One reason educators are reluctant to jump on the social media bandwagon is the resulting crash in writing ability.
lol
cuz
bff
C U L8tR
2nite
BCNUL8R
The list goes on and on, but smiley faces and strange abbreviations are permeating schools at every level. Rummana Khan Hemani, Ontario’s Waterloo University director of academic advising says that emoticons show up even in letters of academic appeal, which he promptly sends back for students to rewrite. (Students Failing Because of Twitter, Texting, the Canadian Press, Feb. 1, 2010)
Indeed, grammar, spelling and the ability to write clearly and understandably is a vital part of society and when students are mixing up the academic word with the texting world, educators need to be concerned.
Instead of swearing off all social media or even just those media forms that promote Internet slang, it is important for teachers to realize that this issue will not simply go away. Avoiding texting, twitter, Facebook and others will not help students learn how to write properly in the correct setting.
Instead, teachers need to embrace this new media format and the new language that goes along with it. Include internet slang in lesson plans and purposefully teach students how to write properly in the correct setting. With written language lessons directed at what language is appropriate in each circumstance, educators can take back over and regain ground where social media left them in the dust.
Do you have a lesson idea that addresses this issue of Internet slang?
