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amkodya

Education World: Does Texting Harm Students' Writing Skills? - 0 views

  • Cyber slang is suspected of damaging students’ writing acumen. Cyber slang is a term used to describe shortcuts, alternative words, or even symbols used to convey thoughts in an electronic document. Because so many digital media limit the number of characters an author can use at a time, students are becoming more creative to get the most out of their limited space. Common cyber-slang terms that have made their way into popular speech include BFF (best friends forever), LOL (laugh out loud) and WTF (what the ____).
  • “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.
  • The Times Daily newspaper cites a recent report from Pew Internet and American Life Project, "Writing, Technology and Teens," which found that the cell phone text-based abbreviated communications teens use are showing up in more formal writing.
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vnarvaezfullsail

The 4 Negative Side Effects Of Technology - Edudemic - 0 views

  • Declining Writing Skills Due to the excessive usage of online chatting and shortcuts, the writing skills of today’s young generation have declined quite tremendously. These days, children are relying more and more on digital communication that they have totally forgot about improving their writing skills. They don’t know the spelling of different words, how to use grammar properly or how to do cursive writing.
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    Declining Writing Skills
Robert Linsenbach

Texting, Twitter contributing to students' poor grammar skills, profs say - The Globe a... - 0 views

  • Cellphone texting and social networking on Internet sites are degrading writing skills, say even experts in the field. "I think it has," says Joel Postman, author of "SocialCorp: Social Media Goes Corporate," who has taught Fortune 500 companies how to use social networking. The Internet norm of ignoring punctuation and capitalization as well as using emoticons may be acceptable in an e-mail to friends and family, but it can have a deadly effect on one's career if used at work. "It would say to me ... 'well, this person doesn't think very clearly, and they're not very good at analyzing complex subjects, and they're not very good at expressing themselves, or at worse, they can't spell, they can't punctuate,' " he says.
    • amkodya
       
      Texting and social networking have a degrading effect on writing and literacy skills. Punctuation and capitalization is ignored. Emoticons, that can be acceptable in informal online communication, are being used more frequently offline and in professional settings.
  • "Thirty per cent of students who are admitted are not able to pass at a minimum level," says Ann Barrett, managing director of the English language proficiency exam at Waterloo University. "We would certainly like it to be a lot lower." Barrett says the failure rate has jumped five percentage points in the past few years, up to 30 per cent from 25 per cent.
    • amkodya
       
      Failure rate is increasing in the past few years from 25% to 30%.
  • Emoticons, truncated and butchered words such as 'cuz,' are just some of the writing horrors being handed in, say professors and administrators at Simon Fraser
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  • "Little happy faces ... or a sad face ... little abbreviations," show up even in letters of academic appeal, says Khan Hemani. "Instead of 'because', it's 'cuz'. That's one I see fairly frequently," she says, and these are new in the past five years.
  • Punctuation errors are huge, and apostrophe errors. Students seem to have absolutely no idea what an apostrophe is for. None. Absolutely none."
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    Cellphone texting and social networking writing skills
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    Cellphone texting and social networking on Internet sites are degrading writing skills, say even experts in the field. "I think it has," says Joel Postman, author of "SocialCorp: Social Media Goes Corporate," who has taught Fortune 500 companies how to use social networking. The Internet norm of ignoring punctuation and capitalization as well as using emoticons may be acceptable in an e-mail to friends and family, but it can have a deadly effect on one's career if used at work. "It would say to me ... 'well, this person doesn't think very clearly, and they're not very good at analyzing complex subjects, and they're not very good at expressing themselves, or at worse, they can't spell, they can't punctuate,' " he says.
Robert Linsenbach

Impact of the Internet on Critical Reading and Writing Skills - Reading Horizons - 0 views

  • the internet is making us all a little more A.D.D.
  • Experts describe this habit of darting from page to page as "associative" thinking. They have especially noticed this habit in younger children, whom are comparably less focused on studying, reading, and writing then the age group was when measured in the past. This is damaging to reading ability because it decreases our ability to comprehend what we read.
  • Another way researchers believe the internet has impacted our critical thinking abilities is that we now use less reliable sources to learn about new ideas. We often accept any article as fact. They found that students children’s reading abilities now do less research before answering a question. They also found that they trusted their friends for answers more than adults. They attributed this habit being a result of internet exposure, but it could simply be that children are more trusting and less skeptical.
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    Experts describe this habit of darting from page to page as "associative" thinking. They have especially noticed this habit in younger children, whom are comparably less focused on studying, reading, and writing then the age group was when measured in the past. This is damaging to reading ability because it decreases our ability to comprehend what we read.
amkodya

