Technology and Adolescence

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43555967/Adolescent%20Literacy.pdf

This article is titled "Adolescent Literacy: What's Technology Got to Do With It?" The article begins by discussing problems that many adolescent students face in terms of literacy. They explain that many postsecondary students lack the literacy skills they need to succeed both in school and for their careers. The article then goes on to break down the literacy skills into four sections: background knowledge and vocabulary, comprehension strategies, synergy of reading and writing, and interest and motivation. For each section the author first discusses how students struggle with these skills. The author then poses the question, "How can technology help?" For each section, the article provides multiple suggestions and technologies that can be used to help students struggling with these literacy skills. For example, under "Background Knowledge and Vocabulary" the author suggests electronic references and video supports.

Overall, I think this was a great article that everyone can benefit from reading. I chose this article because rather than only focusing on the negative (students struggling with literacy skills) it also provided great ideas on how to help these students succeed using technology. Furthermore, I thought the layout of the article was great and easy to read. The way they broke it up by literacy skill made it very organized. Also, if a teacher was looking for a specific skill they could easily skim through that highlighted skill rather than having to read the entire article. Moreover, the author provided a variety of suggestions of technology and how it can be used for each skill. This allows the teacher to chose which one he or she thinks will work best with his/her students. I would definitely recommend this article for any teacher to read!