Online social networks have become so central to teens’ lifestyles that some would consider their ability to access them during working hours when weighing up a job offer. In a recent survey, more than half (58 percent) said they would consider their ability to access social networks at work when considering a job offer from a potential employer. Anyone who is a parent of teenagers will probably not be surprised by this.
According to the survey of 17-year-olds conducted by Junior Achievement, nine out of 10 teenagers use social networks every day, with 70 percent saying they participate in social networking an hour or more daily. I can certainly testify that this happens in our house!
However more than a third of respondents said they did not consider the reactions of admission officers, future employers or their parents when posting content. Well why would they, they are kids after all. However, 16% admitted to blatantly unethical behavior such as “posting content embarrassing to others, spreading rumors and pretending to be someone other than themselves.”
Ainar D. Aijala, global managing partner, Consulting, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu rightly points out “Teens who will soon be entering the workforce must understand the value of their ‘personal brand,’ that their online postings live in perpetuity.”
Social networks may be ‘a bit of fun’ but what we post on the internet lives forever. Think before you press ’send’.
Research by The National Literacy Trust on 3,001 children from England and Scotland showed that schoolchildren who blog or own social networking profiles on Facebook have higher literacy levels and greater confidence in writing.
The key objectives of the survey were to explore how much young people enjoy writing, what type of writing they engage in, how good at writing they think they are, what they think about writing and what the role of technology is in young people’s writing.
So what were the key findings?
75% of young people said that they write regularly. Technology-based formats were most frequently written. For example, 82% of young people wrote text messages at least once a month, 73% wrote instant messages (such as messages on AIM or MSN), and 63% wrote on a social networking site.
61 per cent of bloggers and 56 per cent of social networkers claimed to be good or very good at writing, compared to 47 per cent of those who had neither.
Pupils who write online are more likely to write short stories, letters, song lyrics or a diary, the research revealed.
Most young people said they used computers regularly and believed that computers are beneficial to their writing, agreeing that a computer makes it easier for them to correct mistakes (89%) and allows them to present ideas clearly (76%). Overall, nearly 60% of young people also believe that computers allow them to be more creative, concentrate more and encourage them to write more often.
Jonathan Douglas, director of the National Literacy Trust, said: “The digital age often gets a bad press but the findings of this report demonstrate that social networking sites and blogs are linked to young people’s more positive attitudes to writing. “Confidence and enjoyment are closely linked to the development of skills. Therefore, in order to improve standards we need to encourage children to write more and to enjoy writing, which could be supported by celebrating forms of writing they enjoy. Our research indicates that, for many, these are without doubt technology-based forms.”
Cheaper e-books and the emergence of an Apple e-reader are reported as the main factors in driving digital publishing forward, according to a landmark survey of more than 1,000 book trade professionals by Bookseller. The survey found that 88% of respondents thought bookshops would lose out from the growth in digital sales.
The majority of respondents said that e-books should be priced at the same cost as a paperback book (30.1%), or cheaper (53.6%) but there was also concern that low priced e-books could devalue other editions. One respondent stressed that it was “important not to devalue the work that has gone into writing, editing and formatting the content”.
Apple was named as the company which would come out ‘top’ in the e-reader wars with support from 52% despite not even having a dedicated e-reader out on the market as yet: Amazon was a close second, with Sony third.
Whilst customers may expect ebooks to be cheaper than their paperback counterparts the publishers are still seeking to cover the front end costs of production of the original work.
So the discussion continues on digital books, e-readers, pricing and formatting. Ultimately it will be the consumer that decides.
This was the title of a recent Harvard discussion panel regarding higher education in a digital age.
In the classroom, the digital age is changing the way that people think, read, and learn in a university environment. The internet offers new opportunities for knowledge sharing and open access. However the debate discussed that universities, the physical building, will continue to exist. The internet is a knowledge source, a forum for discussion, even open debate at a worldwide level, yet the face to face human interaction and challenge that exists in higher education will be slow to be replaced.
I agree with the sentiment that the best future will be one in which the digital and the traditional coexist.
We all know our kids text, but 80% of us do too, according to The Nielsen Company. Nielsen doesn’t say why, but most parents know…. our kids “hear” us better when we text them! Here’s some more interesting cellphone data from Nielsen:
To adults, cell phones are a communications device. To children, they are a lifeline. Consider that the average 13-17 year old sends more than 2,000 text messages per month. Compared with the total mobile Internet population, teens are much bigger consumers of social media, music, games, videos/movies and technology/science.
Phone owners are getting younger: Last year kids typically got their first phone at age 10.1; by the beginning of this year 2009, the phone ownership age “was down to 9.7.” Same for borrowing: In 2008, the average age when kids started to borrow a cell phone was 8.6 years”; now it’s 8.
How they use phones: 66% of tween phone owners took photos with their phones in the past year; half played pre-installed games; 40% activated the speakerphone feature; 28% filmed a video clip; 24% listened to tunes. We’ve already seen this reported, but “the average 13-17 year old sends more than 2,000 text messages per month.”
Younger phone owners: more than half of 8-year-old owners “used their cell to send text messages in the last 12 months. “That figure soared to 81% for 12-year-old mobile users,” with “the vast majority” (90%) of those texts going to friends and family.”
