Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • Education in The Digital Age

    Uploaded by

    Ioana Ioana
    73 views4 pages
    1) According to the document, handwriting provides cognitive benefits to children such as improved precision, memory retention, problem solving and critical thinking skills. While technology has changed communication, learning handwriting is still important for developing reading skills. 2) Finland will no longer teach cursive handwriting in schools and instead focus on touch typing and texting. This could disadvantage poorer students without devices, and make reading handwritten documents difficult. However, others argue it is more relevant to modern life. 3) Neuroscientists argue that learning cursive improves hand-eye coordination and benefits brain development in children. It also promotes patience and self-control.

    Original Description:

    Original Title

    Education in the digital age

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Report this Document
    1) According to the document, handwriting provides cognitive benefits to children such as improved precision, memory retention, problem solving and critical thinking skills. While technology has changed communication, learning handwriting is still important for developing reading skills. 2) Finland will no longer teach cursive handwriting in schools and instead focus on touch typing and texting. This could disadvantage poorer students without devices, and make reading handwritten documents difficult. However, others argue it is more relevant to modern life. 3) Neuroscientists argue that learning cursive improves hand-eye coordination and benefits brain development in children. It also promotes patience and self-control.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as pdf or txt
    73 views4 pages

    Education in The Digital Age

    Uploaded by

    Ioana Ioana
    1) According to the document, handwriting provides cognitive benefits to children such as improved precision, memory retention, problem solving and critical thinking skills. While technology has changed communication, learning handwriting is still important for developing reading skills. 2) Finland will no longer teach cursive handwriting in schools and instead focus on touch typing and texting. This could disadvantage poorer students without devices, and make reading handwritten documents difficult. However, others argue it is more relevant to modern life. 3) Neuroscientists argue that learning cursive improves hand-eye coordination and benefits brain development in children. It also promotes patience and self-control.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 4

    Can pen and paper survive in a world of touchscreens and tablets?

    Should we, instead of read


    and write, teach children only to read and type? They said cinema and television would finish off
    reading, yet the book has learned to coexist with its rivals. Is handwriting going to survive typing
    in the age of electronic devices? What are the cognitive benefits of writing by hand?

    1) Read the text and decide which answer (A, B, C or D) best fits each gap:

    Youth’s guilty secret - they love books​1


    In today’s youth culture, books are seen as boring and old-fashioned 1. ​_According ​to a recent
    study which claims that children only spend 15 minutes a day reading, and are 2. ​glued to the
    television or computer screen for the rest of their leisure time.
    However, this is totally at 3.​odds ​with other research, which suggests that children are
    reading more books than ever before. Although technology has been accused of destroying their
    desire to read, it appears that using the Internet actually stimulates children to look for more
    information about the things they come ​across ​over there, and the easiest way for them to do this
    is by reading books.
    It is true that youth often try to 5 ​cover up their enjoyment of books in case they are seen as
    ‘soft’. But it does in fact seem possible that 6. ​rather then lowering standards of literacy,
    computers have actually contributed to raising them.

    1. A. due B. according C. referring D. owing


    2. A. glued B. fixed C. attached D. stuck
    3. A. differences B. opposition C. variation D. odds
    4. A. over B. across C. to D. through
    5. A. bottle up B. cover up C. blot out D. put away
    6. A. rather than B. as well as C. in spite of D. more than

    2) ​a) Read the text​2 below and extract advantages and disadvantages of dropping ​cursive
    handwriting​ from schools.

    Finland to teach typing rather than handwriting in schools


    Speed-texting and touch-typing are set to reign supreme in Finland’s schools where the
    requirement to master ​traditional ​cursive handwriting is being dropped from the curriculum.
    From 2016 onwards, Finnish children will no longer be taught joined-up writing. Instead, the
    emphasis will be on touch typing and the most ​efficient​ way of composing a text message.
    These skills will be "more relevant to everyday life", said the Finnish board of education.
    In taking this step, Finland is following the example of America, where several states no longer
    require the teaching of cursive handwriting in public schools. Every Finnish pupil will be handed
    a tablet on which they will learn how to touch-type and speed-text. But teachers ​concede ​that
    poorer pupils, who may not have such devices at home, could find themselves at a disadvantage.
    However, the ​steady disappearance of cursive from schools in America and now in
    Finland is deeply controversial​. One consequence is that even supposedly ​literate pupils are
    often unable to read documents that are handwritten. When George Zimmerman was placed on

    1
    Exercise taken from: ​Proficiency GOLD Coursebook​, by Jacky Newbrrok and Judith Wilson, Pearson Longman
    Publishing House (2009)
    2
    Article by David Blair, published in February 2015, available at: https://tinyurl.com/npzxkr5
    trial in Florida in 2013 for shooting the black teenager Trayvon Martin, a key witness was
    Trayvon's 19-year-old friend, Rachel Jeantel. Her school no longer troubled its pupils with
    traditional writing skills. In court, Ms Jeantel was forced to admit her inability to read a
    handwritten document that was passed to her by a lawyer.
    In addition, experts believe that learning cursive handwriting ​helps ​young children to
    memorize letters, learn the alphabet and develop their hand-eye-brain coordination. This exercise
    in digital ​precision may also help to bring out the skills of those who have the talent to be
    surgeons or artists. Dropping cursive handwriting would also require the abandonment of
    traditional handwritten exams. In America, exam scripts have often been replaced by multiple
    choice tests, which hinder creativity.
    These concerns have caused a reaction against the fading away of cursive writing. Last
    year, Tennessee decided that all schools in the state will go back to teaching traditional writing
    skills from this autumn ​onwards​. Learning cursive will be compulsory in Tennessee for at least
    two years of schooling.

