Your thoughts?

Thanks for sticking with this conversation, you’ve always got the big picture of kids’ well-being in mind…keeping the rest of us honest!

I agree that is how teens read because their world is filled with texting, ICQ-ing, and sound bites. You ask whether the reading we know still has a role to play.

My answer: yes it does.

Exposure to “difference” is fundamental to building a successful learner/person. To concede that since they live in a different world implies that they shouldn’t be exposed to literature and writing and analysis, is no different than allowing teachers to completely ignore the technologies and learning styles of students today, saying all they need is the “way we did it as kids.” As advocates of technology, we can’t allow ourselves to fall into the opposite side, but otherwise identical trap.

Both have value, both need to be tapped. Stretching the mind is ALWAYS a good thing. And understanding culture and thinking and the wonder of human ingenuity and creativity has to continue.

See my post on the value of art for my thoughts on that value on a thinking scale as well.

(I’ve just gone off on a tangent of parenting and teaching and setting boundaries for kids that they need, but it got long winded and WAY off the point, so I just deleted it…suffice it to say, that my mind is spinning)

How do we balance, you ask? With engagement and passion and understanding, I think. We have to believe in what we teach – both the fragmented tech side and the “old-school” stuff. Because if we don’t, they won’t. And then, what’s the point?

Do we teach how to do this? Sadly, I don’t think so.

What about our students? On Learning 2.1’s post ‘What is Web 2.0?’ you wrote:
“all of this particpatory web is not 2.0 to teens…it’s essentially always been this way. It’s 1.0 as far as they are concerned. It’s The Web.”

If this is the case, and much of the web’s tools do lend a staccatatosis to our information processing abilities….well, then that is how teens read. Does text – poetry, literature, essays – have a role within this context, within this type of literacy? How can we balance things? How can we teach when it’s ok to process in a fragmented way and when to go deeper? How do we teach how to do this?
hmmmm….I know…lots of questions! Not necessarily directed at you – just questions to the universe at this point.

Here is the link to the post:
http://mcglaysia.wordpress.com/2008/05/15/what-is-web-20/

Maybe we just have to give ourselves a chance. Too often we read blogs with the purpose of “what will I get out of this?” and “is there something here I can tap into and write about myself?”

But when we read literature…good literature…we can immerse ourselves in the language, the story, the description…stuff we often gloss over when reading online.

And when we are immersed, we appreciate.

I think Mr Friedman could read War and Peace…he just needs to disconnect and immerse himself again, which I imagine he finds little time to do these days.

Definitely something to think about…

Oh, you’re making me think this morning!
tracy