Today in my field placement for TE401 a 2nd grader caught my attention in a way that I wasn't expecting! The class was outside for recess for about 2 minutes before it started to rain, which ended recess early...when the students heard the whistle they all came running for the line, but one kid didn't only do that...he frantically ran up to me and said, "O.M.G! are we really lining up already??!!" I couldn't help but laugh, but it also got me to thinking...First, I thought back to my childhood...I remember playing with dolls, getting excited about hide and go seek, playing outside, etc...(kid things!), but today there is a new breed of "kids toys"...laptops and cellphones (which have benefits dont get me wrong), but what about downfalls? There is so much talk about parents begining, if they havent already, to learn text lingo so they know what their children are saying during text messaging and chatroom conversations because it seems that these children are learning adult language when playing with "adult toys." Kids are really taking their creativity to the internet by inventing some pretty clever ways of avoiding derogitory terms, but still getting across the message!
Second, I began wondering if this lingo was effecting their academics in any way...There are many students that are in upper elementary classrooms, even high school classrooms, lacking the ability to spell... do you think that being exposed to text lingo is introducing them to an incorrect way that will want to stick?? (similar to misconceptions, which are difficult to correct?)
Or do you think that text messaging has advantages? I can think of one way in which text may actually help with academics (specifically spelling). On some phones a mispelled word shows as a red link that brings up correctly spelt words...also, there is T9 on some phones which recognizes the words you are typing and finishes them for you...this could actually be a great way for people to learn about their mispellings and fix them or begin to recognize them! YAY or NAY? Also, when thinking about academics...do you really think children would write an essay in text lingo if they knew the penalties of doing this? Or do you think the problem is that they are so accustomed to using TXT lingo that they don't realize they're doing it? A student doing it in the classroom may just be corrected or marked down, but think about someone accidentally doing it on a job application!!??
This is a ontroversial topic and I am eager to see how it is addressed in the future, but I am also interested in your thoughts!
While on the topic, one thing I will agree with is... PLEASE
This is funny because when I was in middle school placement I heard TONS of girls saying "O.M.G" and I laughed myself. I actually just was looking online at how cell phones could be used in the classroom and came across this article : http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2008/05/value-of-using-cell-phones-to-enhance.html
ReplyDeleteMost of the suggestions at the bottom just involve using the internet for research and such and I think a lot of the ideas have implications because not ALL students are going to have cell phones or access to the internet on their phones. The article does, however, get you thinking a little about the future of cell phones in the classroom!
Thanks for the blog...it is always neat to hear what other people are saying about technology integration...I DO NOT THINK CELL PHONES IN THE CLASSROOM ARE NECESSARY THOUGH...HECK NO! doesn't need to go to that extent.
ReplyDeleteWow, I thought of something really weird when reading your post. When you were talking about the texting lingo affecting older student's spelling, I thought that perhaps years from now the spelling of some words could be impacted and even change in the dictionary! As new generations come into this world focused on texting lingo, who knows what may happen to English as we know it! English from the 17th century is very different from how we know it now!
ReplyDeletevery interesting thought!!
ReplyDelete