PEN OR KEYBOARD - AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON THE EFFECTS OF TECHNOLOGY ON WRITING SKILLS

摘要

As stated in the scope of the conference The social and socio-economic context is more important than ever. Society itself can be understood as a learning environment, with questions of learners' connection with the community and the empowerment of the practitioners. This means that certain skills, the so called 21~(st) century skills, must be prompted and developed. Writing skills are of paramount importance in this context and, as educators and researchers, we are primarily engaged in understanding the effect the use of mobile devices has on such abilities. The relation between digital tools and writing skills regards different scientific fields, such as education, neuroscience and sociology. Everyone, teenagers in particular, is used to communicate through smartphones, tablets or PCs, writing short text messages. However, in these cases, writing skills are not developed in an efficient and productive way even if they are practiced every day. International studies and research highlight a drastic reduction of argumentation capabilities in writing for people who make too much use of texting, for instance.