Wohlsen Multiple Viewpoints Analysis

Birkerts provides three effects that will occur as a result of moving away from the printed word to the electronic media. The first effect is the language erosion. He explains the reader that transition from books will lead to the “complexity and distinctiveness of verbal and written communication, which are deeply bound to transaction of print literacy, will gradually be replaced by a more telegraphic sort of plainspeak” (9). In the future our language will start to become more simple and dumb. Whereas, by reading books and printed materials people are able to dig more depth and understand and imagine the contents. But, soon this will start to disappear as people will no longer be able to understand the complex language of the literature and intelligence level of people will start to decrease. The second effect of electronic media is the flattening of historical perspectives. This means that due to the electronic media the history will start to recede because the “printed page itself is a link” and when this link is broken the past will gradually diminish (10). Birkerts explains the audience that the past is best represented in the books and libraries. Therefore, moving away from the printed word means moving away from the past and its history. The last effect is the waning of the private self. Birkerts worries that in the future people will forget how to live because of the electronic

Individuals within a 21st century society are becoming increasingly digitally literate with the repertoire of literacy skills rapidly expanding enabling us to more efficiently navigate our way though new and innovated digital media forms.

In the passionate article, “Digital addictions mean we can't read books anymore. And that's a problem” by the opinionated Jim Sollisch, the author convincingly argues digital distractions seem to take over our world and the simple pleasures like reading are forgotten and that is a severe problem with broad repercussions. Sollisch effectively and competently builds the argument by using a variety of persuasive and argumentative rhetorical techniques including but not limited to facts and studies, tone, and the use of a personal anecdote.

The general thesis of this book is “How the digital age stupefies young Americans and jeopardizes our future,” which happens to be the subtitle of this book. In the first chapter, Knowledge Deficits, the author talks about how the teens in the 20th century have the same or even lower education level as teens 30 years ago. Bauerlein goes on and talks about how the government is spending more for education compared to 30 years ago. In the second chapter, The New Bibliophobes, the author argues that teens are reading less books and their literary skills are not improving as fast because they are more interested in digital and pop culture. In the third chapter, Screen Time, lots of studies and surveys prove that teens are spending more time playing video games and socializing with each other online than studying. In chapter four, Online Learning And Non-Learning, the author talks about how teens are abusing the technology and pretending to use it for educational purposes, but in reality, the are using it for entertainment. In chapter five, The Betrayal Of The Mentors, the author explains if all teen follow this pathway they will utterly destroy their future by not making suitable for having a degree, job and poetically family.

Believe it or not, this was the first paper I wrote in about a year. Receiving this assignment, I had to really think about how to approach this assignment since it has been so long. My approach to this assignment was to first decide who I want my three audiences to be. After that, decide the word that I wanted to define for them. I choose the word digital literacy. Deep down I knew what digital literacy meant, but I wanted to be sure because it is so broad of a term. I had to do a bit of research to confirm my suspicions of the word. Then I imagined myself explaining the term as if I am talking to the intended audience. In doing this, I would put the thought down and as a result, the first draft was completed. Upon reading the comments of my peer reviewers, Kathryn Jahn and Trevor Hembry, and taking the

“Literacy debate, Online, R U Really Reading? ”by Motoko Rich argues that the online reading skill will change the brain’s circuity, give you the main point you need to read, and help the student learning in better way. Rich using comparing and contrasting between reading online and reading of books. Rich tells us that more people would reading online instead reading in book because “you have to go through a lot of details that aren’t need in the book, but online reading give you what you need, nothing more or less.” He also describes that “online reading help children fare better when they begin looking for digital-age jobs.” Which it helps them to success in the future. Rich also argued that some student using computer at home, they would

According to the International Adult Literacy Survey there are a great number of people in Canada that do not have the required literacy skills to fully comprehend written material (Statistics Canada, 2007: 17). However, the internet has a solution. Imbedded within informative websites are often links to activities, videos and simulations which may serve to enable those with lower literacy levels better comprehension of the material at hand. This is evidenced by findings of the International Adult Literacy survey that determined that individuals who use computers generally scored higher in prose literacy defined as the ability to understand and apply concepts learned from text (Statistics Canada, 2005). The internet has the potential to provide these individuals with a better understand the concepts contained within text through the use of multimedia beyond the one dimensional pictures contained in a traditional book. Therefore, the internet serves as a means of transferring knowledge that is more inclusive than traditional print media. Although the internet facilitates the transfer of information, there are concerns about how this information is interpreted and understood.

