Focus Education
Hand in Hand
Maximilian Trotter argues that the social media revolution opens up literacy to a techy generation
VIEW STUDENT
Literacy rates are quoted in all sorts of media as refl ecting who can read and write. T is classifi cation,
contemporary culture to undermine the development of this automaticity. An early-start, mechanistic testing regime encourages a tick-box mentality to learning, rather than the motivation to read at length for pleasure and to express one’s ideas through writing. Increasing use of interactive whiteboards develops children’s reliance on quick-fi re multimedia resources, and early access to computers can discourage them from learning to organise ideas in their own heads.
I hope I don’t sound like an old-fashioned
schoolmarm with a bad case of technophobia. Until a few years ago, I was a keen advocate of the use of new technology in education. As a literacy consultant to the BBC for over a decade, I wrote and helped develop many TV programmes and websites. I also wrote the OUP’s fi rst software programme for early literacy. But the more one investigates the subtleties of child development, the clearer it becomes that we shouldn’t introduce children to these seductive technological tools before they’ve acquired basic human skills that have hitherto been taken for granted.
If we want to raise bright, balanced children, we should restrict their access to new technology until they’ve had plenty of time to play, draw, sing, explore the real environment, and learned to read and write for pleasure. T e advice of psychologists is that children under two shouldn’t engage in any screen-based activity, and between two and ten, they should be restricted to a maximum of two hours a day (including the time they spend in school).
We don’t need to worry that they won’t enjoy a more “old-fashioned” childhood. T ey’re primed by nature to enjoy it – and to thrive on the experience, growing bright, balanced and resilient. Nor should we fear that allowing children time to be children will mean they fall behind in the technology stakes. As Moore’s Law rolls on, any digital skills children acquire before the age of ten will be long out of date by their early teens. It’s all common sense, really.
*automaticity is a child’s ability to decode the text and hold the words in their heads. With practice, this becomes automatic and their minds are free to engage with the ideas the text contains.
www.fi rstelevenmagazine.co.uk
exists because of the birth of the printing press. Before, only handwritten books were available at high cost – and therefore restricted to the higher classes – the printing press allowed for millions of people to become literate within decades. Empowered by the social action that stemmed from literacy, scientifi c revolutions, protestant reformations and democratic constitutions were possible. If we look at the rise of social media on the internet as having the same signifi cance as the printing press, then we can begin to look at the possibilities that are on off er.
Social media allied with technology allows reading and writing to be more available to everyone and what is so exciting, is that it allows people to contribute. Take Pottermore, for example, JK Rowling’s upcoming interactive website. It will contain previously unread Harry Potter material. People will have been able to register to participate in what the website will look like and to quote JK Rowling, they will be able to “shape the experience.” What Pottermore does is allow stories to transcend one form of media. Whether it is just viewing a blog, contributing to a forum or in the case of Pottermore, having something that is built by the reader. T is means that technology allows us to do more than consume. It allows us to receive news on our phone and then share it or even contribute. Whether technology will be positive or not in the long run does not depend on the technologies, but on the literacy of those who use them. Instead of trying to discourage young people from contributing to social media, we should embrace its potential.
Technology does more than consume…it allows us to share it and contribute to it
Autumn 2011 FirstEleven 47
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