Session Notes

Benefits:

• a lot faster
• don’t have to spend a lot of time writing
• can communicate without bothering them (they don’t have to reply right away or even read now)
• handy and convenient
• increases contact and accessibility
• people tend to read texts before listening to voicemail
• can save texts—so “paper” trail and accountability
• can trace calls and texts—again, accountability
• learning another language
• universal (maybe) language: lol, brb
• mobile, portable
• increased comfort level via different communication platforms
• quiet (no one else has to listen to your conversations)
  
  
  

Drawbacks:

• texting outside of school so shorthand makes its way into school essays--unintentionally
• forget grammar and spelling and punctuation conventions/rules
• addiction prevents you from paying attention to people around you
• not every student has a phone and knows how to text—so you can’t use them in the classroom and expect everyone to have one
• loss of physical and social interaction
• miscommunication because lack of verbal and visual cues (tone of voice, etc.)
• classroom nuisance
• cheating
• bullying
• no immediate accountability (emotional remove)
• If we keep starting earlier and earlier, will younger folks have enough “regular,” good English education to be, actually, bilingual?
  
  
  

Uses/Applications:

• For teaching audience: when to use and when not to use textspeak
• Not for academic writing
• When teachers see students texting in class, have that offending student send the teacher a text containing the content of the activity/discussion/lecture. Prove multitasking ability.
• Textspeak class = shorthand or keyboarding class?
• Note taking
  
  
  

Other:

• It really is easy to distinguish when and when not to use textspeak
• Really, how is this different from slipping into a second tongue?
• How does one pick it up, anyway? How does one learn it?
• Just another version of teen/youth slang? Territory of the Young
• Our spoken language is different from written language—always has been, before and after the “groovy” days. How is textspeak any different.