Nora Clark's List: Group "A"

• Speech recognition, also referred to as speech-to-text or voice recognition, is technology that recognizes speech, allowing voice to serve as the "main interface between the human and the computer." This Info Brief discusses how current speech recognition technology facilitates student learning, as well as how the technology can develop to advance learning in the future.
• Many computer products have built-in accessibility options such as text-to-speech, screen magnification options, or voice input controls. Learn what some of these optional features are and how to integrate them into instruction and studying.

• What ever went with parents and teachers doing this? - Nora Clark on 2013-04-19
• still not humans - Nora Clark on 2013-04-19

• 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.

• I don't think so. - Nora Clark on 2013-04-19

• Although parents and teachers have long feared that texting abbreviations would doom literacy among children, an increasing amount of research has shown that texting actually improves spelling among students.

   

  In one particular study, 114 students aged 9-10 who had never previously used a cell phone were recruited and split into two groups.  Half were given cell phones to use in their leisure time and were periodically evaluated over ten weeks in both reading and spelling. 

• I still fear the same thing - Nora Clark on 2013-04-19

• Research shows that texting improves reading and writing. Find out why texting creates stronger spellers, and discover ways to incorporate it into your lessons.
• A British study published in the Journal of Computer Assisted Learning found a positive correlation between texting and literacy,

• I guess how you define writing. - Nora Clark on 2013-04-21

• 
   Cell phones are a terrific tool to support student engagement and achievement in reading and writing. In fact, “Children who are heavy users of mobile phone text abbreviations... are unlikely to be problem spellers and readers, a new study funded by the British Academy has found. The research*, carried out on a sample of 8-12 year olds over an academic year, revealed that levels of “textism” use could even be used to predict reading ability and phonological awareness in each pupil by the end of the year.” (Plester & Wood, 2009). Also, “…a new study from California State University researchers has found that texting can improve teens’ writing in informal essays and many other writing assignments” (Miners, 2009). In this section we’ll explain how teachers doing just that by using cell phones in the way they are most commonly used among youth -- for texting and group texting.

  • I guess it depends on how you define 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.”

• He noted that there were obviously the occasional occurrences of this happening, but it is an anomaly.  With clear guidelines of where we are writing, our purpose and audience, it should be easy for our students to be able to make the distinction about what writing should look like.  When we ignore the fact that our students text and use digital technologies, I can understand where they would become confused.

   

  Tweeting and our changing culture

   

  Crystal admittedly has not looked deeply into Twitter, but has started to explore it since, as he described it, it is the “SMS system of the Internet”:

   

  “Twitter changed it’s prompt from “What are you doing?” to “What’s happening?” People are now looking more outwards instead of inwards.”

   

  “If you want to find out about an event, you are most likely to find out on Twitter before any other medium.”

• I distinctly remember reading that Osama bin Laden was assassinated before the announcement was made by Barack Obama.  Leaks of the information came so quickly and although it was chalked up to be rumour, it obviously was confirmed after.  More people are turning to the Twitter search function to find out about events in real time from people who are willing to share.  It is rare now that any reporter would not have a Twitter account so they can be the first to share the story, which is much easier from a phone in 140 characters, as opposed to a long article written even on a website.

   

  Moving Forward

   

  Crystal shares some thoughts on how we can help manage this shift in our world and “manage” the way we look at reading and writing:

   

  “Most of us are still in a mindset where we see the book as central and the electronic technology is marginal.  For young people, it is the other way around…We are not going to change that, but we can manage it….put the book into the electronic technology.

   

  
  “Every style of language has its purpose, but we have to see what the purpose is…Take an essay and turn it into a text message or vice versa, take a text message and turn it into the essay.”

   

  Crystal addressed the real concern that our attention span has lessened, and with the advent of short snippets of information, making it harder to pay attention to anything at length. Admittedly, the thought of even watching his talk at 30 minutes in length seemed a little daunting even to me, but with all of the information now available, haven’t our standards risen in what we are watching/consuming?  Think about television…we had two channels when I grew up in Humboldt, Saskatchewan,  and we would sit through shows that I would not give a second look at now.  Today with 100′s of channels, the options are much greater, yet I usually find myself going to the Internet anyway where I can have more personalized options of what I choose to watch, read, and even create.

   

  Concluding Thoughts

   

  Admittedly I have been frustrated by conversations with many regarding the idea that texting is eroding our literacy skills.  I have always been a firm believer that the more we can have our students read and write, no matter how that happens, their skills will improve, as long as we are willing to guide them.  Now, having an expert confirm these thoughts is more than exciting.  I am hoping you will share the video below with others to start some conversation on not only how we can use this medium in our schools, but how we can connect the use of technology into our more traditional forms of literacy. They definitely can serve one another.

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