It's Not the End of Literacy; it's the Changing of Literacy

Introduction

It is normally said that the introduction of computer devices is the end of literacy. Most of the parents think that due to the use of computer devices their children spend more time on computer. But they do not understand that computers are the new source of acquiring literature material.

Discussion

An interesting part by Howard Gardner of Harvard talks about the diverse types and formats that reading has taken since the age of hieroglyphics, through the creation of the publishing press, and eventually to the present digital age. He takes an amazingly hopeful viewpoint, regardless of the present anxieties about the computer congesting out reading time, therefore assisting to the general down turn in literacy skills. He does, although, forecast that the riches of distinct literacy and the alleviate of going amidst them — on an iPhone, for demonstration — may destabilise the once-hallowed rank of books. He furthermore states that the convenience and portability of the publication aren't effortlessly restored, though under certain attenuating components — a month-long enterprise journey, state — the benefits of Amazon's hand-held electrical devices kindle reading apparatus trumps a bag full of dog-eared paperbacks.

But of the changes in the media landscape over the past few centuries, those featuring digital media are potentially the most far-reaching. Those of us who grew up in the 1950s, at a time when there were just a few computers in the world, could never have anticipated the ubiquity of personal computers (back then, IBM's Thomas Watson famously declared that there'd be a market for perhaps five computers in the world!). A mere half-century later, more than a billion people can communicate via e-mail, chat rooms and instant messaging; post their views on a blog; play games with millions of others worldwide; ...