Adolescent Literacy: An Imperative | Raising Awareness and Finding Solutions for the Ad... - 0 views

  • are our schools meeting this demand? In short, no. Or at least, not well enough. As a country we have devoted many resources to early childhood education initiatives that teach children to read. But once students possess these basic skills, they must be taught to interpret the information they read, to think critically, to write clearly, and to communicate effectively. Unfortunately, middle and high school students are not meeting state and national standards for basic reading proficiency, let alone developing higher literacy skills. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, only 38% of twelfth graders read at or above the proficient level.
  • Promoting adolescent literacy cannot be limited to reading and writing. To be highly literate in our culture involves mastering many different types of literacy- digital, financial, health, media, etc. If a student graduates high school able to read and write, but is unable to use a computer, we would consider their functional literacy limited. Yes, this is an oversimplification, but it serves to illustrate this point: literacy is defined and influenced by cultural and societal standards. And in a consumerist society such as ours, our jobs dictate many of those standards. These jobs demand digital literacy.
amkodya

Technology and Damage to Literacy - 0 views

  • However, our dependency on technology can also make us lazy. Why bother to strain our eyes reading when the television will tell us about important occurrences and entertain us? Why write a letter when your family member or friend can be talked to directly over the telephone? Avoiding the practice of certain literacies will eventually lower the level of one's literacy. To avoid decreasing levels of literacy caused by technology certain precautions must be taken.
    • amkodya
       
