Reposting This, Sorry.

Fascinating RSA vid, but long.

Main points:

A) Older folks are more likely to text than a younger generation. It's not a generational thing. (I don't know how he arrived at that. It sounded though like % of messages. Unrelated though, Pew had a recent report on % of American English-speaking users of various features recently. Notably 18-29 86% v 30-49 72% texted.).

B) Abbreviating is not new. Folks have always had fun with words like CS Lewis (It's cool was the primary response for abbreviating. Cyrstal's response was that you had to know what you were doing for it to be cool. This point though was tied to the one below regarding inability to spell.). He cited rebuses as an example.

C) Texting improves language skills. Coventry University apparently have done a number of studies on the issue. A news report.

D) Folks are reading, even if not novels. Texting requires a high literacy rate.

E) Kids don't abbreviate in test, except rarely. Why? They'll be marked for it. Examiners and kids seem to say this, despite the news.

F) The texting genre is creative. Including poetry contest w/ an 86 year-old grandma winning of the awards. There's in east Asia, text serial novels.

G) Twitter sentences vary in length. Some are 25-30 words long.

H) Twitter is in a state of flux, so it's hard to generalize. Initially, the prompt was apparently to "What are you doing?" to in Nov "What's happening?". Reflects an inward to external shift. Apparently, responses have shifted from the stereotypical insipid blah (I'm cleaning my ear canal; I'm drinking beer) to responding with information exchange in real time. Twitter is fastest news source medium.

Q&A:

A) There is a danger as we become more brief and succinct, there is a danger of an inability to read for sustained periods and longer pieces.

However, it's too soon to generalize. A) It's too soon. 20 years is impossible to change cognitive functions. B) a response is to now manage the technology.

He then cited though some educational junk regarding managing starting with teachers and kids being appreciative for the guidance/advice.

For younger people the technology is central and the book is peripheral, as opposed to an older paradigm of book central and alternative peripheral. One managing strategy is to put the book into the technology (i.e. iPad, kindle).

B) Inculcating students into an appropriateness model for English, vs. right/wrong, black/white (think grammar-spelling nazis and literary conservatives). One way is comparing language and translating various formats of information(text <-> essay). So learning what is and isn't appropriate w/ communicating the information for the specific formats.
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