"A list for improving literacy with focus on middle grades." <[email protected]> writes: >Exciting times. Much to know and understand though and sometimes I >question what's lost or replaced when we choose an computer based >project. I strive for balance, don't we all. Paper and pen must not >be lost.
Hi! I wonder about this, too, Jacquie. I can get so focused on the mass quantities of information available on the Internet, the ease of revising and editing when using a word processor, that I don't always remember the virtues of good old fashioned print. So - here's a question - what is lost with working electronically, and what should we consider as we strive for balance? For example, one thing I think is way easier to do with print text is the reading skill of jumping backward and forward to double-check information. Somehow, for me at least, scrolling back, or clicking back through multiple electronic pages, is much more painful than flipping back through pages of a book. Maybe that's a generational thing, though. Possibly? I also wonder - and there's got to be research on this point, though I don't personally know of any - whether the kinesthetic aspect of physically writing things down leads to longer-term learning than typing things. That said, though, my handwriting has become atrocious over the past decade, and I get physically ill if I have to write a great deal (fine finger movements, for whatever reason, have always made me literally nauseous). So for me, it's better to make a kinesthetic learning sacrifice and type away. Perhaps the same is true of our students? Also, though I never text, I know many of our students do so routinely. At what point do we decide that using this skill as a means toward... some educational end, at any rate, is something we need to be doing? That's my quick take. What am I missing? What are your experiences (and your students)? Take care, Bill Ivey Stoneleigh-Burnham School _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive
