Australian Study: Is Digital Literacy Undercutting Literacy?
A newly released study in Australia raises questions about whether digital literacy is actually undermining children’s ability and interest in reading.
A Four Corners investigation has found there are growing fears among education experts that screen time is contributing to a generation of skim readers with poor literacy, who may struggle to gain employment later in life as low-skilled jobs disappear.
By the age of 12 or 13, up to 30 per cent of Australian children’s waking hours are spent in front of a screen, according to the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children.
Robyn Ewing, a Professor of Teacher Education at the University of Sydney, said this was having a tangible impact on vocabulary and literacy.
“Children who have been sat in front of a screen from a very early age start school with thousands and thousands of words less, vocabulary-wise, than those who have been meaningfully communicated with,” Professor Ewing said.
Four Corners gained exclusive access to the initial results of a national survey of 1,000 teachers and principals conducted by the Gonski Institute.
The survey found excessive screen time had a profound CONTINUE READING: Australian Study: Is Digital Literacy Undercutting Literacy? | Diane Ravitch's blog