Monday, July 14, 2008
Literacy illiterate
The issue of the importance, or rather increase in usage, of technology in the lives of adolescents should not be dealt with lightly. As teachers, we need to be aware of a new learning wave. Yes, we should incorporate technology to connect with our students and engage them; yes, they are learning new forms of connecting with others around the world, learning process, etc. However, at what expense does this come? Parents don't seem to have to worry about installing another phone line for the teenager in the house, for the major forms of communication in the lives of adolescents nowadays include texting, MSN, emailing and facebook. However, what price does literacy pay? Most of us can tell you what LOL, IRT, JJK, LMAO, etc. mean, but ask teenagers today to spell most of those words or to create a full sentence with a noun and verb, or better yet a subject and a predicate, and most high-schoolers will just look at you with a blank stare on their faces. Another valid point that can be raised on the other side is should we even care? With integrated systems such as spellchecker, thesaurus, and translator, should teachers even emphasize grammar and spelling? Should the focus be on ideas? I for one believe in face-to-face communication, and a spellchecker can't help you understand a math problem, solve a physics equation, or present the poem analysis in an English class. Literacy is something that touches all aspects of everyone’s' lives, and as teachers I believe it is our responsibility to encourage literacy in all forms . . . be it technological or grammar related. ;)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Good questions leighfer.
It is important to connect with students through their medium as a sign of respect, but we also have to gradually help them develop skills outside of their comfort zone and help them understand the reciprocity of respect.
Students will see us as part of another world, a world which tells them to use technology. Thus, it is difficult for students to discern the important differences between the goals of media/consumerism messages and the reasons they hear as a part of their education that answer the very natural question "but why."
In part, I equivocate literacy with interpretation of any number of systems (architectural, language, algebra, environmental). It is part of a larger process of sorting, deciphering, making judgments, and having opinions. I think that ideas develop by going through the stages of literacy, and gradually become more complex to provide the foundation for critical thinking.
You raise a very good point Leigh...the use of technology is great, but at what cost to literacy? I have a twelve year old cousin who uses those kinds of acronyms when we chat on MSN and I must admit, it drives me up the wall! Her spelling is quite horrible as well and whenever I've tried to correct her, she says "Who cares?" Getting quite tired of this answer, I typed out a long message emphasising the importance of vocabulary, spelling, grammer, and basic communication skills, and she ended up logging off and didn't speak to me for a month. I don't know whether it was because she didn't care about what I had to say, or if she felt embarrased for her comment (she embarrases easily).
Like you were saying, computers come with integrated systems to ensure spelling and grammer, but I've noticed that there are times when the spellcheck/grammar check has been wrong. Henceforth, we should inform students that they can't rely on technology to fix their mistakes. What would happen if it was suddenly unavailable to them (computer crashed and gone in for repair, or something like that)?
I agree that literacy is very important and we should be encouraging competence, regardless of what form it comes in.
Waht is the porpoise of literasee? Is it to prove who is more literate than another or is it to communicate with multiple and varied people? If you can understand me and I can understand you, what does it matter how well I can write?
On that note, many elementary teachers struggle with whether they should still teach cursive writing - do you use cursive writing? What is its purpose these days?
I will suggest that learning accepted grammar and proper spellings enables a learner to interact with those in power in our society - and that is a strong reason why they (our students) should/could learn to adopt 'proper' language or 'recognized' literacies so that they can be accepted into that culture of power, be taken seriously, and hopefully make changes to offset the power structures...(I can't seem to hide my social advocacy side...).
However, when we consider the cultures that our students are more immersed in on an everyday practice, they are not involved in cultures of dominant power - so respecting their cultures and communication needs is critical. That said, can we create more authentic activities where there is a reason to learn the language of those in power (rather than just for the teacher or the exam)?
Post a Comment