    Advantages Disadvantages

    More relevant to everyday life Unable to decipher handwriting

    Faster and more efficient Inability to write leads to inability to read

    Choice test are hindering creativity

    Hinders creativity

    Poorer students cannot afford tablets

    b) Find ANTONYMS for the words underlined.

    Innovative, modern, progressive


    Inefficient
    Deny, reject
    Fluctuating, unsteady
    Illiterate
    Hinders, obstruct
    Approximation
    Backwards

    c) All arguments considered, what is your personal opinion about this measure?

    3) Psychology and handwriting.


    Neuroscientist William Klemm argues that learning cursive handwriting is developmentally
    beneficial for a young developing brain. Learning cursive provides crucial benefits to children at
    an age when they need it most:
    ● a sense of involvement (a clearer understanding of how letters form words, sentences,
    and meanings),
    ● hand-eye-brain coordination (improves precision and memory retention),
    ● promotes critical and creative thinking (note taking, mind maps, etc.)
    ● patience and ​self-control​.

    Find at least ONE other benefit by looking at this infographic: ​The Benefits of Handwriting
    vs. Typing

    ● problem solving
    ● sharpened critical thinking

    4) Open cloze. Provide the words that are missing from the gaps:

    The digital age has undoubtedly changed the way we communicate and even how we a)
    _______read___ ​and write. But if we’re thoughtful in how we use devices, we can reap the
    benefits they offer while avoiding their dangers. For example, Indiana University psychologist
    Karin James argues that practice in handwriting is still b) ​_essential___ ​for children to become
    effective readers. She gives two reasons to support this assertion. First, learning-by-doing is far
    more effective than learning-by-seeing. Procedural learning always involves making c)
    connections/pathways______ ​between the sensory (visual) and motor (hand) areas of the brain
    that are recruited for the task. And d) ​____secondly_____​, handwriting practice is an essential
    component of learning to read because writing out letters helps young children learn how to
    recognize them.
    To test the e) ​__hypothesis______ ​that handwriting letters creates links between sensory
    and motor regions of the brain, James conducted an fMRI study using four-year olds. The
    children were split into two groups. Both underwent letter recognition training, but half used the
    see-and-say method while the other half copied letters as well. After four weeks, the children’s
    brains were scanned once more. Connections f) ​__between_______ ​visual and hand areas were
    already forming in those who’d learned by handwriting, whereas none could be detected in the
    see-and-say group.
    Finally, in another brain-scanning study looking at the learning of cursive, children who
    were asked to g) ​______copy/handwrite____ ​examples developed vision-hand connections in
    their brains, but those who just watched adults writing in cursive did not. Likewise, children who
    were taught to recognize letters by typing them on a keyboard didn’t develop vision-hand
    connections, even h) ​____though______ ​the motor task of typing was involved. In short,
    learning letters by handwriting not only helps kids extract the essential features of letters, it’s
    also the only method that establishes the brain connections necessary for full literacy.​3

    5) Learning disorders or disabilities. Match the terms (1-7) with their definitions (a-g):

    1. Dyscalculia ​c​. a) Speech (not learning) disorder in which the muscles of the
    mouth, face, or respiratory system have difficulty moving.

    2. Dysgraphia ​e b) Affects reading and related language-based processing skills.

    3
    Adapted from https://tinyurl.com/ychf6crb
    3. Dyslexia ​b c) Affects a person’s ability to understand numbers and learn
    math facts.

    4. Dyspraxia ​f d) Communication disorder which occurs due to brain damage


    and interferes with verbal and/or written communication..

    5. Dysarthria ​a e) Affects a person’s handwriting ability and fine motor skills.

    6. Dysphasia ​g f) Causes problems with movement and coordination, language


    and speech.

    7. Aphasia ​d g) Affects the ability to produce and understand spoken language.

    6) Put the following words back in the fragment below: ​learning, abstraction, sequencing,
    organization, roadblock

    A professional learning disorders specialist might refer to the importance of “integration” to


    learning. Integration refers to the understanding of information that has been delivered to the
    brain, and it includes three steps: a) ​sequencing​, which means putting information in the right
    order; b) ​abstraction_​, which is making sense of the information; and c) ​organization​, which
    refers to the brain’s ability to use the information to form complete thoughts. Each of the three
    steps is important and a child may have a weakness in one area or another that causes d)
    learning ​difficulty. For example, in math, sequencing is important for learning to count or do
    multiplication (as well as learn the alphabet or the months of the year). Similarly, the other two
    steps are important parts of numerous educational skills and abilities. If a certain brain activity
    isn’t happening correctly, it will create a e) ​roadblock ​to learning and a potential disorder.

    Resources
    Master penman​ ​(video)
    Teaching Kids Handwriting to Help Them Read
    An Intelligent New Way to Teach Cursive
    5 Brain-Based Reasons to Teach Handwriting in School
    The Importance of Handwriting Instruction
    Speech disorders
    Types of Learning Disabilities
    Learning Disabilities and Disorders

    You might also like