Digital Literacy Is Harming Our Spelling Capabilities

After reading the article Connecting the Digital Dots: Literacy of the 21st Century, I have a firm understanding of how digital literacy (the understanding of how to use a computer) can open ourselves up to new realms of possibilities that we never conceived of before. However with these new possibilities we are slowly losing an ability that is required to consider ourselves as literate, the ability to spell. For example, when I was in Elementary School, I used to pride myself on getting every word correct on the weekly spelling test but as I went into High School and starting using Microsoft Word for writing papers my spelling skills has began to diminish. The culprit behind this is the the tool known as Spell Check and using it has put me in a position where I cannot remember how to spell words on my 2nd Grade spelling tests. Sometimes when I'm writing late at night I have become so dependent on Spell Check that I don't even stop to hit backspace to fix a word I accidentally typed wrong. On papers that I take this course of action on I always forget how to spell a word after finishing an assignment which sucks because I feel like I am diminishing my vocabulary as a writer.

The window that is diminishing our spelling capabilities.

Another issue that is diminishing our spelling capabilities is the internet lingo that abbreviates words like joking to jk and people to ppl. I know this has been made fun in commercials but it is a very bad habit and to show how bad it is I thought I would post a list of all the words and phrases that are abbreviated on the internet.

2		To, Too, Two
4		For
86		Over
121		One To One
143		I Love You
411		Information
14AA41		One For All And All For One
1-D-R		I Wonder
4ever		Forever
A&K		Alive And Kicking
A/S/L		Age/Sex/Location
A/S/L/M/H		Age, Sex, Location, Music, Hobbies
AA		As Above
AA		Adios Amigo
AAF		Always And Forever
AAF		As A Friend
AAK		Alive And Kicking
AAMOF		As A Matter Of Fact
AAR		At Any Rate
AAS		Alive And Smiling
AATK		Always At The Keyboard
AAYF		As Always, Your Friend
ABT		About
ABT2		About To
ACD		Alt-Control-Delete
ADD		Address
ADN		Any Day Now
AFAIC		As Far As I'm Concerned
AFAICT		As Far As I Can Tell
AFAIK		As Far As I Know
AFAIR		As Far As I Remember
AFJ		April Fool’s Joke
AFK		Away From Keyboard
AFN		That’s All For Now
AFWIW		Anyway, For What It's Worth
AH		At Home
AI		As If
AIM		AOL Instant Messenger
AISI		As I See It
AIUI		As I Understand It
AKA		Also Known As
ALOL		Actually Laughing Out Loud
AM		Antemeridian
AMF		As A Matter Of Fact
AND		Any Day Now
ANFAWFOS		And Now For A Word From Our Sponsor
ANFSCD		And Now For Something Completely Different
AOL		America Online
A-OL		Administrator On-Line
AOMM		Always On My Mind
AOTA		All Of The Above
APP		Appreciate
ARE		Acronym-Rich Environment
AS		Another Subject
ASAP		As Soon As Possible
ASL		Age, Sex, Location
ASLP		Age, Sex, Location, Picture
ATB		All The Best
ATM		At The Moment
ATSL		Along The Same Line
ATT		All The Time
ATYS		Anything You Say
AUT		Are You There
AWA		As Well As
AWC		After While, Crocodile
AWOL		Absent While Online
AYOR		At Your Own Risk
AYSOS		Are You Stupid Or Something
AYTMTB		And You Are Telling Me This Because
AZN		Asian

This is a list of the ever growing number of abbreviations for words and phrases that can just be applied to numbers and the letter 'A'. In the future these abbreviations could mean an end to the art of spelling. Here's to that not happening.

