Digital Writing: A New Way Of Expressing Ourselves

Digital writing: a new way of expressing ourselves

Introduction

Currently, modernization has reached us, and therefore, technology has also done so. Today, it is difficult to imagine a world without television, internet or cell phone;since these media and communication are an integral part of our social and cultural environment. In addition, these new technologies have served as a means to revolutionize communication and social interaction processes. Because of this, the processes of writing and academic reading have also evolved, making these processes more and more dynamic and interactive.

However, the restructuring of logical writing processes to a virtual field has caused little skillful students in calligraphy and who also do not know spelling and grammatical norms. Consequently, these students are not able to correctly write academic texts. For this reason, this essay describes two problems derived from digital writing that is encouraged in recent school environments. Likewise, the reader seeks to reflect on how the frequent and exclusive use of digital writing has generated little skillful students to write in an academic context.

Developing

Digitization of ideas

Initially, it is pertinent to point out what a digital writing consists of. According to the Writing in Digital Environment Research Center (2005), cited by Olaizola (2015), digital writing is the ability and practice to produce documents on a computer, and then publish them via the Internet.

For its part, the National Writing Project (2010), cited by Olaizola (2015), describes digital writing as the preparation of documents with the sole purpose of being read or seen through a computer or a mobile device with access to access toInternet.

In other words, digital writing, in its most general concept, is the production and distribution of texts, images, sounds or videos through an electronic device that is connected to an Internet network. It should be clarified that digital writing can be carried out in different media, such as: social networks or blog processors.

In addition, digital writing requires a critical analysis and a thorough selection of the multimodal elements that will be used, since these allow the transmission of precise information in a document. Similarly, this type of writing in which there is a rhetorical consciousness allows the development and transformation of better knowledge (Olaizola, 2015). However, this characteristic multimodality of virtual writing has only generated students who write and read erroneously.

The art of writing;extinguishes

It is clear that digital writing is replacing manual or italics writing in educational centers, since social environments have changed with the incorporation of technology. Consequently, traditional writing has become obsolete in the professional field. Let’s look at Finland’s case.

At the end of 2014, the National Institute of Education of Finlanda decidedin the development of manual writing with printing letter and enhance writing through a keyboard (ABC, 2014).

For Harmanen (2014) in an interview for the ABC newspaper, the main reason why that decision was made was because the writing in the form of italics is only taught and used in the early stages of basic education, in addition to that forSome students are difficult for them to learn. While manual writing is easier to learn and agile at the time of writing, italic calligraphy becomes complicated and useless in practice, since currently typing predominates in the labor and social field, adds also do. However, this surprising decision by the Finnish government caused a strong debate between pedagogues specializing in writing, since they consider italics as a means to develop the learning and reflection capacity in students.

According to Cerro (2014), in an interview for the newspaper La Vanguardia, the teaching of the italic letter allows the development of logical thinking, since students adopt the ability to structure ideas, and thus, our brain has the faculty ofdiscern between relevant information from which it is not. Similarly, italic writing aims to develop fine motor skills. That is, italic writing allows us to improve the movement of our hand or fingers in activities that require special care. For mangen and balsvik (2016), the process of manual writing gives students the ability to recognize and categorize the letters;Therefore, the brain tends to capture better information. It is also mentioned that manual writing allows an improvement in reading and mathematics capacities in primary education. In addition, italics has proven to be effective in the treatment of digction, preventing the investment or reversal of letters between students suffering from this problem (Reid, 2018).

However, it is evident that digital writing is already part of the new current educational environments;However, priority should not be given to a single writing teaching method. On the other hand, it is important to reflect on the relevance of manual writing and how this help to the development of better students.

As mentioned above, traditional calligraphy allows us to have a better cognitive process, and therefore, reflection and logical reasoning in students are promoted. Because of this, the teaching of manual writing in primary education students so have a better school and social performance becomes fundamental.

Spelling horrors

According to the SAR, spelling is the "set of norms that regulate the writing of a language". That is, spelling is responsible for the correct way in which words are written, as well as the proper use of punctuation marks.

Similarly, these spelling standards are responsible for providing the text with an adequate clarity and understanding so that the reader is able to decipher the written message. Also, a well written text serves as a basis for proper communication. As mentioned by La Rosa (2015): "A bad written word can change the meaning to which you want to express".

However, with the incorporation of digital writing, spelling has been diminished. Imaña (2011), cited by Gómez (2014), mentions that due to the introduction of new digital writing processes, spelling and grammatical norms have lost importance in the new written textual genres. Also, Gómez (2014) conceptualizes this phenomenon as a disorted writing, since, after the appearance of digital media such as social networks, young people have created a new digital writing process in which Spanish written norms are lacking. Therefore, in the academic writings of the students this phenomenon is reflected.

On the other hand, the speed and characteristic dynamism of text messages have affected the writing of university students (Díaz, 2011; Reid, 2018). This has caused academic texts to evidence the use of crutches;that they lack tildes, partially or totally;and that a void knowledge of the proper use of punctuation marks by the students is shown.

Additionally, Gómez (2008) clarifies that disorted writing in digital media does not have an important impact on the formal spelling of young people. However, the frequent use of this writing between students reinforces the ignorance of spelling standards, since when using digital writing usually in text messages or social networks, spelling errors are normalized;Consequently, academic texts are not of quality.

Also, spelling in digital texts has been affected due to the incorporation of spelling correctors in text processors. Thus, the ignorance of these or not knowing how to use them properly generates texts with spelling fouls (De la Rosa, 2015). According to the above, the proliferation of social networks and their influence on the writing of students has developed phenomena such as disortography. Consequently, students reflect the disorted writing process in academic texts, causing them to lose credibility and quality. Similarly, despite the fact that text processors have spelling correctors, students do not know about them or ignore them completely. Therefore, although there is some help from these, students are not able to take advantage of them for their own benefit.

In this way, we can sentence that digital writing creates an environment of spelling faults in educational environments, due to its interaction with social networks. In addition, the incorrect use and ignorance of spelling standards are encouraged, since digital writings require dynamism and speed for better communication, so this is reflected in academic texts.

Conclusions

In sum, it is evident that the incorporation of new technologies in educational environments has brought with them both benefits and affectations in teaching processes. Thus, digital writing has meant a transformation in the way students write and read in classrooms. However, this change in teaching methods has generated problems in the education of young people. The suppression of calligraphy teaching has been chosen in some countries, considering it unnecessary, without taking into account the cognitive repercussions that this can cause. Likewise, the spelling of young people has been affected, due to the frequent use of social networks disort, which has an impact on students’ academic texts. For all the above, it is necessary to reflect on the importance of the proper use of digital writing, as well as the creation of educational environments that foster their good practice. In this way, we will be molding students of different educational levels with the ability to fully develop in virtual environments.

References

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