[…] “[A]uto-correct and spellcheckers have turned us into a bunch of illiterate idiots” (Greenfield, 2012).
In watching the video by Michael Wesch entitled “Information R/evolution” I was impressed at how it walked through the transition between digital and non-digital technology without saying a word, but using the old saying “a picture is worth a 1000 words” to do all the talking. I was fascinated by the video production, especially after working on my ETEC 540 Documentary assignment and realising how long it takes to make a video. However, the only thing I could think about was the educational impact of this ever changing technology.
Many things in education now use digital technology, yet I am still surprised to see a large number of students turn in written or printed work often. The idea that digital print has surpassed traditional pencil and paper in schools and not true, at least not from what I see every day, but it is having a profound impact. Author Bolter states, “In this late age of print, the two technologies, print and electronic writing, still need each other. Print forms the tradition on which electronic writing depends” (Bolter, 2001, p. 46). This statement is very true, without being able to write, electronic writing is not possible, but this statement is a little like the “history is written by the victors” quote by Winston Churchil. Yes, electronic writing depends on traditional print, but as each generation passes it is also changing it.
The use of emoji’s in writing is a common thing and becoming more common, but I argue that this is a new phenomenon and not traditional at all 😉 However, the big change I want to focus on is the erosion of spelling as a result of electronic technology. To preface this, I spell terribly and if it was not for auto correct this post would be a mess of words spelled incorrectly. My first assumption is that auto correct is to blame for this as you do not not need to spell any full word correctly any more, you just need to get close so that auto correct fixes it. In fact a BBC article found that in Britian “96% [of people] said spelling was important, but two-thirds use spellcheckers all or most of the time” (BBC, 2012). Author La Force from the New Yorker looks at;
[A] 20-year study which that found typists had gotten worse at spelling. The study looked at the most common errors in undergraduate papers, finding the prevalence of word screw-ups, rather than grammar errors, had increased between 1988 and 2008. “The use of the wrong word jumped three spots to become the most common error in students’ papers; misspelling, which didn’t even place in the top twenty in 1988, jumped to number five,”(La Force, 2009).
Interestingly this coincided with the popularization of the Microsoft Word program. “Microsoft released Word 1.0 for the Macintosh in 1984 (Chadwick, 1988)
What do you think, are you a good speller? Could you write a response without spell check? On a total side not I hated BlackBoard because it did not have spellcheck and wrote all of my posts in Word and copied them over. How many other did that too?
I welcome your thoughts
Zale
References
BBC News. Poor spelling of ‘auto-correct generation’ revealed. (2012, May 22). Retrieved June 24, 2018, from https://www.bbc.com/news/education-18158665
Bolter, Jay David. (2001). Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print. p. 46
Chadwick, I. (1988, Summer). MICROSOFT WRITE. Retrieved June 24, 2018, from https://www.atarimagazines.com/startv3n1/microsoftwrite.html?tag=
Greenfield, R. (2013, October 30). Auto-Correct Is Not Ruining Spelling. Retrieved June 24, 2018, from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/05/auto-correct-not-ruining-spelling/327785/
La Force, T. L., & Thessaly La Force. (2009, September 4). Has Spell-Check Ruined Us? Retrieved June 24, 2018, from https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/has-spell-check-ruined-us
Wesch, M. (2007, October 12). Retrieved June 25, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4CV05HyAbM
Winston Churchill Quotes. (n.d.). Retrieved June 24, 2018, from https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/winston_churchill_380864
michael yates
June 25, 2018 — 10:09 pm
I tend to see it differently than most. Technology is a means to improve a tedious or repeated task… Spelling and Grammar are tedious and repeated tasks, so the computer doing it for us is an improvement! Okay, not really. I do think it is rather silly of us to “blame” the technology for ruining our ability to spell, that honour rests completely on our own shoulders. We choose to let autocorrect/spellcheck improve our spelling!
As an aside, while researching my Assignment 1 topic I had the opportunity to speak to an 87 year old man who apprenticed as a printer in the 1940’s. The presses back then were completely manual, you actually had individual characters on metal “pegs” that had to be arranged to form words and sentences. Building a simple flyer took hours of work, and on top of that they had to learn to read upside down. It was amazing to hear him talk about how he sees so many spelling errors in printed works, far more than in his time. So maybe technology hasn’t really improved the quality of work we are producing, it is just making it easier to produce it.
I actually think autocomplete and using acronyms for words (lol, rofl etc…) is more dangerous than a spell check. Soon we may forget what the actual words are if it doesn’t pop up on our status bar! :).
kimseto
June 25, 2018 — 11:03 pm
Hi Zale,
I really enjoyed reading your post! You brought up several excellent points that I had been mulling over recently with my teaching colleagues! With today’s digital technologies, like social media and texting, writing with abbreviated and colloquial language is the norm for most people who engage in these forms of communication. No doubt my spelling has certainly deteriorated over the years since I’ve relied more heavily on Word’s spell check and Grammarly (Chrome extension). I see this reflected on my students’ work as well, yet my colleagues and I seem to have lightened up when they make spelling errors. Perhaps it is because we know that it can be a simple fix that technology can take care of or perhaps we are placing critical thinking and expression of ideas at the forefront. Similarly, we also discussed whether there is even a need for teachers (particularly primary teachers) to be teaching their young students writing by hand. At this point, I know most of my primary teacher colleagues spend a substantial amount of school time showing students how to print on the lines, how to follow the dotted curves, and even for some, how to do cursive writing. But is this relevant? I can count on my hand the number of times I pick up a pen throughout the entire day. The majority of my memos, emails, lesson plans, and presentations are all done digitally. So does this shift in mediums hint at the deterioration of books as well? Our ways of writing have most certainly changed, but have our mediums for reading changed as well? Bolter (2001) hints at the potential replacement of books with ebooks. He even goes as far to suggest the possibility of virtual environments as replacements for books! Could he be right?
