MetaFilter posts tagged with reading and literacy

Internet Literacy

ztdavis — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 12:26:02 -0800

When is reading reading? Or, rather, when is it good for you? The New York Times looks at how the internet is changing the ways we think and how we learn.

Swap books; read more.

tybeet — Fri, 30 May 2008 05:44:06 -0800

You may have heard that reading is in a slow decline (previously). We now know that such reports were either exaggerated, or at least statistically questionable. On the flip-side of all this is the fact that reading as an activity has never been more accessible (or thrifty!) considering the number of reputable book swap programs available on the internet. There's no excuse now! You may be wondering how these book-swap programs work. Your first thought might be that they run under a tit-for-tat rubric, but that would be a headache. Instead, many of them employ a credit-based system where you will earn a "point" for sending someone a book they've put on a wishlist, and can turn around and redeem that credit to then be on the receiving end. Don't forget if you're in the US you can take advantage of Media Mail shipping for all of this.

Reports of Reading Decline Greatly Exaggerated?

cogneuro — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 07:13:55 -0800

Are people reading less? Government survey says: yes. Declines in how much and how well people read “are adversely affecting this country's culture, economy, and civic life as well as our children's educational achievement.” Also the cause of poor test scores. Steve Jobs agrees: Kindle DOA because nobody reads books anymore. WaPo says 1 in 4 persons read no books in 2006. And children didn't keep reading after they got through Harry Potter, either. So literacy's in a long slow decline.
But wait. The NEA survey has been completely shredded in the blogs; the survey focused on literary reading with a book in your hands, totally excluding anything like, say, spending hours on MeFi. Or, say, reading anything from here. This is odd because the NEA survey placed so much emphasis on whether people read for pleasure. They should check in with the NEH, which is helping to create on-line archives for your reading pleasure. Jobs’s take on the data is challenged here. Some people read a lot of books. ¾ people read at least one. A little self-serving Steve? What about all that reading (and spelling) people need to use your computers? That wouldn’t show up in the survey either. And the widely repeated story about children not reading more after Harry Potter: mostly impressions and “expert” opinion. The only data are about how much children report they read “for fun." After they’ve finished their ton of homework, practiced violin, sent a dozen text messages and updated their MySpace pages. So are people reading less? If book reading is being replaced by other forms of reading it’s bad news for the publishing industry but won’t necessarily make society stupid. Maybe what and how we’re reading is changing, not how much. But you know, that might not be saying much because the baseline is so low: the US comes out poorly in cross-national comparisons of literacy levels. And that's not good.

For Whom the Bell Tolls - airbag edition

isopraxis — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 20:39:25 -0800

Some people like to text while driving(YT). Others think TWD is dangerous enough to be illegal.
At last there is a solution for literate(YT), bookish types (Googvid) to get in on the fun.
Sadly, as with everything good, reading-while-driving has its haters too.

Literacy & Thought

Gyan — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 08:03:06 -0800

Twilight of the Books - What will life be like if people stop reading? [print version] [NEA's report To Read or Not To Read] [Walter J. Ong digital collection]

Sequoyah's Cherokee Syllabary

magullo — Thu, 15 Jul 2004 05:07:49 -0800

Sequoyah's Cherokee Syllabary
The history of a man who single-handedly invented a new and unique writing system which made the literacy rate of his nation shoot from 0% to 90% in just a few years.

Original source

Mr. Watchword, Wordy for short

snez — Wed, 05 Feb 2003 13:10:09 -0800

Look and Read offers storylines, songs, video clips and my first introduction to Wordy from this classic BBC School series. As someone who grew up on Sesame Street and Schoolhouse Rock, I found it interesting to see the British equivalent. Plus, it's good campy fun.

flestrin — Sun, 15 Sep 2002 13:39:33 -0800

This pidgin bible translation gives me the creeps. What happened to promoting literacy by example? Sure, it's important to use language that your readers are comfortable with, but come on already. Is it any wonder that education in Hawaii stinks?