Denise Abreu-Alvarez's List: Activity 2.4 Misinformation Debate Team B Ware

• As technology has played a bigger role in our lives, our skills in critical thinking and analysis have declined, while our visual skills have improved, according to psychological research.
• Reading for pleasure, which has declined among young people in recent decades, enhances thinking and engages the imagination in a way that visual media such as video games and television do not, Greenfield said.
• By using more visual media, students will process information better," she said. "However, most visual media are real-time media that do not allow time for reflection, analysis or imagination — those do not get developed by real-time media such as television or video games. Technology is not a panacea in education, because of the skills that are being lost.
• Studies show that reading develops imagination, induction, reflection and critical thinking, as well as vocabulary,
• Reading for pleasure is the key to developing these skills. Students today have more visual literacy and less print literacy. Many students do not read for pleasure and have not for decades."
• Among the studies Greenfield analyzed was a classroom study showing that students who were given access to the Internet during class and were encouraged to use it during lectures did not process what the speaker said as well as students who did not have Internet access. When students were tested after class lectures, those who did not have Internet access performed better than those who did.
• Wiring classrooms for Internet access does not enhance learning
• Another study Greenfield analyzed found that college students who watched "CNN Headline News" with just the news anchor on screen and without the "news crawl" across the bottom of the screen remembered significantly more facts from the televised broadcast than those who watched it with the distraction of the crawling text and with additional stock market and weather information on the screen.
• multi-tasking "prevents people from getting a deeper understanding of information," Greenfield said.
• On the other hand, if you're trying to solve a complex problem, you need sustained concentration. If you are doing a task that requires deep and sustained thought, multi-tasking is detrimental."
• University of California - Los Angeles. "Is Technology Producing A Decline In Critical Thinking And Analysis?." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 29 January 2009. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090128092341.htm>.

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• Texting could effect both children’s writing and reading development.
• It was found that children who used their mobiles to send three or more text messages a day had significantly lower scores in verbal and nonverbal tests than children who sent none.
• Children invented different ways for spelling words based on their pronunciations. This leads to misspelling words when having to correctly write words inside and outside the classroom. Consequently, a student could have poor vocabulary and writing skills.
• Even though spelling mistakes can be corrected, grammar is not fixed
• “Text language fulfils the criteria of spoken language as follows: it is spontaneous, loosely structured, socially interactive, not time-bound, as the message may remain as long as desired.”
• Texting usually does not include proper punctuation and capitalization if any at all. This could effect people’s correct punctuation and capitalizing when writing and lead to confusion on what they are trying to write.
• People become more confident when saying things indirectly through text messaging; moreover, they could loose their bravery and communication skills when they are talking one on one with someone
• This is solved by using symbols to express emotions and textisms such as, LOL (laugh out loud), OMG (oh my god), and JK(just kidding). Almost every generation is converting to this fast and easy way to communicate with one another. But is this beneficial?
• Plester, Beverly, Clare Wood, and Victoria Bell. “Txt msg n school literacy: does texting and knowledge of text abbreviations adversely affect children’s literacy attainment?.” Literacy 42.3 (2008): 137-144. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 21 Oct. 2011.

