Out of the twenty-five most frequently read articles in 2009, I have chosen to read and review the two I felt were most compelling: “14 Ways K-12 Librarians Can Teach Social Media” by Joyce Valenza and “The Pros and Cons of Texting and IM” by Kelley Loftis. I will first discuss the multiple different ways social media can be taught and then move on to specific pros and cons of technological communication.
The first article I read was about social media being taught by librarians in primary and secondary schooling situations. Valenza argues that teaching has changed and transformed into something new that nearly requires teachers and librarians to promote new learning strategies (Valenza, 2009). Some of the more important strategies mentioned in the article will be briefly outlined. First, many students see the task of citing all of their work as very difficult, strenuous, and boring. Librarians can help ease these student feelings by allowing citation to be more collaborative by using online citation tools such as NoodleTools or Son of Citation Maker. Librarians can also show students that they do not have to work so hard to find the information they want. They can let their search engines do the work for them by setting up RSS feeds to automatically update searches through engines like EBSCO and iGoogle (Valenza, 2009).
Also along the lines of research, Valenza notices, “The Web makes research a far more independent effort…They may not get…the adult support they got in the old days” (Valenza, 2009). Librarians and teachers can set up blogs or wikis between teachers and their students to make the research process more engaging and transparent to allow students to ask the much needed questions they have. The last of the major strategies left is in regards to classroom reading assignments. Literature circles can also be formatted electronically now in the form of blogs or wikis. This way students can blog about their experiences with their required reading in multiple different ways, and they can share that with their classmates as well as with those on the web who are interested in what they have to say. This will also create a confidence in students to promote further classroom participation.
This article interested me mainly because Valenza spoke about different ways to provoke more interest in classroom activities from students. That is ultimately what teachers want, right—to have our students want to learn? I was also interested in Valenza’s article because she was able to show that there are so many different ways to do things, and she conveys this in the following quote, “In a long-ago article, I wrote that Google rocks but that it’s not the only band in town” (Valenza, 2009).
Next, in Kelly Loftis’ article, “The Pros and Cons of Texting and IM,” I almost have to question if the invention of instant and text messaging was even worth it. Yes, Loftis brings up some benefits to the two crazes amongst younger people, but the downsides seem to outweigh the upsides. Positively, instant and text messaging are excellent forms of communication between parents and children.
However, these forms of communication have become a nuisance and a danger. Students are finding inventive ways to text during class or to cheat via text message. The short hand of these two forms of communication has been detrimental to the development of most students writing abilities in class while teachers have to explain why this shorthand is simply not acceptable in real life situations (Loftis, 2009). These are just the annoyances of text and instant messaging. What about the dangers? Many teenagers are getting behind the wheel and texting while they should be focusing their attention to the road and their surroundings. Unfortunately, this has caused many accidents and deaths.
So, a particular question I have coming from this article along with the quote I chose that resonated with me closely is, “are the benefits worth the distraction?” (Loftis, 2009). For something that I spend a lot of my time doing (texting), should I be glad that it was invented? Are all of the distractions from class and dangers on the road worth it to me? No, not really.
In conclusion, I have raised some interesting points stemming from these two articles from my own inquiry and from the facts coming from the articles themselves. I hope to show that technology can benefit and hinder the lives of teenagers drastically, and the application of this technology must be used wisely if the benefits are to be maximized.
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