Technology and Literacy: What is the impact?

Written by Linda Ashida

On our district's non-attendance day, I had some time to catch up on my professional reading, and I came across a piece published yesterday by NPREd, "How TV Can Make Kids Better Readers"

The article summarizes key points of a book publisshed this week:  Tap, Click and Read, by Lisa Guernsey and Michael Levine.  For example: 


1) Digital content can have a positive impact in a two-pronged approach to developing literacy.

2)  The need to address media literacy and critical literacy in conjunction with traditional literacy that has always addressed reading, writing, speaking and listening. 

3) There are assets in both the language and culture of low-income Hispanic-Latino families related to digital media for learning purposes.

This thought-provoking read, would be a great discussion starter in professional learning groups - for teachers of any discipline and any level - who are grappling with the question that opens the article: "Is technology the best thing that ever happened to education? Or a silent killer of children's attention spans and love of learning."