After reading the article by Motoko Rich (2008), "Literacy debate: Online, R U really reading?" I thought a lot about my students and where they would fit into this. The college students I work with are very invested in their classes, and so picking up a book to read when they have time off is not a usual thing they do. As Rich points out in the article, reading online can connect young people with the content that interests them most as well as others that share their ideas. Many times material contains related links so it is easy for someone to continue to explore a specific topic with varying opinions in different online locations. Online websites are also beneficial to those that struggle with reading and it can give them the place to read without criticism (Rich, 2008). I also feel that having access to tablets, that I am seeing more students using in place of textbooks, are a way to quickly access a website and read a few short articles instead of needing to be immersed in a book.
I also found interesting information about the increase in consumption of news in the 2013 article, "Digital: As mobile grows rapidly, the pressure on news intensify" by Jane Sasseen, and Kenny Olmstead and Amy Mitchell of the Pew Research Center. The article discusses the rise in consumers viewing the news on their mobile devices due to the fact that you can carry it with you all the time. News stations have also started to use social media as a way to reach out to their viewers and engage their audience. According to the authors (2013), “Audiences now consume more news through social media than they did before.” Even though people may not be always watching a news broadcast, they are still obtaining the news online through the expansion into social media.
I feel that with the changes in society and technology, we need to find an alternative way to make young people interested in reading again. When they are required to do research for a paper in a class they look up resources online, yet we expect them to only read printed books in their spare time. If we can integrate this type of reading into classes in such a way that explains the flaws in editing or lack of proper sources, students can be more critical of what they read. Dismissing an alternative way of reading before exploring how it could be a benefit is performing a disservice to our young people. There is always a chance that a young reader discovers a passion for writing by reading fan fiction or journalism through news articles.
References:
Rich, M. (2008,
July 27). Literacy debate: Online, r u really reading?. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/books/27reading.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Sasseen, J.,
Olmstead, K., & Mitchell, A. (2013). Digital: As mobile grows rapidly, the
pressures on news intensify. Retrieved from http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2013/digital-as-mobile-grows-rapidly-the-pressures-on-news-intensify/
Hello Breanne:
ReplyDeleteGreat post and you share some excellent insights especially in reference to the consumption of news through mobile devices and social media sites.
So, many people are gathering new information in this way and
this often creates an instant buzz.
However, what is written in "World of Social Media" in my opinion often has a mindset of its own. It's almost become another "Genre unto itself" and does not necessarily connect to sound reason or fact! Therefore, like you mentioned in the last paragraph (Students/people) need to learn to differentiate reputable content from distorted and emotionally charged commentary.
You are right to say that especially young people need to read from books. However, expecting them to pick up the paperback or hardcover when their hand is already holding onto an electronic device is pretty difficult. Isn't it amazing how the devices have become so addicting that most of us have it with us at all times as if it were a vital life source!
Therefore, the direction is to use the device to read and obtain reputable information. However, this is where educators such as yourself come in and teach the young people how to differentiate between quality content and "Buzz" and how to access the quality content just as often as they read "Social Chit Chat." And that takes some discipline...
Hi Joseph,
DeleteThank you for your insight! Since I work in primarily math and science disciplines it can be more interesting to find sources that explain concepts and that are also accurate. Many students that are frustrated search for online videos, however they do not explain them accurately, or certain websites like Wikipedia (https://www.wikipedia.org/) can be freely edited. I try to guide them towards sites that I know are accurate in their descriptions and hope that they make their best judgment!
Hello Breanne,
ReplyDeleteYou make great points about how much has changed in the way that people get their news. I mentioned in my paper how I'm old enough to remember a time before even cable TV was in nearly all American homes. In order to get news, you had to either read newspapers or watch the local and national news- at 6 and 7 PM and then again at 10 and 11. This wasn't always an easy thing to do, with work and life commitments and such. Although I was just a kid back then, I remember watching the news was almost a family ritual, especially among my older relatives like my grandparents. It had a certain charm to it, but it wasn't something young people could do on a nightly basis. In the 80s Ted Turner presented CNN to the world- 24 hour news, a radical concept. It quickly caught on and led to the news revolution that we see today. I feel that has been a huge net positive as far as the free flow of information is concerned. Even though I was aware of current events when I was younger, I wasn't engaged the way young people are today. With Twitter and Facebook, news actually goes directly to a person's feed with no need to even seek it out.
This of course, leads to the dilemma we have with encouraging book reading. It is our duty as educators to explain to young people, many whose entire lives have occurred during the age of the Internet, the value of reading books. If they feel a clumsy old book isn't their thing, we can always suggest kindles and eBooks. We have to get them to understand that a book can transport you into a place that other forms of media cannot, such as a time in the past, present or future. If a young person happens to be a news junkie or someone merely interested in current events, we need to show them that if they really want to learn the true depth of a topic or historical event, a book written by an esteemed author is a much better way to get that information than an article on the Internet, often written by someone who merely paraphrased information obtained by a primary source. With hard work and dedication, I feel we can lead them down this path. No one is asking them to give up their smartphones or their iPads, we are merely trying to broaden their horizons by presenting the unique value that books hold.
I agree that we need to find a way to engage students in reading again. As educators we need to find a good balance between old and new literacies. Students should have the option between paper and digital texts. I have found that students performing significantly below grade level respond positively to the new literacies that I have introduced into my instruction. Students are now able to speak and write about the content that they have read. This makes for a very powerful discussion after independent reading. In this article, Rich did a solid job of showing both sides of the literacy debate.
ReplyDeleteDerrick that's a great idea you suggested, giving them the option between traditional paper or digital texts. Although it might be more rare these days, I still see students who prefer a book to a digital text. It's personal preference really, some people love the look, feel, and smell of a new book, some prefer modern convenience. The more choice we give students, the more it enhances their learning experience. I know there are schools moving completely away from pens, pencils, paper, books, etc. I'm not sure that's the best idea but I can understand that they're trying to stay a few steps ahead of the game. It will be interesting to watch how digital technology unfolds and if it will make books obsolete or cause a backlash. Many of us who were around in the 70s never really thought vinyl records would have a revival, but we've seen in the past ten years that it has.
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