cell phones, write ‘my own opinion is’ in a school essay, and read ‘it is my belief that your scar hurts when Lord Voldemort is near you’ without getting discombobulated.” Switching from a language appropriate for a text message to a linguistic mode more appropriate for addressing a teacher or writing an essay is a practice young people can easily be comfortable with.
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    also supports text messaging and literacy..shows how texting has become a second language
patkept624

NLT Studies from 2009 - 1 views

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    These studies are mentioned/highlighted in some of my other posts. I've saved the PDF files for the full study and exec summary.
winshell Surpris

Education World: Does Texting Harm Students' Writing Skills? - 2 views

  • “I think it makes sense for these social conversations to be lightweight or light-hearted in terms of the syntax,” said President of Dictionary.com Shravan Goli. “But ultimately, in the world of business and in the world they will live in, in terms of their jobs and professional lives, students will need good, solid reading and writing skills. I’m a little worried about where we are in America with literacy levels dropping. Are these [electronic devices] helping us, or making it worse? I think they may be going the other way and making it worse.”
  • I think that is where we come into play with Dictionary.com,” Goli said. “I have two kids at home. I see them using this technology, and I think there is a lot of value in leveraging that technology for educational purposes. Using these ‘cool’ technologies are great vehicles for teaching kids the proper ways to communicate.”
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    Some argue that a negative side effect is beginning to take hold in our classrooms.
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