Abstract
Students populating classrooms today confront literacy challenges that were virtually unheard of less than a generation ago. For one, all those belonging to this iGeneration have only known a world that is digitally networked and continually awash in information that can be irrelevant, inaccurate, or intentionally misleading.
Without guidance from parents, teachers, and researchers, these students can become enslaved by their “smart” devices, rather than the master of the potential those devices can afford for literacy learning and development. In this presentation, Dr. Alexander will delve deeper into the literacy practices of iGeneration students including their reading, writing, and oral communication behaviors, their confounding of information with knowledge, and their tendency to deal with even controversial or provocative content quite superficially rather than critically and analytically.
She will conclude by discussing important changes in contemporary habits of mind and habits of behavior for teachers, parents, and for their students that should promote optimal literacy learning and development for all.