Our Literacy Future
Literacy issues have been on my mind lately, in particular since we posted the latest PaperTigers website update. And this morning I had proof, courtesy of the New York Times, of the timely nature of my thoughts and concerns.
“Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?” the second article in the NY Times series by Motoko Rich on the future of reading, points to the fact that the internet has found its way to the heart of our lives and to how, as a result, new literacy skills – and new ways of looking at the world – impose themselves on us.
When it comes to kids, we all know those “new ways” are hardly imposed. It seems to be a natural part of their lives to seamlessly move between different online handles and accounts and to navigate the internet and all its lures better, according to some, than they navigate their own lives. Our youth seem to believe that there’s nothing like the internet (where reading breadth and depth is calibrated according to one’s whims) to provide them with the experience of having the whole world at their fingertips. But what about the equally-whole world that books introduce us to? What of the greater depth of experience to be gained from reading them?
Well, it shouldn’t be a matter of either/or. The definition of literacy is evolving, just as language and communication technologies always have and always will. If in addition to high-quality teaching our literacy concerns encompass information literacy and plenty of questioning skills, I trust that kids will learn to navigate life (and to read books) just as well as they do the internet. Their online ways can teach us important lessons about our literacy future. Let’s pay attention.
More reactions to the NY Times article can be found here.
July 29th, 2008 at 11:12 am
The photo that accompanied the NYT article was quite interesting, wasn’t it? The father with his newspaper, the mother with her book, and the two daughters with their laptops–all reading, all literate. This is reminiscent of the big comic book debate of the fifties–comic books were going to kill the art of reading! Now graphic novels like Maus and Persepolis have expanded the art of reading by using the comic book form to create new literature.
As a bookseller, I’m a purveyor of dead trees. With that in mind, I read the news more and more online and less and less in paper form. It lacks the sensory experience of the pages in my hands, but I feel that’s a luxury that the world can no longer afford. Reading a book on a screen is something I do when editing but it feels “wrong.”
Is that just a feeling that I need to get past? Is the Kindle or books on a laptop the next step? What do other people think?
July 29th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Yes, a great photo indeed!… As for the comic book debate, Parents’ Choice has a great article called “Can X-Men Make You Smarter?” which helps “put the skeptics at ease” (here are still so many of them, unfortunately!) Here’s the link to it.
I haven’t been able to get used to e-books myself, but I do think that, for many, it is a great convenience to be able to read a book on a blackberry. I do think we are heading more and more in that direction, and environmental reasons are only part of the reasons why. The portability factor and the choice of downloading anything you want at any time are attractive pros as well. But whenever I try to imagine reading a whole book on screen (whether big or small) I have a hard time. I still struggle with the idea of books on tape!…
July 29th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Actually, I love listening to audio books. I grew up with audio tapes in the car and now my two listen to them a lot too. And I do think it has given them another perspective on being read to – listening to stories didn’t just come from being read to directly. But reading books off the screen. Hmm. My eyes don’t like it and I get frustrated with not feeling in control of the book – you can’t flick bacwards and forwards very efficiently. But that’s a technological thing. The literacy issues are interesting. Taking it to a further extreme, there has been quite a bit of debate in the UK over the last couple of years about text messaging and what that is doing to traditional perceptions of literacy – here’s a list of links on the National Literacy Trust’s website…
July 29th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Blogging is getting a certain amount of flak here because it encourages the idea that writing is an instant process with no need for editing, rewriting, and rewriting again. At least though blogs are written in English and not in that weird shorthand R U (put emoticon here)? I C U.
Now that I plan to live in a country where English-language books are scanty and package delivery can be uncertain, I think about getting a Sony whatever they are called and reading downloaded books, but that feels as though it would be like eating with a mitten on my tongue.
August 5th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
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