According to the United Nations Agency, approximately 3.2 billion people have used the Internet since 2015, which has made a drastic increase since 2000 with there only being 738 million internet users then. That is almost 43% of the world's population that uses the internet. A controversial topic that is commonly being brought up in today's arguments is the use of the internet and how people believe it is becoming such a detriment to our society, because nobody in this generation acknowledges the value of books, or even prefers to use an actual copy such as a paperback. The internet, such as Google, is being classified as lazy or ignorant, but reading a book is labeled as literate or being knowledgeable. Thesis:“Teaching in the #Age Literacy” by Jennifer L. Nelson and “Is Google Making Us stupid?” by Nicholas Carr, both analyze the pros and cons to having the internet and information at our fingertips, how it is affecting the way we read and analyze text and different scientific experiments that have been put to use to decode why we think the way we do now and how to improve our intelligence.

For many decades now there has been a scope of definition for what “literacy” incorporates and those are the basics skills like reading, writing, and a variety of social and intellectual practices which involve basic communication skills, and hand and eye coordination. However, with the world of technology continually growing, and the level of diversity in the student population becoming vaster it has become necessary to also include speaking, listening, viewing, and visually aspects to the curriculum. One of the best ways to address a wide range of literacy is to pair the categories with each other based upon their connections in the real world. The categories include written language (reading & writing), spoken communication (listening & speaking), and visual language (viewing & visually representing). (Standards for the English Language Arts p. 6) Many of these can be done with a range of creative activities such as students being able to choose what they write about, share their own personal experiences in their writings, and then read them together; this helps the students stay engaged in the work they’re doing, and also increases their level of retention of the material. The importance of a student being engaged is best explained in the article “Adolescent Literacy: A Policy Brief” with, “The number of students who are not engaged with or motivated by school learning grows at

In the essay “What’s the Matter With Kids Today?,” Amy Goldwasser argues that reading and writing text online is the same, or not very different, from reading or writing text on physical paper. This premise is simply not true. Comparing reading a physical book and reading on an E-Reader or on the Internet suggests that they use the same cognitive functions. The lighting on the computer changes the cognitive focus of the brain, as well as brain activation, reading speed, comprehension, and the contextual enviornment of the source material1.

This episode of, “Last Week Tonight,” showed different examples of digital literacy by showing two different ways of explaining a topic. John Oliver, the talk show host, interviews Edward Snowden, the man who gave secure NSA files to journalists and exposed one of the NSA’s secrets; that they could access our private electronic information like phone calls, and other pieces of information sent via electronics. Mr. Oliver went all the way to Russia to meet Mr. Snowden to ask him various questions about the situation. He tells Snowden that when asked, common people have little to no knowledge of him and the whole scandal. In order for common, regular, everyday people to care about a complex situation like this, it has to be put in a way they

The film “ Digital Nation” is an exploration of diverse people's views on digital media, in today's world. Some of the most important topics were on the virtual world, and the pros and cons of technology within different groups like gamers, students, families, teachers, administrators, children, military and businesses, as well as the experience of general people. In the movie, Prof. Sherry Turkle said, “Technology challenges us to assert our human values. Technology is not good or bad, is powerful, and it is complicated which means first we have to figure out what they are”. Currently, technology has taken over, wherever one, goes one will find it. Over the past years, social media in particular have spread worldwide; from Facebook to Instagram. There is constantly something new, extra advanced and creative. Overall, the technology has evolved the way humans interact with each other. In particular, technology influences by motivating students towards learning, saving time, building literacy and communication skills.

In today’s world it is a requirement to be digitally literate in order to be able to function in a capacity that enables one to be more successful whether it is at home, school, at our jobs or even looking for a job. Over the last few decades our environment has evolved into a digital environment. Being or becoming digitally literate is essential in being successful in this digital environment. Almost everything we do today requires some sort of digital knowledge or literacy. From surfing the internet to searching for a job to being able to perform our jobs, we are required to have some sort of digital

In “Literacy and the digital knowledge revolution” (2006), Claire Belisle refers to “digital knowledge”, as a way that knowledge can be “processed and transformed”, by the various technological tools, i.e. search engines, databases, sorters and linguistic analysts, that we have available (Belisle, 2006, p57). Belisle moves in to the revouloution

“The extreme sophistication of modern technology - wonderful though its benefits are - is, ironically, an impediment to engaging young people with basics: with learning how things work” (Rees 2011, para. 10). This quote resonates with how different society has become over the past 25 years. More and more Information Technology (IT) has found a way into the lives of people and has helped to make them more productive. IT has delivered significant benefits to society by making tasks easier, saving time, and helping to advance skills. However, if IT is not deployed properly, they can hinder skills or cause harm by hindering literacy skills, hamper critical thinking and impairing communication. IT benefits players in terms of advances literacy skills, improves critical thinking and enhances communication, but it also negatively impacts on these skills if not used appropriately.