New tech = New lit: Deconstructing the sms-ay

First week of university down. It looks like they might actually try to teach me something.

One of the units I’m taking is Multiliteracy in Middle Years. It involves identify and using different text types (in the classroom), and identify and also teaching your students which grammar is suited to the textual style. To explain the latter, the lecturer gave us this example – it’s the first few lines of what a 13 year old UK student submitted when asked to write an essay about what they did last holidays:

My smmr hols wr CWOT B4, we usd 2go2 NY 2C my bro, his GF & thr 3 :- kds FTF. ILNY. it’s a gr8 plc.

Anyone … ? I think she* visited Kuwait or something.

Some of you are probably smacking your heads in disbelief at that little effort. Grammar Nazis are possibly having fits. It is not even consistent, the writer ignored quite a few punctuation points and vowels, but then decides that an apostrophe for “it’s a gr8 place” is deserved (correctly).

What should a teacher do when confronted with this?

Phones made from ears

props to GNW

Calm down. It’s not human ears.

Samsung has released a new mobile phone made from a corn-derived plastic (Has photo, looks sleek). It’s hoped it will promote non-petrochemical based plastic use is manufacturing.

“W510 is the first mobile phone Samsung has ever made using the new corn-based plastic. Samsung said it did not use heavy metals such as lead, mercury or cadmium in the handset, either. The company has been also working on the new plastic as a way to produce more environmentally friendly materials”

However, don’t get all happy happy yet. Corn is not a panacea for alternative resources.

Bio-fuel-ed demand for corn-based ethanol has contributed to deforestation, agricultural energy use, and the world food crisis. One report says the plastic is made from “corn flour“, that suggests to me that this means it is a part of the corn that might be better off being eaten. Anyone got any further info on how exactly corn-based plastics are made? I remember making plastic from milk in grade 10 science.

At least the lack of heavy metals is a step in the right direction. Companies are now starting to understand there is a demand for eco-friendly products and services. Consumers need to remain savvy and make sure these green solutions are practical and positive.

Image credit: cleanmpg.com, original caption, made with GIMP