Slashdot Mirror
Kids Improve Writing Online
aelfric35 writes "Ben Franklin advised his son not to allow schooling to interfere with his education. Even though many have disparaged the effects of IM on schoolchildrens' prose, some kids are actually becoming better writers by participating in online communities. Henry Jenkins writes in MIT's Technology Review about how some kids are gaining writing and editorial experience far beyond what their schools can offer by participating in Harry Potter fan fiction forums (sorry about the alliteration)."
"...alliteration"? I guess the better writing and vocabulary doesn't apply to me.
I LeArN3d 4ll mah SkillZ OnliNe. it iz teh b3sT wAy d00d!!!
I can see the handwriting on the wall, soon the buggers' invasion will allow Locke and Demosthenes to obtain unprecedented political authority! Something must be done!
Ah, I can remember it like it was yesterday... Back in the day, downloading erotic stories from BBS's, printing them on the trusty old Epson dot-matrix, and reading them before going to bed. Porn has improved my reading skills and my imagination.
Even today, I'm sure it still has the effect of improving hand-eye coordination and strengthening my forearms.
Three cheers for porn!
> When I see "loose" being used in place of "lose", my blood starts boiling.
Me to.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Looks like you loost an "o".
"Every valid combination of words in the English language has been attributed to Mark Twain at some point in time."
--Mark Twain
My only political goal is to see to it that no political party achieves its goals.
I get my interpersonal skills through Slashdot, you insensitive clod!
Seriously though, why do people think home schoolers get locked into basements and forgotten? They *do* meet other children, whether through things like scouts or sports or not. We aren't a bunch of recluses, you know. We don't try to stick a floppy in someone's mouth.
If my answers frighten you, stop asking scary questions.
you'll end up teaching them more about English grammar than they ever would have otherwise learned.
I think the exception to this is my high school spanish teacher. She didn't know English and she didn't know Spanish. We argued for 3 weeks whether the word "Spanish" in the sentence "We are in la clase de la Spanish" (yes, that's how she said it) was an adjective or a verb. She argued in favor of the verb. Ah, public education.
One funny thing to note is she once gave out referrals (passes to go see the principal) to 2 students for "sending psychic messages during a test." The kids were staring at their papers very intensely and, to her, were apparently communicating answers psychically. Another one of her students jumped out of her second story window while she was teaching class, and she didn't know until he came back upstairs through the door.