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Edward Cossette, director of visual design for ExploreLearning.com, a Web site that features hands-on, multimedia simulations called Gizmos, said that today's students are better able to handle and process a multitude of stimuli than their parents. "I have seen kids," he said, "sitting at their computers, talking on their cell phone, and having a conversation with their mom at the same time. They have developed a remarkable ability to keep track of all these things happening at once." That's gr8, but he and other panelists also noted that text-message shorthand has been making its way into formal essays, a trend of questionable literary value :(
But Elizabeth Piedmont-Marton, a English professor at Southwestern, countered that, thanks to e-mail and the Web, more people are writing than ever before. "Historically," she said, "culture has dictated who writes and who doesn't. I think the proliferation of e-mail and the Web has forced us to question what exactly is meant by 'literate.' It is a good debate to have."
When it comes to technology in the classroom, all agreed that technology is only one more tool in the hands of a good human teacher. "There are few students that will thrive alone in front of a computer," said Don Knezek, CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education, a nonprofit that helps schools integrate technology. "A passionate teacher can make great use of technology, but it is not a replacement for that desire to teach."
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