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• Digital natives, people born after 1980, have grown up with new technology and are using it every day, multiple times a day. This research will uncover why this new technology, text messaging in particular, is affecting students’ learning.
• Over the years, “texters” have saved time by creating a new form of shorthand often called “chat-speak”. This form of writing uses abbreviations that includes numbers, symbols and, incorrect grammar. Students who text every day have gotten so used to this form of writing that they are starting to use it for school related projects and real world scenarios, such as job applications.
• She goes on to say that it also does not require critical thinking or analysis. O’Connor, another critic, reported that the more students use tools like instant messaging, the less they are able to separate formal and informal English. For example they abbreviate “y-o-u”, “u”.
• One critic says that this type of communication is destroying the way our kids read, think, and write
• A problem some teachers are noticing is that students no longer know how to punctuate correctly. Text messages often contain run on sentences and don’t contain any punctuation; students are carrying this poor habit to the classroom.
• Students aren’t using capital letters where they should.
• One scholarly journal conducted an experiment to test the general literacy ability of sixty-five 11 and 12 year old children in the Midlands of England. The experiment required these children to translate sentences in English to “chat speak” (I can’t wait to see you later tonight, is anyone else going to be there?) and then translate “chat speak” into English (Hav u cn dose ppl ova dere?). They found that many of the students used incorrect grammar and punctuation in their Standard English writing.
• "teachers say that papers are being written with shortened words, improper capitalization and punctuation, and characters like &, $ and @. "
• One student, a fifteen year-old boy wrote on his job application “i want 2 b a counselor because i love to work with kids.”
• O’Connor’s point is that kids who heavily use forms of instant messaging, such as texting, can change how they “read words on a page”.
• In an article by Norm Goldstein and Clinton Gardner, they talk about how the speed of writing using a computer has an effect on peoples’ writing: “There's no sense in debating the attitude. According to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, 90 percent of Americans between the ages of 5 and 17 use computers. And, in most cases, you'd have to agree: Computers are better. The legitimate worry, though, is what this will mean to writing in the future. Not just handwriting, but the style, spelling, punctuation, grammar of all written expression. The effects-ill effects-are already apparent. Just read e-mails for evidence”
• because computers today can automatically correct spelling and punctuation, it is affecting the way students spell and punctuate on hand written assignments.
• The lack of conciseness when it comes to writing a text message is outstanding. Texters no longer have to worry about what they’re writing. They can breeze through a long text message and not have to worry about spelling errors. This is negatively affecting the way people write shorthand. When it comes down to writing shorthand, these “texters” and “IM-ers” have no clue how certain words are spelled. They are so used to the phone or computer writing it for them.
• Edutopia, an educational website for students, conducted a poll regarding the issue of text messaging versus grammar (“Text Messaging and its Effects on Teens’ Grammar” 1). Almost 300 people voted, and the results were in favor of “Yes, I believe students are carrying over the writing habits they pick up through text messaging into school assignments.”
• Together, 70 percent of the votes casted agreed that texting does have some impact on student’s writing. Students who voted “yes” have probably used text messaging lingo in their school work or have seen it used. When students admit to using this text messaging lingo to complete homework assignments it’s obvious that it is a problem.
• who is to blame for students’ inability to properly write in formal English when it calls for it?
• Proponents of text messaging say that texting is good for students because it causes them to write more, and students have been writing more than ever before. This is true. However, text messages are often created using a lack of critical analysis. There are character limitations to text messages and students have accustomed their text messaging writing to accompany these limitations.
• One English teacher put it well when they said a sentence in a text message may only contain five words and “get the job done” so students are thinking that shortened responses will also “get the job done” in the classroom
• Statistically phone bills show that on average, teens send and receive about 1800 text messages per month. This increase in text messaging has affected how students write formally.
• It is accurate to say that the over-use of texting has been detrimental to the way students write formally in the classroom and in the real world.
• Using this style so frequently has caused them to carry it over to formal writing projects. Although students are writing more than ever, they are writing with little to no depth, terrible grammar, and are abbreviating almost every word they write. Texting has negatively affected the way students write.
• Bivens-Tatum, Wayne. “The Dumbest Generation?”. Academic Librarian. September 9, 2008. <https://blogs.princeton.edu/librarian/2008/09/the_dumbest_generation.html>.
   Dean K. Tomita. “Text Messaging and Implications for its use in Education.” University of Hawai’i at Manoa. 2009. <http://etec.hawaii.edu/proceedings/2009/Tomita.pdf>.
   Dillon, Sam. “What Corporate America Can’t Build: A Sentence”. The New York Times. December 7, 2004. <http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/07/business/07write.html>.
   Friess, Steve. “Yo, can u plz help me write English?”. USA TODAY. March 31, 2003. <http://www.usatoday.com/life/2003-03-31-chat_x.htm>.
   Goldstein, Norm and Gardner, Clinton. “Speak Out: Does technology hurt student writing?”. American Teacher. March 2005. <http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5369/is_200503/ai_n21369418/>.
   O’Connor, Amanda. “Instant Messaging: Friend or Foe of Student Writing?”. March 2005. <http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/literacy/oconnor.htm>.
• Plester, Wood, and Bell. “Txt msg n school literacy: does texting and knowledge of text abbreviations adversely affect children’s literacy attainment?”. October 24, 2008. <http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1741-4369.2008.00489.x/pdf>.
   Snow, Nathaniel. “Is IM/text speak destroying the English language, or can it serve to educate?”. <http://sites.google.com/site/nathanielrsnow/home>.
   The University of Alabama Computers and Applied Technology Program. “Text Messaging and its Effects on Teens’ Grammar”. Technology Education: A series of Case Studies. 2009. <http://www.bamaed.ua.edu/edtechcases/Case%20Numbers/text%20messaging%20and%20grammar_Case%2011.pdf>.
   Vosloo, Steve. “The effects of texting on literacy: Modern scourge or opportunity?”. Shuttleworth Foundation. April 2009. <http://vosloo.net/wp-content/uploads/ pubs/texting_and_literacy_apr09_sv.pdf>.

