All Annotations of Literacy Debate - Online, R U Really Reading? - Series - NYTimes.com[Preview]

saved by14 people, first byAnne Bubnic on 2008-07-27, last byCarrie Mitton on 2008-08-15

• Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?
• hildren like Nadia lie at the heart of a passionate debate about just what it means to read in the digital age. The discussion is playing out among educational policy makers and reading experts around the world, and within groups like the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association.

• As teenagers’ scores on standardized reading tests have declined or
  stagnated, some argue that the hours spent prowling the Internet are the enemy
  of reading — diminishing literacy, wrecking attention spans and destroying a
  precious common culture that exists only through the reading of books.

  
  

  But others say the Internet has created a new kind of reading, one that
  schools and society should not discount. The Web inspires a teenager like Nadia,
  who might otherwise spend most of her leisure time watching television, to read
  and write.

  
  

  Even accomplished book readers like Zachary Sims, 18, of Old Greenwich,
  Conn., crave the ability to quickly find different points of view on a subject
  and converse with others online.

• As teenagers’ scores on standardized reading tests have declined or stagnated, some argue that the hours spent prowling the Internet are the enemy of reading — diminishing literacy, wrecking attention spans and destroying a precious common culture that exists only through the reading of books.

  But others say the Internet has created a new kind of reading, one that schools and society should not discount. The Web inspires a teenager like Nadia, who might otherwise spend most of her leisure time watching television, to read and write.

• n fact, some literacy experts say that online reading skills will help children fare better when they begin looking for digital-age jobs.
• Some Web evangelists say children should be evaluated for their proficiency on the Internet just as they are tested on their print reading comprehension. Starting next year, some countries will participate in new international assessments of digital literacy, but the United States, for now, will not.
• Some traditionalists warn that digital reading is the intellectual equivalent of empty calories. Often, they argue, writers on the Internet employ a cryptic argot that vexes teachers and parents. Zigzagging through a cornucopia of words, pictures, video and sounds, they say, distracts more than strengthens readers. And many youths spend most of their time on the Internet playing games or sending instant messages, activities that involve minimal reading at best.