Parental controls: More than half of cellphone users’ parents don’t use parental controls. Among the minority who do, “20% limit the number of calls, texts or instant messages, followed by download limits (17%), talk time or voice minute allocations (16%), mobile website access limits (15%), locator services and restricted in/outgoing number access (13% each), time of day restrictions (11%), and alerts to unauthorized texts, IMs or callers (6% each); 60% of parents “forbid downloads onto their children’s phone for financial and security reasons.”
Kids use technology to communicate in many areas of their lives. By allowing safe access to mobiles and other forms of communication we are preparing them for lives where technology is inherent.
Since 1969, “Sesame Street” has been connecting people from nations all over the world by inspiring and educating children each day in its television broadcasts.
Independent academic researchers have conducted more than 1,000 studies, making “Sesame Street” the most researched TV show in history. A recent study found that teens who watched “Sesame Street” in pre-school had higher grades than those who did not.
40 years on and children and parents still tune in to learn about letters and numbers. Pretty impressive for a TV show that is based around literacy! My guess is that it is because it is fun. When learning is fun kids want to do it again and again.
Many kids are digital natives. Many of them have grown up with technology being part of the furniture, just part of their lives that they use for education and for fun. This video from edutopia profiles a 9 year old girl who uses technology as part of her life. A great reminder that they may well be techno savvy but they are still children. They still want to listen to stories. They still want to be creative. And they are certainly tapped in to what being a child in 2009 is like and what they want!
We all love the feel of snuggling up with a book with our child. So how can reading ebooks be helpful for your child’s development?
Ebooks are not meant to be a replacement for reading together with your child. They are designed to be an additional way to engage children in a literacy activity. Kids love computers and rather than screen time simply being for fun they can now use the computer as an educational resource too.
The better ebooks available on the market are more than a video presentation of an existing book. The ones that are simply videos do not engage your child in reading the words. The ebooks that stand out from the crowd are the ones where the words highlight in time to the audio. This encourages your child to read along to/follow the narration. It models fluency, tempo and voice intonation. The child will start to recognise the words and their relevant sounds. Repetition is one of the keys to learning and a child can listen to the audio version of the story again and again whilst following along.
When children are becoming independent readers they will want to have a go at reading for themselves. This is when they need the functionality of being able to click on an unfamiliar word to hear it spoken. They can self pace their learning giving them a sense of control. If they read to themselves and come across an unfamiliar word they can click on it to hear it spoken and carry on their independent reading without having to wait for adult intervention. This can also become a game as the child clicks on a word and tries to say it before the narrator has had a chance. This activity builds up their vocabulary and reading skills as well as being fun.
Animated illustrations engage even the most reluctant readers yet do not distract from the words that are equally important. The illustrations in children’s picture books are as important as the words giving the child an opportunity to understand what the words that are being spoken are describing.
Comprehension or recall quizzes at the end of an ebook ensure that the child has understood and remembered the story. Knowing there is a quiz reinforces that attention needs to be paid to the story and reinforces understanding.
Ebooks can be a great educational and fun activity that you can share with your child or let them have a go themselves and be in control of their own learning.
British neuroscientists have recently found the reason most people can predict words and sentences as they are being scanned by the eye. Rather than reading every word and sentence to the end before coming up with its meaning, new research has shown the brain makes an educated guess and then moves on.
As we become more literate, the brain becomes better at predicting sentences and therefore quicker at reading.
Researchers have shown that the angular gyrus’ role, rather than acting as a dictionary as previously thought, acts in anticipating what our eye will see – like the predictive texting function on a mobile phone.
The research, published in the journal ‘Nature’ was based on a unique study into former guerrilla fighters in Colombia. The team scanned the brains of illiterate adult rebels, who had had no education, before and after they had undertaken a five year reading and writing course. The new readers had a higher density of so-called grey matter, where information processing is carried out, in several areas of the left hemisphere of the brain.
It is hoped that the research could unlock understanding into the causes of dyslexia.
Google news article here.
A report today, commissioned for BookTime, a branch of the independent literacy charity Booktrust, reports some interesting findings regarding children’s leisure time and reading habits.
One in every 20 family homes in Britain today has fewer than ten books.
Yet 96% of all children surveyed say that they enjoy reading.
60% of children like to share a book with their parents/carers as it shows that they like to spend time with them.
3% of parents and carers never or rarely read with their children. For those who do, just one in three read with their children on a daily basis.
56% of all parents and carers (and almost half of all parents of 4-5 year olds [48%]) say their child spends more time facing a screen, playing computer games and watching DVDs rather than reading.
Parents and carers of boys are twice as likely not to read with them compared to those who have girls.
Children were asked ‘what stops you reading’ and they reported watching TV (54%) and playing on the computer or video games (41%).
So kids love reading, they love being read to yet half of them are choosing screen based ‘mind numing’ activities rather than reading. As parents we need to make reading a priority. Making time for reading demonstrates the importance we place on it and also increases literacy skills. When one in 5 children leave primary/elementary school without meeting the required standards in literacy we cannot leave this until it is too late. Turn off the TV and pick up a book or use screen time as educational time and introduce them to ebooks!
The independent research was conducted on behalf of Booktime and Booked Up. 1,772 UK parents of primary school aged children and 1,318 children aged 5-12 years took part in the research.