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• Cyber slang is a term used to describe shortcuts, alternative words, or even symbols used to convey thoughts in an electronic document.
• “I think it makes sense for these social conversations to be lightweight or light-hearted in terms of the syntax,” said President of Dictionary.com Shravan Goli. “But ultimately, in the world of business and in the world they will live in, in terms of their jobs and professional lives, students will need good, solid reading and writing skills. I’m a little worried about where we are in America with literacy levels dropping. Are these [electronic devices] helping us, or making it worse? I think they may be going the other way and making it worse.”
• Cyber slang is suspected of damaging students’ writing acumen.
• Common cyber-slang terms that have made their way into popular speech include BFF (best friends forever), LOL (laugh out loud) and WTF (what the ____).
• Article by Jason Tomaszewski, EducationWorld Associate Editor
  Education World®    
    Copyright © 2011 Education World

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• THE EVOLUTION of technology over the last decade or so has been rapid, not only introducing innovative gadgets but also popularising what linguists have referred to as a ‘new language’ among young people.
• Features of electronic language include the shortening of words, such as ‘probs’ meaning ‘probably’ and initialisms such as ‘LOL’ which translates to ‘laugh out loud’.
• According to Varnhagen (2010:719), ‘electronic communication appears to have generated a “new language” of abbreviations, acronyms, word combinations, and punctuation.’
• Although such textisms are harmless when used in informal contexts, the worry among many is that such language will infiltrate into other forms of language and will become acceptable in our everyday communication.
• the concern is that texting and computer-mediated communication (CMC) will have a negative impact on literacy skills and how effectively young people learn to read and write in school.
• with Woronoff (2007) stating that texting is a ‘habit forming menace [and] can influence kids to spell incorrectly or get confused about the correct usage’.
• The general consensus among those who believe that texting and CMC are harmful to the development of literacy skills is that the more you communicate in this way, the poorer your reading and writing skills will be.
• ‘spelling ability was not highly correlated with new language use’
• ‘children who are comfortable with writing – those with good literacy skills – will be experimental and use textisms more than other children’
• ‘it is crucial to recognise the various causes of inadequate literacy’

