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Mobile-Based Post Literacy Programme

The main objective of the project is to develop a mobile-based literacy programme where the newly literates receive literacy materials as messages on a mobile phone, which they read and then respond to. This programme is designed not only to provide appropriate reading materials to learners in order to maintain and develop their literacy skills through a medium which has become an indispensable means of communication among youths today, but also to promote knowledge concerning many aspects of life and to teach learners about and familiarise them with technological advancements.

A baseline survey is conducted in order to identify the areas where at least 25 female adults are either illiterate or have only basic literacy skills. Community leaders, families and female members of the community are sensitised through meetings which provide information about the advantages and disadvantages of mobile phones and the content of the messages learners would receive on a mobile phone. Village Education Committees are formed and they select the site for the establishment of the literacy centres and identify facilitators in their communities. Village Education Committees are also in charge of management of the literacy centres. Facilitators are then trained in pedagogical methodologies.

There are always synonyms or near-synonyms in our languages, including English. For this course that teaching digital literacy, Selfe's technological literacy is a synonyms to digital literacy.

 Here, Selfe gives a definition about technological literacy: "Technological literacy---meaning computer skills and the ability to use computers and other technology to improve learning , productivity, and performance." 

 In additional to this definition, Selfe states that "technological literacy has become as fundamental to person's ability to navigate through society as traditional skills like reading, writing, and arithmetic..."

Technology is changing literacy, claim Web 2.0 advocates, university researchers, edgy librarians, pundits of the blogosphere, and the media. The visual is ascendant, text is secondary—and linearity? Forget about it. Web surfers flip from one information wave to another, gathering and synthesizing. Beginning, middle, and end are up for grabs.

In the classroom, some educators are attempting to harness the power of technology to increase literacy rates for struggling students, but does using technology really make a difference? An initial assessment of the research on the current generation of technology used to aid literacy yields interesting, if somewhat lackluster, results.

According to Kamil, however, that's not necessarily a bad thing: "The important aspect, from my perspective, is that these were classroom programs that replaced about 10 percent of instructional time. What that means is that since there was no difference, the software programs were as good as the teacher." Such findings, Kamil explains, could signify a shift from teachers using technology as merely a supplement to using it as the means of instruction.

There is increasing evidence that the use of computer technology can positively effect the acquisiti

on of literacy skills in students of all abilities and ages. Using technology to enhance reading and writing instruction can make learning activities more fun and help to create a lifelong love of reading. Through the use of special software programs, children with special needs can be exposed to literacy without being directly taught through task-oriented lessons. Computer-aided reading and writing activities can help students to develop a broad appreciation for and understanding of literacy.

Computer reading software programs give the student the opportunity to manipulate text and have words and sentences presented in a way that makes learning the sounds and words easier. Teachers are better able to individualize reading instruction by having the ability to construct customized reading materials. Children with visual impairments and visual processing difficulties can have larger sized text and extra spacing between words. Text can be repeated as often as necessary and the rate or pace of speech can be adjusted for students with auditory processing difficulties. The use of graphics, sound, and animation can help to motivate and encourage children to complete reading tasks more successfully.

The Internet has become so pervasive that to be truly literate in 2006 demands some degree of technological fluency or at least familiarity. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 73% of American adults had used the Internet or e-mail as of March 2006. For the first time, the National Association of Adult Literacy—the most wide-ranging U.S. study of Literacy—will test computer Literacy in its 2008 survey that measures overall Literacy. With such a large proportion of reading and writing taking place on the Internet, Literacy has changed from a solitary pursuit into a collective one. “You aren’t just a consumer of text anymore,” says Margaret Mackey, a professor at the University of Alberta’s Library and Information Studies Department. Reading now demands an almost instantaneous response, whether through commenting on a blog or writing a review on Amazon . The Internet has shortened the feedback loop on writing and has made readers more active participants, says Matt Kirschenbaum, an assistant professor of English at the University of Maryland. “Reading is more intimately associated with writing,” he says.

How can technology support learners? Electronic references such as dictionaries, thesauruses, encyclopedias. Definitions, translations, and explanations are now a click away. Identify dictionaries and other online tools to use in the program, teach their use, and expect students to use them to develop their vocabulary skills. Look for tools with text to speech to read the word, read the definitions, and support word study. If classrooms are not equipped with Internet-ready computers, consider purchasing handheld dictionaries with many of the same features and encourage students to get their own and use them. Have students sign up for a word of the day e-mail or text message to receive on their own cell or smart phones. Video supports, how-to diagrams and animated illustrations. Visuals are a fantastic tool for building background knowledge, especially for ELL learners. Bookmark sites such as www.HowStuffWorks.com with content specific illustrations to help learners grasp sequences, interactions, and relationships. Use virtual manipulatives and interactive math dictionaries such as the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives and The Math Forum@Drexel University to demonstrate concepts and vocabulary.

Digital text. Convert any scanned reading material into digital text with a scanner that has optical character recognition. This allows it to be read aloud by text to speech software and also customized to meet visual needs (enlarged font, shaded background, etc.). Books are increasingly available for purchase as digital books through online booksellers and free ebooks are available at Project Gutenberg University of Virginia library. For learners with a documented visual and print disability, a subscription is available to the vast online repositories of digital books at Bookshare.org and Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic.

