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"Literacy and Reading News: Tackling Reading Fluency Issues "A National Reading Panel report that identified fluency as "a critical component of skilled reading," has inspired teachers across the country to make reading fluency a critical part of teaching and assessing students. Many teachers have turned to Jan Hasbrouck, Ph.D., a nationally known educational consultant, researcher, and trainer, for the best advice on how to improve their students' fluency. Dr. Hasbrouck defined fluency as the ability to read with appropriate speed, accuracy, and good expression. "Fluency is now understood to be a unique and fundamental component of skilled, proficient reading because of its close link to comprehension and motivation," she said. "Elementary students who struggle with fluency will most likely have difficulty understanding what they have read. These students will also be much less likely to read for pleasure and enjoyment."""

Fluency is a very critical component.

"A National Reading Panel report that identified fluency as "a critical component of skilled reading," has inspired teachers across the country to make reading fluency a critical part of teaching and assessing students. Many teachers have turned to Jan Hasbrouck, Ph.D., a nationally known educational consultant, researcher, and trainer, for the best advice on how to improve their students' fluency. Dr. Hasbrouck defined fluency as the ability to read with appropriate speed, accuracy, and good expression. "Fluency is now understood to be a unique and fundamental component of skilled, proficient reading because of its close link to comprehension and motivation," she said. "Elementary students who struggle with fluency will most likely have difficulty understanding what they have read. These students will also be much less likely to read for pleasure and enjoyment.""

If students dont have literacy, it will not be as fun for them to read, because they cant do as well and it is a bore.

"Literacy is fundamental for learning in school. It has an impact on an individual's ability to participate in society and to understand important public issues. And it provides the foundation upon which skills needed in the labour market are built. Technology, and the science behind it, permeates all aspects of our lives, from how we work and communicate to what we shop for and how we pay our bills. The complexity of today's world means that individuals need to have some level of proficiency in reading, mathematics and science in order to understand and participate fully in economic and social life. "

This tells you that literacy is very important if you want to go anywhere in life.

"Netiquette," or network etiquette, refers to the evolving rules for considerate behaviour on the networks. These guidelines are often posted at the beginning of an online course, or perhaps in the "cafe" or "student center" where all students mingle. Netiquette and Group Dynamics This refers to your efforts to create a sense of online community. Positive climate building can reduce anxiety about communicating online, and contribute to a positive collegial environment. Climate building can be developed by: * Use of first names by participants. * Responding promptly to messages sent to you. * Use of reinforcement phrases (i.e., "Good idea!" or "Thanks for the suggestions," etc.). * Use of personalizing remarks (i.e., a reference to where you are working -- home, office, terminal, what is happening around you, the weather, etc.). * Avoiding hostile or curt comments. No objectionable, sexist, or racist language will be tolerated. * Displaying humour. * Promoting cooperation by offering assistance and support to other participants and by sharing ideas. Beyond Netiquette: Dos and Don'ts * Demonstrating courtesy online is fundamental. (Absolutely no abusive or libelous comments will be permitted.) * Use only your real first and last name online. * Confidentiality: No one else should be given access to any of the conferences (either viewing onscreen or in print), without the previous consent of all participants and conferees. * Copyright & Plagiarism: Don't use the words or text of others without proper acknowledgement of the source (if this was in some public source), or -- if private (as in a conference) unless you first have the author's permission. * The use of humor can be very tricky; sometimes it is seen as sarcasm or derision rather than as funny. Symbols or parenthetic phrases (e.g., :-) or "ha! ha!") can help to convey emotional tone and help to prevent misunderstandings."

This is to help people to create a sense of an online community. We want it to be a positive climate on the internet.

Sure, there are lots of virtual worlds like EverQuest out there competing to get members to sign up. There Inc.'s approach is to entice members and keep them busy with one of the most fundamental human activities: commerce. By Daniel Terdiman.

Virtual life is not real. It creates a gap in communication and takes away from actual experiences in life.

edutopia article about netiquette

So what, exactly, is good netiquette? "A lot of it has to do with tone -- how you ask for things," says Shawn Morris, administrative coordinator of Wichita eSchool, a virtual public school in Wichita, Kansas, that reviews netiquette dos and don'ts with students. No "SHOUTING" and avoiding IM-speak in formal messages are among the most common guidelines. (See "Don't Even Think About It: The Basics of Netiquette," below, and "Beyond Emily: Post-ing Etiquette.") Good online communication is especially important in virtual schools, where most interaction happens digitally. But with the Internet an ever-larger part of most students' lives, brick-and-mortar schools from Longmont, Colorado, to Modesto, California, are starting to teach netiquette, too.

Adult literacy/basic education/ESOL students are beginning to use the Internet. An increasing number are very interested in using it for a wide range of purposes: for learning (e.g. to improve reading and writing skills, or take a course;) to access a wide variety of information (e.g. information about the weather, health, travel, other cultures, American news, and -- in the case of ESOL students -- news from their native countries;) for classes at school; for shopping; to communicate with friends, family members, other students, or key pals; for entertainment; for virtual travel; and for the sense of control and power one can feel when using a computer and the Internet. Adult students appear to experience many of the same kinds of difficulties in using the Internet that their teachers do: problems getting access and getting online; having the system crash for a variety of reasons; difficulty figuring out how to navigate online; problems with online and hardcopy instructions; finding out-of-date information at sites; and reading on-screen. Some students also cited problems with their keyboard skills.

ARticle on copyright infringement lawas and how this is being interpreted in Ireland.

This changes parents' perspectives about letting their child use technology.

This article is about changing our environment to meet modern needs

Riya & Margaret, Why do you think education is so slow to change the traditional education paradigm?

discuses about privacy with Culture.