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• Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy.
• Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.
• For more than a decade now, I’ve been spending a lot of time online, searching and surfing and sometimes adding to the great databases of the Internet. The Web has been a godsend to me as a writer. Research that once required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes.
• For me, as for others, the Net is becoming a universal medium, the conduit for most of the information that flows through my eyes and ears and into my mind.
• Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.
• I’m not the only one. When I mention my troubles with reading to friends and acquaintances—literary types, most of them—many say they’re having similar experiences. The more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing.
• Scott Karp, who writes a blog about online media, recently confessed that he has stopped reading books altogether. “I was a lit major in college, and used to be [a] voracious book reader,” he wrote. “What happened?”
• “What if I do all my reading on the web not so much because the way I read has changed, i.e. I’m just seeking convenience, but because the way I THINK has changed?”
• “I now have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print,”
• His thinking, he said, has taken on a “staccato” quality, reflecting the way he quickly scans short passages of text from many sources online. “I can’t read War and Peace  anymore,” he admitted. “I’ve lost the ability to do that. Even a blog post of more than three or four paragraphs is too much to absorb. I skim it.”
• But a recently  published study  of online research habits , conducted by scholars from University College London, suggests that we may well be in the midst of a sea change in the way we read and think.
• the scholars examined computer logs documenting the behavior of visitors to two popular research sites, one operated by the British Library and one by a U.K. educational consortium, that provide access to journal articles, e-books, and other sources of written information.
• They found that people using the sites exhibited “a form of skimming activity,” hopping from one source to another and rarely returning to any source they’d already visited.
• They typically read no more than one or two pages of an article or book before they would “bounce” out to another site.
• It is clear that users are not reading online in the traditional sense; indeed there are signs that new forms of “reading” are emerging as users “power browse” horizontally through titles, contents pages and abstracts going for quick wins. It almost seems that they go online to avoid reading in the traditional sense.
• Maryanne Wolf, a developmental psychologist at Tufts University
• “We are not only what we read,”
• “We are how we read.”
• Wolf worries that the style of reading promoted by the Net, a style that puts “efficiency” and “immediacy” above all else, may be weakening our capacity for the kind of deep reading that emerged when an earlier technology, the printing press, made long and complex works of prose commonplace.

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• Reading, explains Wolf, is not an instinctive skill for human beings. It’s not etched into our genes the way speech is. We have to teach our minds how to translate the symbolic characters we see into the language we understand.
• James Olds, a professor of neuroscience who directs the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study at George Mason University, says that even the adult mind “is very plastic.” Nerve cells routinely break old connections and form new ones. “The brain,” according to Olds, “has the ability to reprogram itself on the fly, altering the way it functions.”
• we inevitably begin to take on the qualities of those technologies.
• The Net’s influence doesn’t end at the edges of a computer screen, either. As people’s minds become attuned to the crazy quilt of Internet media, traditional media have to adapt to the audience’s new expectations. Television programs add text crawls and pop-up ads, and magazines and newspapers shorten their articles, introduce capsule summaries, and crowd their pages with easy-to-browse info-snippets.
• The idea that our minds should operate as high-speed data-processing machines is not only built into the workings of the Internet, it is the network’s reigning business model as well.
• The last thing these companies want is to encourage leisurely reading or slow, concentrated thought. It’s in their economic interest to drive us to distraction.
• Then again, the Net isn’t the alphabet, and although it may replace the printing press, it produces something altogether different.
• In the quiet spaces opened up by the sustained, undistracted reading of a book, or by any other act of contemplation, for that matter, we make our own associations, draw our own inferences and analogies, foster our own ideas. Deep reading, as Maryanne Wolf argues, is indistinguishable from deep thinking.
• I come from a tradition of Western culture, in which the ideal (my ideal) was the complex, dense and “cathedral-like” structure of the highly educated and articulate personality—a man or woman who carried inside themselves a personally constructed and unique version of the entire heritage of the West. [But now] I see within us all (myself included) the replacement of complex inner density with a new kind of self—evolving under the pressure of information overload and the technology of the “instantly available.”

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• Researchers have conducted studies which they believe prove the internet has ‘rewired’ the way our brains absorb information.

• The internet offers so many gateways to other pages, that it has made it difficult for us to focus on one piece of information at a time.

   

  In other words: the internet is making us all a little more A.D.D.
• Experts describe this habit of darting from page to page as "associative" thinking.
• They have especially noticed this habit in younger children, whom are comparably less focused on studying, reading, and writing then the age group was when measured in the past. This is damaging to reading ability because it decreases our ability to comprehend what we read.
• Another way researchers believe the internet has impacted our critical thinking abilities is that we now use less reliable sources to learn about new ideas. We often accept any article as fact.
• They found that students children’s reading abilities now do less research before answering a question. They also found that they trusted their friends for answers more than adults.
• "I'm at the Digital Media and Learning conference this week, where no one would suggest the Internet and search engines are making kids less smart. It does create new issues of literacy, in the same way that the printing press created new capacities and standards of literacy.” -Alex Halavais, vice president of the Association of Internet Researchers
• "What the Net does is shift the emphasis of our intelligence, away from what might be called a meditative or contemplative intelligence and more toward what might be called a utilitarian intelligence. The price of zipping among lots of bits of information is a loss of depth in our thinking.” -Nicolas Carr, Author of "The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, From Edison to Google"

