One of the many challenges facing teachers, both senior and junior alike, is how to balance the pre-digital world of communication with the present or expected future world, that is; How do we teach a nation of ‘texters’ to curl up in a chair with a good novel and appreciate the written language?
It is true that the technological explosion of literary devices such as Facebook and chat rooms have transformed the process of learning in such a way that it motivates many of our young struggling readers to overcome their fears of communicating publicly with others. Instant messaging promotes instant gratification but does not truly reduce the frustration encountered by these struggling readers as they experience difficulty in keeping up with classroom assignments. Since the natural human tendency is to avoid adverse situations, can we truly accomplish the goal of having our struggling readers gain interest in physical books when the convenience of technology is ever so present? I do hope so.
I get where there may be some concern, and I was quite the same way. But I believe as hard as it may sound, that we have to give up on expecting this generation to go back to curling up with a good ‘book’.
ReplyDeleteAnd I stressed on the word ‘book’ because I am talking about the physical ‘book’ .Soon ‘books’ as we know it would soon become a thing of the past.
With the introduction of E-books and E-book readers, ‘books’ have morphed into interactive tools with capabilities far beyond what ‘books’ have to offer.
How could we really expect our young people to go back to that? Granted it has not reached that stage.
But at present, books are being published as E-books in the first instance. A new book comes out and ‘bet your bottom dollar’ you can get it as an E-book first.
So I think that we have to use the technology before us to encourage our young people to read. The skills they would develop would be a bit different, but they would be relevant to their age. And that is what is most important.
So encourage them to curl up with a Kindle, or Apple iPad, they would still be able to appreciate the written language.