Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?

Motoko Rich's piece as referenced above, published July 27, 2008 in The New York Times, is very provocative. My thought on the topic is yes, you are really reading. You are reading text presented to you via a new delivery system. Cave art, Egyptian carvings, 19th century artistic painters capturing daily life on their canvases, leaflets, posters, newspapers, magazines, books: all are texts communicating via a delivery system unto its own medium. Utilizing the Internet to gain information or for enjoyment follows an ongoing path of progression. In Rich's text, the pro-book folks are characterized as very anti-Web: "As teenagers' scores on standardized reading tests have declined or stagnated, some argue that the hours spend prowling the Internet are the enemy of reading - diminishing literacy, wrecking attention spans and destroying a precious common culture that exists only through the reading of books" (Rich, 2008, p. 1). The pro-Web folks are characterized as appreciating books: "Few who believe in the potential of the Web deny the value of books" (Rich, 2008, p. 1). I think Nadia, the Ohio teenager central to Rich's article, is representative of her generation's "common culture" as she checks her email, utilizes social networking, music video and role-playing sites, and sites whereby she reads and comments on stories written by others and submits her own stories. In this question of literacy, Nadia is not only reading and writing, she is analyzing the stories she reads and communicating that analysis via her online posts/comments. She is an example of digital literacy in action; she is making meaning from what she reads. She also reads books. I think all mediums of commonly used texts need to be utilized in Education. The New York State Department of Education defines Literacy as consisting of the skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening. For example, I think students need to be comfortable and competent in reading a newspaper whether they are physically holding the newsprint in their hands or scrolling down a webpage. The point of literacy is communication - one needs to be able to comprehend what he or she is reading, and one needs to be able to communicate clearly via writing and speaking. In the case of special needs students such as Hunter, who is dyslexic, he is proof that the Internet is a useful literacy tool. He had been diagnosed as dyslexic in second grade. In seventh grade he took part "in a study comparing performance on traditional state reading tests with a specifically designed Internet reading test" (Rich, 2008, p. 4). Hunter spent 12 weeks learning how to use the Web before taking the Internet test. On the Internet test, Hunter scored in the top quartile, whereas on the traditional reading test he scored in the lowest 10 percent. I think this is huge. If the idea of Education is to educate, here is an example of where the new tool fits the need. Use it. Julie DeBold