This is an interesting article written by Naomi Baron, a linguistics professor at the University of Washington. http://www.startribune.com/stories/562/5756116.html. I agree that all this internet, digital, online, electronic – whatever one might choose to call the new media –information has made (or at least it seems so) the younger generation lazy. While librarians and to some extent publishers are thinking of making users’ lives easier in their search for information by providing electronic access, the same electronic community is also forgetting that evaluating the information they find is a crucial step. Librarian and teachers have tried to reiterate this in their instruction modules. But it doesn’t seem to spread to all levels of students.
Also with internet users, including myself, browse. Browsing is not the same as reading. Quite often I only read the headlines and don’t go any further. This along with the fact that users are not evaluating their information will no doubt lead to an illiterate society. But, I do not agree with Naomi when she asks “will effortless random access erode our collective respect for writing as a logical, linear process?” There are many cases where the process of writing is being abused through wikis, blogs and personal websites. But this has also given students and the public in general a chance to explore the art of writing. Writing comes with practice and it helps when someone passes along a positive or constructive criticism. I understand that unfortunately not much of that goes around either. Teachers in school can help with this problem. If children learn at a young age about the etiquettes of writing, our future blogs, wikis and many other nameless softwares that are yet to come will be of better quality. As she mentioned Cliff Notes and Reader’s Digest have been around for a while and yet there was a user community that took the time to read the primary texts. Some one encouraged this – a teacher, a parent or a librarian. We have to continue doing this. This is asking too much, but it would be nice if we can forget the economy for a while and concentrate on issues that will really better our lives in future – helping form a truly literate society.
New media always come with new set of problems. It will take some time and effort from all of us to fix these problems.
MK
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2 comments:
I agree with you about Internet/electronic/digital information - it has made many students very lazy indeed. I can't count how many I've had walk away in disgust when they learn that their assignments involve, Heaven forbid!, WORK. I believe it is tied into the entitlement mentality many of our youngsters seem to suffer from. I find that little can be done with them until they realize that grades aren't handed out like candy.
Thankfully, we have many students who enjoy a challenge and, like me, suffer from terminal curiosity. They are willing to sift through material, think about it, synthesize it, and form an intelligent opinion. To quote Carroll "O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!" I'm always thrilled to work with those students and, many, many times, I learn from the students.
Is the Internet useful? Very. But I find that my use is very different from that of students. I'm not writing a paper based on nonsense or misinformation (I can spot it, unfortunately many 19-year-olds can't) dredged up using Google. Bad research habits persist. I left the corporate world (research, editorial assistant, fact-checker) in 2004 and found that most factual errors made by freelance writers appeared in the first couple of sites on Google. These "professional" writers were relying on Google when they shouldn't have. Most of them were not of my generation (I just turned 47); they were mostly recent college graduates.
Keep up the good work - I'll check your blog regularly.
Hi Maha,
It was interesting to read your blog. Your entry on the web making people illiterate made me think about the kids I teach. I can't tell you how challenging it is to actually get kids to read web sites when they are researching something. I find that if they can't find what they are looking for immediately they go on to another site. They seem to think the computer will give them the answers and they will not have to do any work. Many times I have had to say "You need to read the information to find what you are looking for." As a student we only had books to look up information but kids now only go to books as a last resort. I am not sure what the solution is but I certainly think technology is not helping some kids.
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