Screenshot of laptop screen with the left side showing a Microsoft word document with notes entitled ” BAD IDEAS ABOUT WRITING AND DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY” and subheading “Texting Ruins Students’ Grammar Skills.” The right side showing an excerpt from a PDF with highlighted portions on various types of rules on writing.

Texting Ruins students’ grammar skills

• There is a saying that texting among the young generation has caused them to have bad grammar when writing
• The author makes the claim, “We need to put to rest the idea that digital forms of writing pose a threat to overall writing ability.”
• Writing was dangerous during the time early times according to Plato
• “he expressed concern that writing might be dangerous because it could damage our ability to memorize and offered only the semblance of wisdom. “
• People don’t realize the mistakes that they make when writing that aren’t that noticeable
• “As readers, we tend to see errors where we want to, and we ignore errors where we do not expect to find them (such as a published article about writing!).”
• “Williams ultimately asks this: If an error is on the page but no one sees it, is it really an error? Does it matter?” this quote from the book really got me to think about what an error is really
• If someone doesn’t see an error can you really say that it is an error. We are humans and are not all perfect and make mistakes
• Tests carried out to see a correlation between digital technology is not valid because they were tested for the wrong thing. They were tested for things that didn’t matter at all such as punctuation and spelling.
• I believe in what the author has to say and that these tests are useless and have no meaning if they test for the wrong thing.
• The author uses studies conducted to support their argument. (Ethos)

Texting Ruins literacy Skills

• Here there is a counterclaim that is presented from the start of how texting influence the young generations writing
• Texting is a “innovative linguistic phenomena of modern times.”
• Texting provides us with Convenience.
• Texting allows writers more time then speech to formulate their thoughts also texting allows people the opportunity to revise and organize one thoughts.
• there’s no correlation between texting and a decrease in literacy rates at a rapid pace.
• Abbreviations have been around for a long time and are used before even texting as it can be seen in government contracts issued through agencies such as the national science foundation or Environmental Protection Agency.
• Texting allows positive exercises such as rhetorical skills. Text are written in various styles and people must know how to be able to match it styles of text with this message, audience and, tone.
• We communicate daily with a vast different audience. for example, spouses, parents.
• Kairos is also practiced when texting.
• The use of multimedia platforms to convey messages 2 others. For example, using voice messages, music, web links to communicate the same idea that one might communicate using text.
• It has been said that there is a positive correlation between texting and people’s literacy skills.

Gamification makes writing fun

• Turning learning into a game that is interesting to the students allowing them to be more engaged in what is being taught.
• I personally like gaming a lot so having to learn with the theme of gaming is something that I have been dreaming to happen
• I found high school to be repetitive and caused me to dislike writing greatly because all my teachers were boring and didn’t make me engaged in what we were learning. It was either you follow the standard conventions of writing and get the grade or don’t and fail the class.

The more digital technology the better

• Technology has caused people to lose concentration and be better at scanning for information and retrieving information.
• Technology should be used in a way in the classroom where it allows the students to do exactly what the teacher wants and no side tracking
• Technology can become a distraction in the classroom if not properly integrated into the classroom.
• Texting in class isn’t the best idea because it distracts you from what is being said in class and you aren’t engaged in the conversations. This in return causes people to do bad on tests and get bad grades.
• “the reality that technology is a force in education, and we all need to be vigilant about when, where, and how it’s used.” Audrey Watters with Hack Education
• Teacher must first figure out what to teach their kids and then think of how technology can help teach that topic to students.

Digital natives and digital immigrants

• Digital native- people that where born with the use of technology
• Digital native- people that were born without the used of technology and are learning how to use it
• We natives are more used to using technology and can work around everything with online tools. However, the old generation that isn’t used to technology are struggling. Since they are struggling and are not used to technology, they make technology look as something bad and are destroying the brains of the current generation.

-Tanvir Youhana