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• We as a society have become so engulfed in social media that we are failing to realize the level of dependency we now have for it.
• We are addicted, and just like an addict we have built up a tolerance that requires more of the drug to keep us satisfied. Even worse, just like an addict we cannot function normally without being on the drug.
• Communication between the human race is being negatively affected by a technological innovation that was invented to accomplish the absolute opposite of what it has.
• We now feel more comfortable speaking to each other behind the cloak of a computer screen, and less comfortable speaking to each other in person.
• It's the youth we should be concerned with. They will develop into adults that have a misleading perception of what real human communication is. In their minds there will not be a difference between the social media world and the real world.
• Social media started out as a convenient way of keeping people in touch with each other. Through this innovative outlet, internet surfers from around the world were instantly given the ability to communicate with friends and family without having to actually talk to them.
• We are a nation of speed. In America and many of the countries that we have influenced, the fast pace is a necessity of everyday life.
• We have come to expect fast food, fast money, fast cars, fast women, and fast relationships. So it should be no surprise that when given the opportunity, we created fast communication.
• In other words, just like too much fast food could negatively affect your mind and body so too could too much Facebook.
• “Using Twitter and Facebook could harm moral values, as they don't allow time for compassion or admiration, scientist warned" (The Telegraph).
• "Reliance on social media has decreased the relationships formed between students and their professors due to the detachment of email, hiding the face linked to the voice." (Puglisi).
• Dr. Kelley Crowley, a teacher of public relations writing and principles of advertising at West Virginia University, agrees with this statement and also makes an observation that I can easily relate too, being a college student myself. She says: "students have become reticent and intimidated in the classroom to speak directly with me. Rather, they feel more comfortable sending me an email from behind a computer screen, which is impersonal and does not contain context at all."
• "avoiding personal interactions harms the competency of young professionals."
• She points to lack of eye contact in interviews and terrible grammar habits as negative effects on the professional lives of young adults due to overuse of cyber interactions.
• Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Ed. D. is listed on The University of California's website as an "affective neuroscientist and human development psychologist who studies the neural, psychophysical and psychological bases of emotion, social interaction and culture and there implications for development and schools.
• Ms. Immordino-Yang and one of her researchers "studied the response of volunteers to real-life stories to induce compassion for physical or social pain."
• Through her study in 2009 Ms. Immordino used brain imaging to confirm that "humans sort information and respond quickly to signs of physical pain in others, but admiration and compassion- two of the social emotions that define humanity-take much longer."
• She believes that all of the fast paced news feeds and social networks are not allowing us the proper amount of time it takes to let our natural human emotions dissect the information we are taking in.
• "Lasting compassion in relation to psychological suffering requires a level of persistent, emotional attention." I agree, but the problem is, right now our attention spans are smaller than our cell phones. And just like our cell phones, our attention spans keep getting smaller.
• Cyberpsychololgy: A Journal of psychosocial research on cyberspace, and an article titled, "Facebook and Myspace: Complement or Substitute for Face-to-Face Interaction?"
• In this study a survey was given to 183 college students to examine their use of Facebook and Myspace. "The study confirmed that Facebook and Myspace do act as an extension of face-to-face interaction, but some users do tend to rely on them for interpersonal communication more than face-to-face interaction."
• The current millennia adults all grew up either before or during the social media phenomenon. Through timing alone we have had the opportunity to experience a good part of our childhood developmental years without the constant distraction of social media.
• The kids who are growing up now have no choice but to be involved in this addictive Facebook world.
• And what's worse, the cell phones now come with Facebook and Twitter pre-installed!
• "Constant distraction affects not only how well kids learn but also how their brains absorb the new information."
• "Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Bebo are said to shorten attention spans, encourage instant gratification and make young people more self-centered."
• "But they will strike a chord with parents and teachers who complain that many youngsters lack the ability to communicate or concentrate away from their screens."
• Many neuroscientists like Susan Greenfield believe that repeated exposure to these websites could rewire the brain. She goes on to suggest that along with video games, instant messaging, and chat rooms, these sites will lead to poor attention spans in children.
• "noticed a sharp decline in the ability of her pupils to understand others."
• "It is hard to see how living this way on a daily basis will not result in brains, or rather minds, different from those of previous generations." This may be true, the previous generations had less distractions and better attention spans.
• Remember children and our future are one and the same.

