david hernandez's List: dl-disimformation-debate_-team-a

• The popularity of social networking websites should be exploited by teachers   to develop children's ability to communicate and improve their technological   skills
• Using sites to communicate, collaborate and create means   learners use and can develop a wide range of literacy skills

• These studies reveal that most young people never pick up a book—at least not outside of school
• It’s just that students browse social networking sites, blogs, websites and magazines much more frequently than they read books.
• Teenagers may not be reading books, but they are clearly interested in social networking
• But do social networking sites have any educational benefits? Aside from helping students to make new friends, do social networking sites facilitate learning? The answer seems to be that they do. The National Literacy Trust found that social networking sites and blogs help students to develop more positive attitudes toward writing and to become more confident in their writing abilities
• More than 60 per cent of students who blog and 56 per cent of students who have a profile on a social networking site claim to be “good” or “very good” writers, compared with only 47 per cent of those who don’t use online formats

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• 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.”
• Ongoing research is indicating that text messaging and instant messaging often vary with changes in the rhetorical situation,

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• Scientists discovered that rather than destroying their use of English, texting improves children's ability to recognise rhymes and speech patterns
• Researchers found children as young as five who used mobile phones are better at understanding rhymes and syllables in speech
• Psychologist Dr Clare Wood, who led the study at Coventry University, said the use of abbreviations, commonly used in text messaging, helped  in the development of children's reading and writing skills
• The study also showed that children were subconsciously practising their spelling by regularly sending text messages
• If we are seeing a decline in literacy standards among young children, it is in spite of text messaging, not because of it

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