      TELEVISION
  • Raskin argues this point and also states that computers as teachers may be a bad idea. Students may never acquire adequate social skills and also may not learn efficiently if computers are the main sources of instruction. Ogbu writes that minorities may have a disadvantage in educational institutions. Because technology can be used in classrooms more often there is more potential for inequality. The schools with more resources will be able to offer students more technology and an even better education. Technology can damage education and literacy
  • Hirsch says that in order to be culturally literate one only needs to know a certain amount of specific ideas. If there are 5,000 ideas that when known are adequate for understanding a culture then if it were easy to look up these 5,000 ideas on demand the culture would be understood. Raskin proposes that a computer could store a list of these ideas along with descriptions making "it easy for an uncultured person encountering one of the expressions to look it up in the database and get the general picture" ( Raskin, p. 202). Hirsch believes that schools provide the common background, but if a database of cultural references existed then schools would not need teach what the students already have easy access to. The schools could teach the students how to use the database and the students would never need to become culturally literate
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  • Technology does have the potential to destroy cultural,
  • The select group of ideas important to a society must also exist before technology can make memorizing the list pointless. It is only possible for students to be taught so much information in their academic lives and for all schools to collaborate and decide what should be taught would be impossible. In the generation of Hirsch's father the amount of knowledge the world possessed was not as great. The more the world learns the more options there are for subject material taught and the harder it becomes to unify subject material. It is probably true that teaching methods are improving while we learn but it seems like unless there are incredible improvements in teaching there will always be vast amounts of knowledge which cannot be taught in an academic life. Also, if schools go in the opposite direction of Hirsch's desire then the population will have a diverse knowledge instead of equal. Communication may not be as good but there are obviously benefits to diversity. If we ignore certain subjects then we may miss out on making possible discoveries. If Hirsch were successful in getting schools to agree on subject material, then schools might agree that studying certain types of cells in trees is unimportant because more time should be spent on Shakespeare so references and communication could improve. The world of people would lose out on some specific areas of study so people could communicate better. It is possible that by studying a specific tree cell less for the sake of communication could cause a disease cure not to be found if the extra study of cells would lead to a discovery.
  • standard education is important in creating literate adults.
  • Hirsch, in "Literacy and Cultural Literacy," states that standard education is important in creating literate adults. Hirsch believes that "we will achieve a just and prosperous society only when our schools ensure that everyone commands enough shared knowledge to be able to communicate effectively with everyone else" ( Hirsch, p. 32). If everyone has a similar education then communication is made easier because certain things can be assumed. Hirsch uses examples which occur in the US such as knowing about currency and which side of the road one is supposed to drive on. For more complicated ideas, schools are responsible for supplying the knowledge. These direct comments about education and literacy strengthen his position. Schools are the primary sources of background for most people. For instance, Hirsch says that in his father's generation his father could say to his colleagues, "there is a tide" ( Hirsch, p. 9), and because his colleagues all had been educated in Shakespeare's writings his colleagues would know to make some important business decisions
  • as technology continues to improve the imbalances will only increase. The schools which have adequate money will be able to buy computers and other technology which improves education. All public schools are supposed to receive near-equal money from governments but public schools can receive donations from parents and other organizations. Depending on the location of a school the school might receive a lot of money or only a little. Schools located in poor, predominately minority areas such as the schools in Ogbu's examples would be likely to not have adequate money for new technologies. If other students are benefiting from being taught from computers and also are becoming computer literate, a skill applicable in the work-place, then the students lacking technologies will not be able to compete outside of school. The fortunate students will have a definite advantage and the unfortunate students will be even further behind.
  • Raskin fears that a computer could damage students, claiming that "computerized instruction robs the student of the warm human guiding hand, thus dehumanizing the process of education and cognitive development-possibly with unimaginably monstrous long-range consequences" ( Raskin, p. 32).
  • Young students are likely to mimic and acquire attitudes from teachers and experiences, so if the computer "teacher" were to appear mean the student may acquire mean attitudes and act violently towards other students. The computer could act friendly but it would be difficult for a computer to appear personal. The student may learn that computers are friendly and begin to lose trust in humans. Damage such as this, if done at a young age, could inhibit a successful social life for the student. Nonetheless, in the case where human teachers are abusive or violent the computer teacher may be an advantage even if the student acquires some alienation towards other people. Still, the best scenario for young students is for them to have friendly, human teachers. This way the student becomes familiar with interacting with people and receives a "warm human guiding hand."
  • This progression has led software developers to become more advanced but allowed common computer users to be less advanced. The developers' computer literacy must be very high so that the full capabilities of the computer can be taken advantage of and a profitable product can be made. The common user is willing to pay for products which are easy to use but that takes the user farther away from what the computer is actually doing. A user can be naive about how computers work, thus being less computer literate, and still be able to use computers effectively. It is good that technology is becoming more accessible to people but it is bad that this is allowing literacy to decrease. However, it is possible that this decrease in literacy may be acceptable. Higher technologies can be used without the literacy and instead of people spending time learning how to use technology they can spend their time acquiring other knowledge.
  • Technology does have the potential of damaging literacy. If Hirsch is correct about cultural literacy depending on a certain set of ideas then technology may advance to the point where we can use databases constantly and not need have as much knowledge as we do now.
  • students do not need to develop social skills to interact with a computer and may even be damaged from this lack of human interaction. To prevent this, schools should not use computer teaching a majority of the time
  • performance is not hindered regardless of whether or not a student's culture is predominantly oral since "children of illiterate Chinese immigrants have done quite well in American schools" ( Ogbu, p. 4). So if a student of a certain race can become literate independent of what culture he is from then literacy must depend on education. Schools teach the literacy skills needed to compete for jobs: "in modern societies the school is the principal institution adapting children to bureaucratized industrial economy" ( Ogbu, p. 32). If a group of students is not receiving a fair education then that group will not be able to compete in the work-force. If the discontinuities in education are fixed then literacy will improve for the groups which were being hurt. Ogbu has a strength in that he believes that educational institutions provide means for later survival but he also makes it seem like our schools are unfair and it is impossible for everyone to get a good education.
amkodya

Is Text Messaging Destroying the English Language? A Reflective Essay on Texting and En... - 0 views

  • Is text messaging destroying the English language? Numerous protectors of the integrity of English have certainly suspected so, and such concerns are raised constantly in the media.
    • amkodya
       
      Supporters of the integrity of English are claiming texting is destroying the language.
  • There is an increasing concern that the birth of a heavily abbreviated text messaging language could bring about severe problems for the English language in the near future. One could argue that such fears are founded upon mere parochialism among the middle class, yet the evidence to suggest that text language is having a detrimental impact upon English is highly compelling. Journalists across the globe have condemned the casual usage of text language in formal mediums such as emails, yet the world only seems to have recently started to take notice. Could it be that the prevalence of text language is leading not only to poor spelling but also to the death of the English language as we know it?
    • amkodya
       
      Casual text language is moving to more formal platforms such as e-mail. The effects of text language include poor spelling and dwindling of the English language. There is loss in translation from English language to text language.
  • It is a recognized fact, of course, that text language can be a quick and efficient method of communicating with one another in an informal environment. Abbreviations such as ‘tbh’ instead of ‘to be honest or ‘u’ instead of ‘you’ are certainly practical ones in the hectic lifestyles of the denizens of the twenty-first century. There simply isn't the time to write messages in full, many will argue, yet it is feared that these lazy spelling forms are gradually penetrating the official English language.
    • amkodya
       
