Is mor btr? IDK.

Blogging, tweeting, texting, status updating, and e-mailing are just a few of the ways today’s college students write.

But all of this writing doesn’t necessarily mean this generation is composed of better writers.

“Some scholars say this new writing is more engaged and more connected to an audience, and that colleges should encourage students to bring lessons from that writing into the classroom. Others argue that tweets and blog posts enforce bad writing habits and have little relevance to the kind of sustained, focused argument that academic work demands,” according to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

“Studies Explore Whether the Internet Makes Students Better Writers” discusses what one professor calls the “age of composition” because of the amount of writing people now perform. The studies addressed in the article show how today’s college students write more outside of class than in a classroom setting. They also show that students enjoy social writing, even though it has not positively impacted writing and grammar test scores. Students describe their social writing as more persistent and meaningful to them than their class writing, according to another professor.

The question becomes how to use this passion for outside writing within the classroom boundaries. In other words, how can educators use students’ desire to express themselves socially to help them academically? Perhaps professors make the writing less relevant to students simply by associating it with academia. IDK, but I do recognize that social media is creating a generation of writers who cannot form proper sentences or spell words correctly.

Kindling in the classroom

“Students, please turn off your cell phones and open your Kindles?”

Perhaps, according to a column posted on Inside Higher Ed. The university-related news source reported about how Kindle could be used to save students time and money while helping them learn.

Charles Crowell, an associate professor from Southern Vermont College in Bennington, wrote the piece. He admitted that some university faculty are skeptical (some after failed attempts) about adopting more technology into the classroom. Crowell wrote that Kindle aligns with traditional and contemporary forms of pedagogy.

From the traditional standpoint, Crowell wrote that Kindle is less expensive than traditional textbooks, showing that university officials are sensitive to textbook prices. Textbooks can cost students about $1,000 per academic year. Crowell said some texts he will require next semester are more than 30 percent cheaper on Kindle.

Crowell admitted that some textbooks aren’t yet available on Kindle, but wrote that the benefits of using Kindle will increase as publishers make more books available online. The immediacy of Kindle texts also would allow professors to update their books more reguarly without fear of negative budgetary impact on students, according to Crowell.

Despite its limitations, Crowell thinks Kindle will give faculty and students greater access to more up-to-date materials as a lower cost. Read his entire column, “The Kindle Factor.”