That’s right, you read it here first on the Tech Savvy Educator; typing is dead. Texting is the next biggest benchmark for technological prowress. Or so it would seem with the crowning of Morgan Pozgar, the new LG National Texting Champion. NOT a typing champion, spelling champion, or even a geography bee champion…..a cell phone texting champion.
According to the brief article on CNN.com, which was brought to my attention by Nicole, our art forum moderator, Morgan, a 13 year old from Claysburg, PA…
…was crowned LG National Texting champion on Saturday after she typed “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” from “Mary Poppins” in 15 seconds.
15 seconds?! Using just those annoying tiny buttons on a cell phone? I can’t even type the word that quickly on my keyboard, bad spelling and all. If this is a sign of things to come, what does it say for traditional typing practice and keyboard use in our schools? Sure, there will always be desktop computers around in the near future, but if children are already typing so quickly on handhelds, when they find themselves in the 21st century workplace, moving from one job to the next as demand dictates, will they necessarily be tied down to a desktop or laptop machine? I wonder if we’re doing our students a disservice by not allowing more handheld and personal computers (PDAs, cellphones, etc.) in the classroom, so that students can express themselves much more uniquely, efficiently and adequately.
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious wins $25,000 via CNN.com
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I think we’re very much doing kids a disservice by not using the mobile tools they use everyday as personal learning devices. Kids arrive at school with these digital skill-sets and teachers tell them “you can’t use that here.” No wonder kids think school’s irrelevant. Yes, this type of technology presents challenges (curriculum integration, alternative assesment models, cheating, etc), but I would rather deal with these challenges then a student’s disengagement.
One thing to be aware of is that she was using either the LG V or the LG EnV, which have full keyboards. Not quite touch typing, but a lot easier to type non-sensical words on!
Yeah, I noticed that Ryan. It didn’t seem quite far, sine most other people texting would be using the traditional three-letter per button number pad.
Dale: You make an excellent point! Dealing with disengagement is one of the focal points of almost every teacher, but if you can overcome that by making the learning more personal through the simple use of a cellphone or mobile device, then dealing with integration is easy in copmarison (that is, if you keep an open mind).
On the comment about her using a LG V or LG EnV not seeming “fair”…the competition was sponsored by LG & the V or EnV was REQUIRED to be used in the competition. All contestants had to have one of those phones. She had the older model.
What I meant by fair wasn’t in reference to the other competitors, but rather in regards to the average joe-cell phone user. Most of us have the traditional 12-button typepad with multiple letters on each key, rather than a full mini-keyboard. Not that I could beat her with a full keyboard 😛
I am interested in typing and I found great site with many frequent typographical errors & mistakes! Just look and you see what people can’t write…