I believe the future of this country is certainly moving towards computer literacy. If you are not computer literate you will miss out on a lot of information and fun that the web has to offer. As an English teacher I like web 2.0 much better than the text messaging on phones. At least on the internet it is still important to spell words correctly and be literate in English. Students need to understand that even though we are becoming a society of internet users it is still important to write grammatically correct.
I don't particularly like MySpace and other similar sights because of problems it causes when parents don't actively monitor their child. We as educators and parents need to warn our children and students to be very careful about personal information they give out online without even thinking. Although I don't really care for these types of sights I do see a benefit.
Children that wouldn't normally read are more likely to read a friends MySpace or blog than sit down and read a book. The more a child reads the better reader they will be.
It is a challenge for teachers to keep up with the newest web information. I feel like most of my students are way ahead of me when it comes to using the internet. We, as teachers, need to keep up with the latest trends in education, but there is so much information that it can seem mind boggling.
1 comment:
You bring up a good point about reading. Perhaps we need to expand our definition of what reading is. Does it always have to be a novel or work of fiction in order to count as "reading"? Or should we allow and encourage students to read in all formats - print and non-print? Some of the research that the Pew Internet Project is doing suggests that kids do most of their leisure reading online. What are the implications for us as educators?
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