Literacy is evolving in the digital age. The internet is changing the way we think, consider these research findings from UCLA recently reported in the BBC News. “Middle aged volunteers underwent a brain scan while performing web searches and book- reading. When compared to book-reading, the web search task produced significant additional activity in the areas of the brain which control decision-making and complex reasoning when the volunteers were experienced web users."

In other words, the interactive nature of the reading experience on the web changed brain activity in regular users. Even more interesting, the research suggested that even the ‘silver surfers,” older web users, experienced the change in brain activity. Inherent in the web 2.0 experience is decision making. Users must determine where to read and when to click as they scan a webpage and its interactive links. Such decision making requires an understanding of both visual and textual clues. Unlike book-reading, which is uniformly organized on the page, web pages may be organized in a variety of formats. Finding relevant information when web searching requires a more synthesized, engaged type of reading than was earlier thought.

So I ask the question that is raised by some school board members, educators, and parents: Should we allow our kids to surf on the internet at school? Only if we want our children to be decision makers and use complex reasoning to solve problems.