David,
Thank you for this great article and great topic.  I am constantly amazed at what our students, who score below 8th grade level in reading and math can do.  They can text with one finger on a tiny machine and talk at the same time.  A few weeks ago, I brought my niece back to Maryland with me after I visited my family in Ohio.  During the 10 hour drive, she managed to carry on a pleasant conversation and text over 900 times!  (I know this because her father got the bill -- he gets a printout even though she has unlimited now).  Her phone is so tiny, I couldn't make out the letters she used to text.  She used her thumb most of the time.  She is a straight A student and does some reading.  She was made to read Three Cups of Tea before entering her 1st year of college, but she was reluctant and didn't want to read it.  She brought it along, but I don't believe she ever opened the book in the two weeks she was with us.  She spent hours on our computer.  
My point is that our "students" are living in a different world.  What a cliche'.  I have so much trouble with my online credit students getting them to understand that the Wikipedia is not a reliable source.  They have fallen for the Octopus hoax (not all, but far too many).  I'm wondering if what we have to do is teach reliability, credibility, skills etc. and be glad they're reading and writing so much more!  
Cindy
 

 

"If you believe in good things, you can  make them happen."
Cindy 



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Today's Topics:

   1. [Technology 1687]  Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really
      Reading? (David J. Rosen)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Sun, 27 Jul 2008 18:55:26 -0400
From: "David J. Rosen" <djrosen at comcast.net>
Subject: [Technology 1687]  Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really
Reading?
To: The Technology and Literacy Discussion List <technology at nifl.gov>
Message-ID: <55EFFB5E-9D33-438C-B552-37196464C82B at comcast.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=WINDOWS-1252; delsp=yes;
format=flowed

Technology colleagues,

Today's New York Times has an article (online, of course) on reading  
online vs reading books. Among other things mentioned are:

? a spoof web site about an endangered Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus  
that 90% of the students of the teacher who assigned the web site  
thought was authentic,
? an Internet literacy test which will be taken by students in OECD  
countries (except the U.S.),  and
? various views about whether reading online is an essential kind of  
reading now or distracting from serious reading.

You'll find the article at:

http://tinyurl.com/6n7vjk 

I wonder what you think of this article (the first in a series).

David J. Rosen
djrosen at comcast.net 





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