On the place of print literacy;text speak;hypertext literacy; chat and microblogging

The place of print literacy: As a collector of old children's books, and many enjoyable hours spent reading to my kids, I could not imagine a world with out books. Perhaps it is possible to cuddle up on a cold winter's night and use wireless to download a novel this ....but it is not quite the same is it? It is also difficult to be at the hairdressers or wait in a Doctor's/Dentist surgery and hook up your laptop. (Ok, maybe I don't have enough pre-prepared stuff on my mobile, or MP3! )No matter the age of the Readers' Digest or Woman's weekly, you would rather pick that up than sit doing nothing.


Print literacy will always have a place, however I expect will become less common for things like newspapers.


If digital advertising replaced the junk mail, that would be a blessing. An interesting posting on the topic can be found at http://www.redant.co.uk/community/blogs/print-in-the-digital-era/
And another that looks at encouraging a love of reading in the digital era http://conferences.alia.org.au/alia2004/pdfs/ocallaghan.s.paper.pdf



Netspeak and Textspeak: Txting teh Gr8 DB8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texting_the_great_debate David Crystal is quoted

"Typically, less than 10% of the words are abbreviated in text messages.
Abbreviating is not a new language; instead, it has been present for many decades.
Children and adults both use text language, the latter being more likely to do so.
Students do not habitually use abbreviations in their homework or examinations.
Texting is not a cause of bad spelling because people need to know how to spell before they can text.
Texting improves people's literacy, as it provides more opportunity for people to engage with the language through reading and writing. "

I think ability to use text speak interchangeably with SAE is a sign of intelligence. Many professions develop their own shorthand and jargon; Universities, the Defences, are form my observation the greatest generators and users of acronyms.

As a teacher, it is important to teach critical literacy and the appropriateness of when and where text speak should be used. It is not appropriate in CV's, professional reports, or formal letters, it is appropriate in SMS, MSN to friends. Having been a POS, PIR, POS I think teachers could also educate parents on the meanings of what their kids are writing by advising of some good translation websites.

Use of Chat/Instant Messaging in the classroom. Use of these things, provided that they are used as tools to enhance learning are powerful tools to motivate student learning. Students can chat to students in other parts of the world. This would be suitable to mid to upper primary classes. NSW has developed guidelines.

Instant messaging and facebook, seems that to date, does not need to be taught! Kids have been picking the skills up in their own time. Likewise I am not an advocate of facebook in the school environment. Certainly instant messaging when responding or replying to comments in a collaborative learning project such as blogs, and wikis is appropriate - again, it needs to linked to learning outcomes and have structure.

The notion of continuous partial attention syndrome being a product of new technology is a reality of the world we live in. The Y generation is all about connectivity and relationships.... less priority on productivity. I think this topic would be a lively debate for a Year 7 class.

Microblogging. Students should have the opportunity to learn effective use of microblogging, things like twitter are a fantastic way to readily share information and thereby increase exposure to new material - everyone can share the same learning journey. Gone are the days when students relied on a few books in the library to base their project on. Setting up parameters is important e.g. every student to find two references not older than 5 years and text to the others in their group.