• Puglisi, Meagan. "Social networking hurts the communication skills of college students"  The        Daily Athenaeum.  13 October 2010.  Web.   4 April 2011.

    

  Conley, Dalton.  "Wired for Distraction: Kids and Social Media"  Time.  March 19, 2011.  Web.  8 April 2011. 

• The Telegraph.  "Twitter and Facebook could harm moral values, scientists warn"  The       Telegraph.   13 April 2009.  Web.  8 April 2011.

    

  Derbyshire, David.  "Social websites harm children's brains: Chilling warning to parents from        top neuroscientist"  Mail Online.  24 February 2009.  Web.  4 April 2011.

    

  Kujath, Carlyne.  "Facebook and Myspace: Complement or Substitute for Face-to-Face     Interaction?"  Cyberpsychology, Behavoir, and Social Networking.  Volume 14, Number   1-2 2011.  11 March 2009.  Web.  8 April 2011.

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• technologies such as instant messaging (IM) and text messaging (TM) have achieved increasing prevalence in our society.
• While there is supporting evidence to suggest that these technologies have a large influence on the social development of adolescents, an even more pertinent issue for classroom teachers is what effects these technologies have on the academic development of young people.
• How does IM use affect students' interest in traditional writing (as learned in school)?
• In what ways does IM usage affect students' writing ability? How does "IM-speak" change students' views of what is considered "proper" language?
• "Some teachers see the creeping abbreviations as part of a continuing assault of technology on formal written English"
• One concern about IM has to do with the "bastardization" of language.
• Several articles indicate that students who use messaging on a frequent basis often use bad grammar, poor punctuation, and improper abbreviations in academic writing.
• "teachers say that papers are being written with shortened words, improper capitalization and punctuation, and characters like &, $ and @. "
• "spent a lot of time unteaching Internet-speak. 'My students were trying to communicate fairly academic, scholarly thoughts, but some of them didn't seem to know it's "y-o-u," not "u"'"
• Jackson's point is the crux of the concern that educators have with IM and IM lingo. Students have trouble seeing the distinction between formal and informal writing, and consequently use informal IM abbreviations and lingo in more formal writing situations (Brown-Owens, Eason, & Lader, 2003
• if they turned in papers written like instant messages, their grades would suffer"

• Associated Press. (2003, July 13). N.C educators say instant messaging helps students write. The Charlotte Observer. Retrieved March 14, 2004.

  Brown-Owens, A., Eason, M., & Lader, A. (2003). What effect does Computer-Mediated Communication, specifically Instant Messaging, have on 8th grade writing competencies? Retrieved March 14, 2004.

  Dillon, S. (2004, December 7). What Corporate America Can't Build: A Sentence. New York Times. Retrieved December 7, 2004 from the World Wide Web: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/07/business/07write.html?oref=login.

  Lenhart, A., Rainie, L., & Lewis, O. (2001). Teenage life online: The rise of the instant-message generation and the Internet's impact on friendships and family relationships. Retrieved December 13, 2004.

• Friess, S. (2003, April 1). 'Yo, can u plz help me write English?': Parents fear online chatting ruins kids' language skills. USA Today, p.D.08.

  Helderman, R.S. (2003, May 20). Click by Click, Teens Polish Writing; Instant Messaging Teaches More Than TTYL and ROFL. The Washington Post, p. B.01.

  Lee, J. (2002, September 19). I Think, Therefore IM. New York Times, p.G.1.

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