Digital Media Effects on Conventional Reading and Writing Practices

“Writing isn’t just black marks on white paper. It’s full of sound, images, color,” Lunsford says. “I think that students today have an ability to use a combo of words and images. Words free up the images and the images free up the words so they’re both incredibly important but they are doing different things.”

Courtesy of: Karp, Josh. "Does Digital Media Make Us Bad Writers?." Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning. N.p., 26 Jan 2010. Web. 24 May. 2013.

 

Why I Agree

As technology has evolved, so has the way we absorb information.  While scholars were formed by studying what they could find written in words alone from bound books, new generations of scholars are formed thanks to new ways of dispensing information.  Books and newspapers captured interest.  Then radio and television added sound to words along with video to appeal to an audience intrigued by additional communication elements.  As the Internet developed and tools to access the web have become readily available, I think readers have endless opportunities to seek the resources that best appeal to their preferred way of studying, learning and researching.  All include written words in some fashion, whether it be in paragraphs or even just a video title.  All forms still require reading.

 

  

“Learning is not to be found on a printout,” David McCullough, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, said in a commencement address at Boston College in May. “It’s not on call at the touch of the finger. Learning is acquired mainly from books, and most readily from great books.”

 

Courtesy of: Rich, Motoko.

"The Future of Reading Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading? ." . The New York Times, 27 Jul 2008. Web. 24 May 2013.

    

Why I Disagree

When is the last time you helped a child with homework?  In households where continued
learning takes place at the dinner table, access to "mainly" books is unrealistic.  When we study, research, and confirm theories, our resources do include books.  However, they also include a number of online resources (not just excerpts from books we find there or the text book from which our child works.)  If you ask our 10 year old, you'd find that she does see a difference in a book she reads on a Kindle and a book she holds with pages to turn.  Excitement abounds with the gadget she can use "at the touch of a finger".  I think a mix of technological resources and the customary print on paper is necessary for interest in learning. 

Backing Me Up

I just came across the phrase "blended learning environment".  What a great way to describe how students of all ages learn in this century.  It's the perfect explanation for why educators cannot rely on traditional means of teaching alone.  To be literate doesn't just mean absorbing and understanding what you read.  To be literate means to produce messages to share.  I agree with  Ryan Bretag in his blog "The Great Literacy Debate".  Web evangelists are spot on when it comes to supporting the use of Digital Age tools to encourage writing, reading and overall literacy.  The key is to be able to teach young learners which tools are best to use when arguing a point or sharing an opinion.  Audience determines the formality of the message.  What you're reading now wouldn't hold up in a formal research paper.  In a blog, you get the point in a conversational manner.  Quite honestly, students who are learning from books and digital messages may be better educated to communicate in a "blending learning environment" than those taught only by traditionalist means. 

A Bit of Irony

Ironic, don't you think, the source I used to back my opinion, "The Great Literacy Debate", included more than written words?  The video, The New Media Literacies, helped me in sharing my own point of view.  It explains that great learners no longer just consumer of  information.  Great learners are great communicators who can take what they've learned from a number of traditional and non-traditional resources and share it in an unlimited fashion.

Supporting information courtesy of: Bretag, Ryan. "The Great Literacy Debate." Metanioa. N.p., 03 Jan 2009. Web. 24 May. 2013. <http://www.ryanbretag.com/blog/?p=566>.