      The fast nature of text messaging is causing increased abbreviations.Text language is efficient but not formal. Hectic schedules mean less time spent on proper grammar and spelling. Abbreviations allow people to be lazy and actually turning into the norm for the English language.
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  • numerous employers have complained of the sheer volume of job applications they receive written in text language [1]. In particular they note that many applicants have a tendency to speak informally and use text message abbreviations, giving the impression that they are corresponding with an old friend rather than a potential employer. Such prospective applicants seem therefore poorly educated, lazy, and unprofessional. Needless to say, in most cases such applications are thrown in the bin and never thought of again.
    • amkodya
       
      People who talk in text abbreviations are viewed as poorly educated, lazy and unprofessional. Texting language is not always appropriate. It is informal and it is as if corresponding with friend rather than a professional peer. Future employers do not hire those who are informal and use the lazy text language.
  • this casual, lazy usage of text language outside of the world of mobile phones is becoming something of a contagious disease. Phrases such as ‘lol’ and ‘k’ (meaning ‘laugh out loud’ and ‘okay’ respectively) are being used increasingly in speech and in email correspondence. The result is that many employees and prospective employees appear highly unprofessional in the work place, particularly when corresponding with their superiors.
    • amkodya
       
      Text language is being used in the work place and makes businesses look unprofessional. Text language should not be used when conversing with a superior.
amkodya

Destroying literacy | Life is what you make it - 0 views

  • Some social critics are of the opinion that the spread of the electronic media is destroying literacy. Standardized test scores of reading and writing ability have in fact gone down in recent years. Are the new media the main cause?
  • the number of hours spent watching television declines as the education levels of viewers rise, but education-related differences in the amount of television use are not large and they have been narrowing
    • amkodya
       
      TELEVISION
  • Volti notes that Marshall McLuhan was of the opinion that television affected viewers by requiring they use all their senses, that viewing television was not like reading, which is linear. Television is less concerned with sequence than reading.
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  • Studies have shown that television viewing may actually be detrimental to the perceptual development of children who are not already deficient in language ability and visual skills
  • It is my opinion that reading works the brain. I know that when I read, I can use my imagination, I can draw on information I already know, I can absorb new facts and ways of thinking about things. Volti says that reading fosters “imaginative continuations” that televised stories do not (242).
  • Finally, Volti states “There is also a fair amount of evidence that television watching may contribute to underdeveloped reading skills in children” (242).
chester312

Does Technology Make Us Smarter or Dumber? | TIME.com - 0 views

  • Frequent users of smartphones quickly get used to the “auto-complete” function of their devices—the way they need only type a few letters and the phone fills in the rest. Maybe too used to it, in fact. This handy function seems to make adolescent users faster, but less accurate, when responding to a battery of cognitive tests, according to research published in 2009 in the journal Bioelectromagnetics.
    • amkodya
       
      Frequent users of smartphones quickly get used to the "auto-complete" function of their devices-the way they need only type a few letters and the phone fills in the rest.
  • A study led by researchers at the University of Coventry in Britain surveyed a group of eight- to twelve-year-olds about their texting habits, then asked them to write a sample text in the lab. The scientists found that kids who sent three or more text messages a day had significantly lower scores on literacy tests than children who sent none
    • amkodya
       
      ********
  • The ready availability of search engines is changing the way we use our memories, reported psychologist Betsy Sparrow of Columbia University in a study published in Science last year. When people expect to have future access to information, Sparrow wrote, “they have lower rates of recall of the information itself and enhanced recall instead for where to access it.” It’s good to know where to find the information you need—but decades of cognitive science research shows that skills like critical thinking and problem-solving can be developed only in the context of factual knowledge. In other words, you’ve got to have knowledge stored in your head, not just in your computer.
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  • Email is a convenient way to communicate, but trying to answer messages while also completing other work makes us measurably less intelligent. Glenn Wilson, psychiatrist at King’s College London University, monitored employees over the course of a workday and found that those who divided their attention between email and other tasks experienced a 10-point decline in IQ. Their decrease in intellectual ability was as great as if they’d missed a whole night’s sleep, and twice as great as if they’d been smoking marijuana.
  • Way back in 2001, reading specialists Anne Cunningham and Keith Stanovich reported in the Journal of Direct Instruction that scores on a test of general knowledge were highest among people who read newspapers, magazines and books, and lowest among those who watched a lot of TV. Watching television, they noted, is “negatively associated with knowledge acquisition” — except when the TV watching involved public television, news, or documentary programs. Cunningham and Stanovich didn’t look at Internet use, but the same information divide exists online: high-quality, accurate information, and, well, fluff.
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