Reflection on Changing Literacy

Josh Hill

Literacy Theory and Practice

Due 2/18/2011

New York Times Article Reflection

I think it is great that these students are finding new sources of good reading. What ever helps them learn to communicate more effectively as people is good in my book. Literacy to me means that, everyone can communicate effectively to each other. I always hated teachers that looked down on alternative forms of communication. I know that TV is not higher order thinking but some very great writers have written scripts for some of these pieces of entertainment. If using some of these forms of entertainment, we can get students interested in alternative forms of communication they will be better citizens in the future. I was astounded at the amount of writing that is out their on the Internet and I am happy that everyone can have a voice. It would be a great replacement for more passive entertainment.

I would encourage every student to keep a blog and to read and interact with others through this media. Not only can it show how a student is developing but keep them involved in the community around them. If they can ad to their student folio of ideas they will have more success in life. By increasing their self-awareness and communication skills at the same time I believe they will be better able to handle the world ahead of them. I thought the part in this article about making customized test for online learning was interesting. I only wonder about getting context when only the facts are stripped out of the rest of the content.

I read an article recently in Wired Magazine that said that reading online makes it harder to learn because of all the minutia of decisions that have to be made while reading through hypertext, but I wonder if the brain will eventually develop the ability to better process this type of information. I have already developed a good cense of banner blindness while reading on the web. Wide spread literacy is fairly recent and we have evolved to be able to read printed text so why not multi-media. I believe that we are early in this new media revolution and that it will affect mankind in a way similar to the industrial revolution of the 1800s.