Digital Literacy

What improves reading skills? Well, reading. Navigating the internet would be virtually impossible without the ability to read. We read and write e-mails. We gather on social networks such as MySpace and Facebook. Many of us write and rate articles on sites such as Helium. Simply looking through the internet has the benefit of improving our reading. Even games on the internet have instructions. Reading comprehension improves by reading and learning those instructions. Many game sites also include word games such as Scrabble, Boggle, and others which help nurture thinking, reading, and spelling abilities. GA_googleFillSlotWithSize(HELAD_publishercode, "ArticleATFMiddleArticle300x250", 300, 250); In order to access information from Google, Bing, or any other search engine we need to spell correctly. We also read to go through "hits" given us by those search engines. Another example is that when we spell something incorrectly, Google and other sites note typos and asks appropriate questions to help determine what we are searching for. To surf is to read. The introduction of E-books has introduced reading to a whole new audience. Online shopping requires navigations through the site, and the filling out of information online. We need to read to order our products online. Chat sites also help improve reading comprehension. LOL's and such abbreviations aside, we still need to communicate with actual words, or risk not being comprehended by others. Chat rooms encourage written conversation between two or more people. This only helps reading and writing. Homework research on the internet improves the ability to understand and comprehend material. People learn to construct questions, decipher a lot of different information, and decide what information is appropriate for their specific needs. Grammar sites are all over the internet. All kinds of questions on writing and speaking properly are covered on those websites. Moreover, people can easily go on the internet for access to a dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, or translator. Websites that provide reading skill improvement ideas are easily found. Sites for teachers, parents, and children provide information, games, and exercises to improve reading and comprehension. Many people take classes on the internet. Educational resources abound. Internet quizzes, jokes, and surveys also involve reading skills. Video sites such as YouTube are navigated by using words. Comments are written about videos, and messages are sent back and forth on these sites too. How many things must we read before we even access the internet? How do we search for new things? How do we get to where we want to go? By reading. The internet only serves to improve our reading skills. To think otherwise is to be totally oblivious of the internet itself.

Is the Internet hurting reading skills?

n the age of text messaging, where words are reduced to nonstandard abbreviations and symbols, many people question the future of literacy. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display("dfp-ad-tr_www_body_content_portrait_in_story"); }); But experts point out that, in fact, technology has put new emphasis on reading and writing.“A generation ago, a teen who couldn’t read well could still participate pretty fully in the social conversation among peers,” says Timothy Shanahan, president of the International Reading Association. “But with so much written chatter, being able to read and write have become definite social advantages. There is simply much more pressure to know how to read than in the past when it comes to conversation, shopping, or work.”Shanahan points to the more than 30 billion e-mail messages and 5 billion text messages that are exchanged every day as evidence of how technology “is raising the value of reading in our society, both as an economic and as a social activity.”

more from topnews.us - Not Cached - Edit - Delete - Share▼ Send to... Generate report... Get Annotated Link... Link to the meta page - Preview Reading and writing skills of kids improved as these were a common part of text messaging, psychologist Dr Clare Wood, who led the study at Coventry University, added. Wood said, "We were surprised to learn that not only was the association strong, but that text use was actually driving the development of phonological awareness and reading skills in children." good example - clarkn47 less than a minute ago - Remove

Texting helps students read: Children have to often become creative when texting to help them shorten their messages. An example of this is “C u l8ter” for see you later.

Study: Children Who Blog Or Use Facebook Have Higher Literacy Levels - Derek E. Baird :: Barking Robot more from www.debaird.net - Cached - Text View - Edit - Remove - Preview Research conducted by The National Literacy Trust on 3,001 children from England and Scotland showed that schoolchildren who blog or own social networking profiles on Facebook have higher literacy levels and greater confidence in writing.

Reading through some random tweets leading to a blog post, I found a fantastic video interviewing David Crystal, an expert on the English Language.  Here is a little information on this expert on the English language from Wikipedia: Crystal studied English at University College London between 1959 and 1962. He was a researcher under Randolph Quirk between 1962 and 1963, working on the Survey of English Usage. Since then he has lectured at Bangor University and the University of Reading. He is currently an honorary professor of linguistics at Bangor. His many academic interests include English language learning and teaching, clinical linguistics,forensic linguistics, language death, “ludic linguistics” (Crystal’s neologism for the study of language play),[1] English style, Shakespeare,indexing, and lexicography. He is the Patron of the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL) and honorary vice-president of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP). He has also served as an important editor for Cambridge University Press…His book Txtng: The Gr8 Db8 (published in 2008) focused on text language and its impact on society.

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. David also addressed the idea that the acronyms and slang that we use in our text messaging, shows up in students’ exams, to which he stated: “(When asked) Do you see these ‘textisms” in your exams, the answer universally is no…the kids don’t do it.”