Text-to-speech (TTS) software with electronic references. Providing a read aloud through TTS supports learners' comprehension and vocabulary. Many students with dyslexia have better listening than reading comprehension. TTS programs, especially those with highlighting as the text is read provides a model of fluent reading, supports vocabulary development, and frees attention for annotation and active comprehension.

However, recent research has not been able to lend support to these theories of memory interference, and, in fact, it has shown just the opposite to be the case, text messaging may actually be positively associated with children and adult literacy (Plester et al., 2008, 2009). There have been two broad theories to explain these findings. First, Plester et al. (2009) suggested that texting can allow people access to a form of written language which is not constrained by standard grammer and spelling or produced for the purposes of formal learning practice in school, but rather as a means of easy communication with frieds. Crystal (2008) and Leake (2008) further hypothesized that this freeing from conventional constraints and the additional necessity of brevity to fall within the character limit allows children and adults to use reading and writing in a much more playful way.  

For instance, in her classroom, Sullivan uses photos licensed under creative commons, an alternative to copyright that allows varying degrees of sharing, as a jumping-off point to start a conversation with her students. “It gives them a mental image to connect to,” she says, “a familiar, relatable scene so we can discuss what we see in the photo as a class and build the vocabulary.” Then the students can transition into a writing exercise, says Sullivan. Sullivan also uses audio recorders to have student-teachers read sets of vocabulary words, then she creates matching PowerPoint presentations with the words and burns them onto DVDs for the students to take home and listen to

One of the additional things he discussed in this talk was that we often say, “These kids do not read,” but he quickly dismisses this as a fallacy.  In fact, Crystal goes further to say that kids that text read more than what we did as children because they have more access to writing.  Simply put, they do not read and write the same things that we did.  Looking at my own situation, I have actually read more “books” in the last little while than I ever have, as I carry around a huge book collection all the time on my iPhone and/or iPad.  The ease of access makes it a lot easier for me to read whether it is blogs, books, or yes, text messages and tweets.

distinctly remember reading that Osama bin Laden was assassinated before the announcement was made by Barack Obama.  Leaks of the information came so quickly and although it was chalked up to be rumour, it obviously was confirmed after.  More people are turning to the Twitter search function to find out about events in real time from people who are willing to share.  It is rare now that any reporter would not have a Twitter account so they can be the first to share the story, which is much easier from a phone in 140 characters, as opposed to a long article written even on a website.

     Although there is no evidence that the use of such acronyms and abbreviations in professions and career fields have caused a deterioration of the English language, yet some have argued that the use of textese and textisms may result in diminishing an individual’s use of the English language. On the contrary, according to Plesteret. al (2008), text messaging positively affects the English literacy of students who tend to use more complex sentence structures, increased vocabulary, and increased awareness of correct use of language mechanics.  Furthermore, that better spelling and writing were more evident among students who used textisms

On the Internet, readers skate through cyberspace at will and, in effect, compose their own beginnings, middles and ends.Young people “aren’t as troubled as some of us older folks are by reading that doesn’t go in a line,” said Rand J. Spiro, a professor of educational psychology at Michigan State University who is studying reading practices on the Internet. “That’s a good thing because the world doesn’t go in a line, and the world isn’t organized into separate compartments or chapters.”

Good news for worried parents: All those hours their teenagers spend socializing on the Internet are not a bad thing, according to a new study by the MacArthur Foundation.

“It may look as though kids are wasting a lot of time hanging out with new media, whether it’s on MySpace or sending instant messages,” said Mizuko Ito, lead researcher on the study, “Living and Learning With New Media.” “But their participation is giving them the technological skills and literacy they need to succeed in the contemporary world. They’re learning how to get along with others, how to manage a public identity, how to create a home page.”

“It certainly rings true that new media are inextricably woven into young people’s lives,” said Vicki Rideout, vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation and director of its program for the study of media and health. “Ethnographic studies like this are good at describing how young people fit social media into their lives. What they can’t do is document effects. This highlights the need for larger, nationally representative studies.”

Teenagers and social networking – it might actually be good for them Is too much online socialising among teenagers really creating a generation who can't relate face to face? Not according to the evidence, says Clive Thompson

Indeed, social scientists who study young people have found that their digital use can be inventive and even beneficial. This is true not just in terms of their social lives, but their education too. So if you use a ton of social media, do you become unable, or unwilling, to engage in face-to-face contact? The evidence suggests not. Research by Amanda Lenhart of the Pew Research Centre, a US thinktank, found that the most avid texters are also the kids most likely to spend time with friends in person. One form of socialising doesn't replace the other. It augments it.

"Kids still spend time face to face," Lenhart says. Indeed, as they get older and are given more freedom, they often ease up on social networking. Early on, the web is their "third space", but by the late teens, it's replaced in reaction to greater autonomy.

New York State’s Public Broadcasting stations are committed to lifelong learning.  Adult Education programming provided by the stations offers adults the opportunity to earn a high school equivalency diploma, develop literacy skills, focus on career skills, or learn English as a second language. Follow these links to find out about adult education series, as well as tele-tutoring and outreach from your public television station.