Literacy For A Career

In adulthood we are required to have literacy in our various careers. For a future screenwriter like myself being literate in my field requires me to keep track of the business deals being made in Hollywood. A great resource for this information is a podcast entitled The Business because it enhances the reading, writing, speaking and listening abilities that I need to be a successful screenwriter. Through listening to the podcast my reading ability as a screenwriter is enhanced by it having guests that direct me towards published news sources focusing on the Entertainment industry such as Daily Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. My writing is enhanced by the podcast giving me information that DVD sales are low which means movie studios are less inclined to make $200 million blockbusters. Based on this fact I know that I need to shy away from writing action and sci-fi screenplays. The podcast also enhances my speaking ability by the host and the guests on the show using the same vocabulary as professionals in the Entertainment industry. Finally, the podcast enhances my listening ability by it reminding me to keep an ear out for what is going on in the Entertainment industry because it dictates the type of material I need to produce as a writer.

In order to get a better understanding of how The Business makes me literate as a screenwriter check out this week's episode.

The Business - KCRW

Shared via AddThis

How I Gained Literacy

In everyday terms, "literacy" is typically described as the ability to read, write, speak and listen in meaningful or socially-recognized ways. One of the resources that helped give me the ability of literacy especially in terms of being able to read was the TV show Sesame Street. Watching Big Bird every morning taught me how to read but the series of books featuring Sesame Street characters played a huge part as well. My favorite was Don't Forget The Oatmeal and I used to drive my parents crazy by reading the book to them over and over again. Anyway in honor of gaining the ability of literacy as a child, I thought I would share this Sesame Street montage.

Material Communication and its impact on Podcasts and their Websites

Websites that focus on entertainment are ususally based off of a television show or successful movies but a new trend that is starting is websites that are based on a new material which are podcasts. If you haven't caught on to this new phenomenon podcasts are radio shows that can be listened to through the internet through the popular software program Itunes. One highly popular podcast is the show Starkville's House of El which is the weekly discussion hosted by two freelance writers about the popular show Smallville.

Derek Russell (top) and Steve Glosson (bottom) the highly entertaing hosts of Starkville's House of El.

The communication about this material that can be attributed to the show's success comes from their website because it allows the host of the show to advertise their podcast's legitimacy. The webmaster of the site Derek Russell who is also one of the hosts of the show is able to showcase this legitimacy by structuring his site like a blog. In this blog Derek and other supporters of the show post news about Smallville that comes from them simply talking to writers and the stars of the show through these connections Derek has proven that his show is a legitimate resource for entertainment news. This is especially proven after Derek's trip to Comic-Con 2009 in San Diego because he received VIP treatment as if he worked for a major magazine due to the fact that he was actually able to sit down with the stars of Smallville and ask them legitimate questions all of which is featured as a video on the website's blog.

Check out Derek's Comic-Con experience here:

Smallville Interviews at SDCC from Graham Hancock on Vimeo.

The fact that Derek was able to share this experience through material communication that can only be found on the internet he was able to hype his podcast tremendously becase it proved even the most average fan can have experiences with celebrities as long as they are brave enough to pick up the phone.

Check out Starkville's House of El's website www.smallvillepodcast.com to see how two fanboys from Georgia were able to create a free podcast that means so much to so many people and bridges the gap between a television show's cast and their fans.

Life as a Comic Book Writer

About three years ago I met Geoff Johns a writer on Superman: Action Comics and Green Lantern Comics. Pictured with me in the center below...




Over the past three years we have kept in touch through e-mail and one time I asked him what life is like as a comic book writer and he told me to check out his blog. So I thought I would make a video explaining how a blog can explain life as a comic book writer better than a book or e-mail.




Learn about Celebs you have an interest in by searching for their name using Google and finding the link to their website.

Material Communication

As a writer I am always referencing something to come up with ideas. My primary resource as a person who wants to write comics is the DC Animated Universe or DCAU which includes shows like Batman the Animated Series, Superman Animated Series and Justice League. All of which I own proven by the pic below...


However even though I have all these great DVDs, its a pain for someone like me in a wheelchair to go over get the DVD off the shelf and put it in the player just to make a reference. So to solve this problem I found a website entitled the World's Finest which contains all the information that can be found on my DVDs. Here's a tour of the site...





Vist World's Finest at http://www.worldsfinestonline.com/