Bolter, Jay David. (2001). Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print. p. 46
kristie dewald
June 26, 2018 — 10:35 pm
Interesting thread here. I tend to agree with you, Michael, that relying on software to correct spelling errors is probably a good use of technology. That said, I remember watching the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee a few years ago. It was amazing what these kids could do. I was particularly impressed that they seemed to be able to figure out the spelling of a word based on its origin. It is a spectacular display of what is perhaps becoming a lost art.
I am currently teaching a course in a Masters program where students are preparing to write the professional accounting final exam in September. They must write their exams on their own laptops using software that locks things so they are unable to access the internet and any other resources beyond those that they are allowed. Many functions in Word are disabled. Spell check is one of them. I have marked those exams in the past and it is difficult to know if the students are poor spellers or poor typers. It is a time pressured exam, so they rarely have time to be concerned with those sorts of things. What is obvious, however, is how distracting errors are and how they interrupt the flow of reading and processing what is being said. To that end, spell check is a useful and appreciated tool for me.
Another interesting observation, and to one of your points, Kim, is that most of these students are preferring to get material on paper rather than electronically. I post material onine but was making a few hard copies to hand out thinking there may be a few that prefer paper. I ran out the first couple of times and so now have been making a copy for everyone. They all seem happy to have it. These are people in their early 20’s so have long used computers. I do have to say that this course comes to mind as I observe these preferences.
And Michael, your story reminds me that I need to speak to more octogenarians (yes, I did rely on spell check for that one!). They have so many interesting stories to tell and much to teach us in general.
Zale Darnel
June 27, 2018 — 7:21 pm
I love the fact that this topic can be debated on both sides. I agree that spelling is a lost art, and yes spell check is good, but it is also contributing to that lost art. One of the things that came up was acronyms, and I think those are a total change of the language that is a direct result of technology. It would be an interesting test to have someone from 100 years ago read common text today with emojis, acronyms and all of the other language things that have evolved as a result of technology change over the years.
On a bit of a side note I am going to tell a funny spelling story about myself. I was writing something and wanted to spell the word etiquette, so I Googled it to make sure I spelled it right and had the right word, needless to say I spelled it wrong….but the first thing that came up was urban dictionary for my misspelled word. It said…” this is the version of the word etiquette for people un-educated enough to spell the word etiquette correctly.” I was both embarrassed and laughed out loud at that 🙂
Thanks for all of the great comments and discussion.
Zale
Kathryn Williams
June 30, 2018 — 4:35 am
Hi Zale,
I have enjoyed your post and the replies that stemmed from your initial ideas. I now, however, think I have more questions than answers! I tend to agree with Bolter that print and electronic writing are dependent on each other but then this got me thinking about how much of my day is digital and how infrequently I use a pen or pencil. Do you think there will ever be a time when people don’t need to learn to write? At this point in time, I can choose whichever is most convenient: Should I write my ideas down using a pen or should I type them? What if people didn’t know how to write but instead only knew how to type?
Michael’s point about making an improvement to a tedious task in regards to spelling also stood out to me. Using a spell checker is so common that it makes one wonder why we teach spelling and why some teachers give spelling tests! I liked your point Kristie, about the students knowing the origins of the word. However, for many students this might not interest them! Is the classic teaching of spelling a valuable use of time? I often warn the students in my class about trusting Word to correct their grammar. We look at many funny errors that have come from, for example, a misplaced comma. Kimseto brought up the use of Grammarly, which is something I don’t have any experience of. If students rely on a platform like Grammarly, will they learn the rules of grammar? On the other hand, will these skills be necessary in the future?
Lots to think about!
Kathryn
Carri-Ann Scott
July 6, 2018 — 11:36 am
Hi, Zale
Your post resonated with me as it related to recent dinner conversations at our house.
Our 12-year old daughter is a miserable speller. As someone who prides themselves on spelling and grammar, it is a constant source of contention between us. Her argument lies in the “why should I care, I dictate everything into my device anyway” world. My comeback is that she is obviously mistaken as I can see her written errors in the notes she leaves around the house, but her point is not altogether invalid. She does dictate all her text message and most of her assignments. She has little use for a keyboard as her world involves touchscreens. She is an excellent reader, which I thought would migrate to the ability to spell, but this has not been the case.
When she does enter her own text, as you suggest in your post autocorrect usually saves her bacon. However, she also says that direct entry methods are not as enjoyable, often because of the hilarity that happens when her dictations are misheard by the device.
Personally, I have a love/hate relationship with spell check and autocorrect. I have Grammarly installed on my computer (if you haven’t tried it and you are a horrible speller, it is the best gift you can give yourself!), so all of my posts are automatically checked for spelling and grammar, which is wonderful. But autocorrect fails me more often than not. At some point, Siri is going to have to come to grips with the fact that I am rarely giving a ‘duck’ about much of anything. Ducking Autocorrect!