Robin Talkowski’s Blog: Reading & Technology

Recently, I heard Don Leu and his research team from the University of Connecticut share their ideas and research about the new reading comprehension and learning skills needed for effective internet research.  Leu and his team identified the following skills as key:

“Identify important questions or problems.

Locate information using search engines.

Critically evaluate online resources for accuracy and reliability.

Synthesize information across texts.

Communicate information using email, blogs, instant messages, wikis, Nings, social networking sites, and other media.”

This presentation started a quest to understand this topic and learn how and what to teach today’s digital consumers.  The New Literacies Research Team at UConn provides a great starting point.  It provides resources and links to understand the ways in which our more traditional reading instruction needs to change to teach the skills our students need for survival in this digital age.