How will the next generation read and write?
In an era where teacher education and training involves learning how to incorporate 21st century skills in the classroom it is not far-fetched to say that THE FUTURE IS HERE.
There are people debating over the pros and cons of the usage of technology at an early age and how it can affect learning. Some people believe that next generations will have no use for writing and reading and that the already well known and established acronyms and abbreviations will deteriorate the proper use of language. Others are concerned about the use of cell phones, smartphones or laptops in the classroom as these technological tools may not be used as intended by educators for learning purposes, but as means to pass the time and not pay attention to the class.
These concerns have some validity, in my opinion however, if students are taught to regard these tools as learning tools and not toys they can benefit a lot from their usage. Let us not forget, and I am pretty sure we have all done it at some point in our school years, when one is uninterested or bored in a class, all it takes is a pen and a piece of paper and "poof!" "What class? What lecture? What meeting? There is some serious doodling going on here!"
As to the effects on language that the use of these technologies and the new found need to update or share anything one finds interesting or plain funny,shocking,sad,cute etc, through popular social networks, there is once again a debate whether it will have detrimental results on how we perceive language in the future and be able to read or write.
"In the age of text messaging, where words are reduced to nonstandard abbreviations and symbols, many people question the future of literacy." Kate Baggott
If we take into account the current views of cognitive development, maybe there is no need to be so alarmed. According to researchers of cognitive development, it is our perception and information processing as well as our problem solving skills that allow us to assemble components into a meaningful pattern.
As an example, try reading this:
Of course, without prior and consolidated knowledge of the alphabet this task would be near impossible. The need to recognize and make sense of this visual stimuli allows us to form new connections and assign new meaning to the number symbols and read them as letters. This has already become a common practice for younger generations and perform such tasks with greater ease.
I used this specific example to show how the new skills set that the upcoming generation has been developing does not need to be regarded negatively. It is evident that children and students of the future will still need to be able to read information and make use of a language.
It is merely the symbolic representation of the language that is changing and all this is said without taking into consideration another skill that has also been developing simultaneously, the identification of the different registers within language.
Next generation students have already been demonstrating that they can use language properly in terms of spelling and vocabulary and use the new age language where abbreviations have replaced words and phrases at the same time, provided they are aware of who they are addressing and through what kind of medium they do so.
In conclusion, I believe that it is not up to educators to try and "reform" the students of the future, but to inform them on how to make the best out of the technologies they have at hand. It is not up to the next generation to adapt to the ways of the past but on educators to adapt their teaching to the new technologies and accepting how it is undeniably becoming a part of our lives and consequently part of our learning processes and education.
