21st Century Literacy

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Dangerous “Information” Sources

Are you getting your information from any of these sites?  You might be shocked to find out who is writing/sponsoring some of the articles showing up on your social media pages. I try to keep my Facebook page non-political – but I do have a few news sources that show up daily.  They are liberal sources, so the fact that articles from the following extreme right-leaning sources even showed up, indicates how ubiquitous they must be.  I suspect they might show up even more fequently on the pages of political conservatives.

The Epoch Times 

From Wikipedia: “The Epoch Times is a multi-language newspaper and media extension of the Falun Gong new religious movement.[4][5] The newspaper is part of the Epoch Media Group, which also operates New Tang Dynasty Television (NTD).[6] For its articles, the publication draws from a network within China, as well as staff living in the West.[7][8][9]

RT (TV Network)

From Wikipedia: RT (formerly Russia Today) is a Russian government-funded international television network.[5][6] It operates pay television channels directed to audiences outside of Russia, as well as providing Internet content in English, Spanish, French, German, Arabic, and Russian.

The Washington Times

From Wikipedia: The Washington Times was founded on May 17, 1982, by Unification movement leader Sun Myung Moon and owned until 2010 by News World Communications, an international media conglomerate founded by Moon. It is currently owned by Operations Holdings, which is owned by the Unification movement.[4][5]

OANN – One America News Network

From Wikipedia: The OAN channel originally debuted in partnership with The Washington Times.[15] (see above. The Washington Times was founded by Sun Myung Moon – founder of The Unifaction Church) ….. OAN is known for downplaying threats posed to the United States by Russia. According to a former OAN producer, on his first day at OAN he was told, “Yeah, we like Russia here.”[8][59] One of OAN’s reporters, Kristian Brunovich Rouz, simultaneously works for the Russian propaganda outlet and news agency Sputnik, which is state-owned; when Rouz runs segments on OAN that relate to Russia, OAN does not disclose that he also works for Sputnik.[11]

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Your Brain on Computers

Your brain on computers
Well worth the time reading — it’s not about the kids, it’s about adults,
too.
First in a series of articles
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/technology/07brain.html?ref=technology
If you are interested in this topic – below are a few links.  I am reading Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows right now, and can highly recommend it.
Often questioning the effects of technology ends up branding you with the label “Luddite”.  I am hardly a Luddite, but I have always been concerned about this issue.  I think it is a matter of teaching reading techniques that deal with the new realities of reading in a hyperlinked world.  So far, I’ve not seen much written about this.  Perhaps I am not searching correctly.  If any of you are reading experts – I would love to see some research and techniques for dealing with the new realities of reading.
I am thinking about installing Instapaper and Readability icons on all our browser bars here in the library and teaching kids to use it.  Requiring them to get the “clean copy” of an article and print it.  The point is  not just to save ink, but to save brains, helping people focus more on the text, and spend a little less time chasing links.
Anyway – here are some articles of interest.
http://www.nicholasgcarr.com/
http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2010/05/experiments_in.php
The Future of Reading – My Delicious Account Bookmarks.  I plan to tag all the articles I find under “future of reading.”
http://delicious.com/wanderingbooknut/FutureOfReading
Birkerts, Sven. ”The truth about reading: it’s easy to blame technology for our younger generation’s declining interest in literature. But what, if anything, can be done about it?.” School Library Journal 50.11 (Nov 2004): 50(3). Business and Company ASAP. Gale. Gananda High School. 30 Apr. 2009
http://find.galegroup.com/ips/start.do?prodId=IPS.
Gale Document #: A124941809

I am reading Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, and can highly recommend it.

Often questioning the effects of technology ends up branding you with the label “Luddite”.  I am hardly a Luddite, but I have always been concerned about this issue.  I think it is a matter of teaching reading techniques that deal with the new realities of reading in a hyperlinked world.  So far, I’ve not seen much written about this. Perhaps I am not searching correctly.  If any of you are reading experts – I would love to see some research and techniques for teaching reading in a hyperlinked world. Any literacy coaches out there??

I am thinking about installing Instapaper and Readability icons on all our browser bars here in the library and teaching kids to use them to print a  “clean copy” of articles.  The point is not just to save ink, but to save brains, helping people focus more on the text, and spend a little less time chasing links.  I love that Readability will put the footnotes (hyperlinks) at the bottom.  I like Instapaper because I can save articles, organize them in folders, and read them later on my iPad.  Now, if they both would just do the whole job, I’d really be happy!

I also plan to test-drive  placing my links at the bottom of my posts, rather than embedding them within the body.

So — to that end…

Links referenced above:

Nicholas G. Carr

Instapaper

Readability

Some other articles of interest.

Experiments in delinkification

YOUR BRAIN ON COMPUTERS: Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price New York Times.

Reading as a Participation Sport

Kids AND adults are having trouble focusing on one train of thought. First in a series of articles from the NYTimes
Your Brain on Computers:  Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price

The Future of Reading – My Delicious Account Bookmarks.  I plan to tag all the articles I find under “future of reading.”

Birkerts, Sven. ”The truth about reading: it’s easy to blame technology for our younger generation’s declining interest in literature. But what, if anything, can be done about it?.” School Library Journal 50.11 (Nov 2004): 50(3). Business and Company ASAP. Gale. Gananda High School. 30 Apr. 2009
Gale Document #: A124941809

Finally, here is the RSS feed to my “future of reading” folder on Instapaper, should you be masochistic enough to add it to your news reader.

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Reading Strategies In a Hyperlinked World

I have the sense that our students are losing the ability and/or willingness to read deeply, because  the internet  has changed the dynamics of reading.
I can find lots of articles and books suggesting that this is happening – but so far have not found practical teaching strategies to address the problem.  Surely there are new  strategies emerging to teach reading in a hyperlinked world.
I would love some help with the following:
1.  Titles of books or articles on internet literacy strategies.
2.  Search strategies to locate such articles, since I am not having much luck locating articles on my own.
Thanks for any ideas you can share.
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Writing Out Loud

Good writing and references to the “cannon” remind me of the power and the beauty of reading and writing – and why I became a librarian in the first place.  The Power, the Truth & the Immortality of Words

It has also started me thinking about  communication on the interactive web – ranging from email, to forums, to blogs, to Twitter etc..

We teach expository and creative writing in English class all the time.  How much do we teach about communicating in public?

My questions:

  • Are we teaching students how to communicate effectively ONLINE?
  • Are there writing conventions that we should be teaching to increase the quality of that discourse?
  • Do we teach students how to express their ideas in a compelling and succinct manner?
  • Do we teach students how to express disagreement/dismay/disgust respectfully through powerful language, free of expletives?
  • Do we teach kids the power of using common  literary & cultural references in their writing outside of English class?
  • How many teachers give students the opportunity to practice these skills authentically through blogs and such?

At the risk of being a curmudgeon, when I read the opinions posted on YouTube et al, I despair for the fate of rational discourse in the internet era.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, specific units taught in your school, opinions on how to keep internet communication civil and meaningful, references to articles….anything you would like to share with me – and the small number of folks that wander into this blog now and again.