http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmQRS_6TZuU
This is a link to a video clip of a child typing the alphabet in under 3 seconds. The reason why I chose this clip is that reading this week's articles and the chapter from the text made me think of the relevance of the printed word for children in this generation. When I think about the section in Chapter 10 that talks about children from different cultures who are not familiar with print or writing, it struck me that perhaps this phenomenon may be present in this culture with children. Outside of school, how much exposure are children actually getting with text?
It is rare these days for people to write notes, letters, or even simple things like grocery lists. Everything is done on some type of electronic device, whether it is a computer, laptop, smart phone etc. If you compare the average child's comfort on their parent's iphone (if they have access to it) I would imagine it would be in competition a child's comfort in writing with pen and paper.
Although I recognize the importance and the value of mulitliteracies and the huge benefit of children's learning that comes with access to technology, I wonder what might be lost with this generation of print-shy children? Will there be a lack of cultural capital between generations? Will there come a point when the traditional form of writing will not be present in schools? It may begin to seem unnecessary to promote traditional writing in the school system if children are not using that skill in their lives. In that vein, will the pen and paper eventually become something extinct? While I understand the desire to broaden our understanding of writing in the traditional sense, I wonder if the idea that writing encapsulates more than the traditional sense could possibly contribute to that loss?
This idea of children of this generation sharing a "culture" that is not accustomed to print makes me this of the following quote from the text:
"Children from diverse backgrounds may find their literacy practices are not only undervalued, but in direct competition with 'school' literacy practices."
In this quote, the author was referring to children who come from cultures of oral traditions and so forth. However, I relate this to children of this generation who may find that their practices (using technology as a means of writing) are not being valued in school. This would be a great provocation for educators who don't believe that computers should be used in the early years. If we abide by this belief, what children are we excluding, and whose writing practices are we undervaluing?
