Monday, August 24, 2009

Seventh Early Literacy Skill?

There's an article in SLJ/Aug. by Ann Crewdson in which she makes the case for identifying and supporting a seventh, technology-based, early literacy skill. She provides a nice description of several gaming systems and CD-Roms that support the six early literacy skills. I'm not sure that the mere use of technology to support literacy needs to be elevated to the status of "literacy skill" and Crewdson admits that the 7th early literacy variable "remains elusive". She says it is out there, though, and evolving and she further urges librarians to help parents locate early literacy software. Do you think that video games for the 2-5 year old crowd (even with a literacy component) can really promote literacy or will they compete with books for a child's attention? I'm particularly thinking about recent studies that have shown Baby Einstein videos and the like to be detrimental to a child's early literacy development...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You raise an interesting point in this blog, Betsy. I've been reading/learning more about technology in education and have found that the technology is too new for studies to have caught up with whether technology enhances education or detracts from it. There have been some interesting studies out there, though, and I think the continued discussions will be insightful.

From a more personal point of view, I think as long as the parent models reading behavior - whether its online or in print - the child will benefit from it. I can't help but think that our Tumblebooks is not only entertaining but educational as well!

cynthia k.

Betsy said...

I like Tumblebooks too:)