ise, as the ratio of textisms to real words stayed broadly similar across groups,” (Plester, Wood, Bell; P.139) Although the study found that the students who were asked to show high levels of text messaging use had lower scores on the written part of the exam; their verbal evaluations showed higher percentage levels than that of students asked to show minimal amounts of texting and students asked to not text at all. Recently, the PEW Research Institute did a study on teens and text messaging. “Some 38% of teens were daily texters in February 2008, and that has risen to 54% of teens who use text daily in September 2009. Of the 75% of teens who own cell phones, 87% use text messaging at least occasionally.” (Lenhart, Senior Research Specialist, Pew Internet & American Life Project). The amount of text messaging in recent years has gone up a substantial amount from 2008-2009.
Other Uses For Cell Phones In Schools
As more and more students treat cell phones as a way to communicate with other students instead of a tool; the need for new technologies about campus alerts is becoming more prevalent. Here on the CU campus students have a very useful technology known as the text rave alerts. These text alerts make it possible for the administration to notify students of possible class cancelations, on campus threats, or just news about the campus in general. This system is one of the most beneficial new pieces of technology that the school uses. By having this students can avoid a number of potential problems such as: students showing up for canceled classes, bomb threats, armed gunmen, or the worst of all, snow days. This can prevent such tragic events as the Virginia Tech shooting or University of Texas Austin shooting many years back. Not only is this technology keeping students informed but also keeping students safe.
Not only has texting played a major roll in the development of student’s abilities to write but it has sprung forth a new age of literature dubbed “cell phone novels.” (Dial M for Mobile, Shinn; P.32) This new age generation of novels is based off the concept of text lingo. For example, novels are written in the sense that they are a text message conversation among friends. Instead of being written in a traditional form, the books include minimal punctuation and short hand words that only the most avid of texters can understand. This new writing style originated in Japan and has become one of the most popular types of novels in the world. The chapters are usually 70-100 words similar to the way that texts are formed. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_phone_novel) In the beginning the novels were written on certain programs such as Java Script or WMLD. They soon evolved from just computer formats to hard and soft cover novels that are now bought and sold both online and in a number of bookstores across the world. The novels deal with certain situations such as teenage relationships and romance and are geared toward the “digital native” generation. The popularity of the novels is based upon the idea of text messaging and are very relatable for the readers that the books are being sold to. This generation thrives on the idea of instant feedback and communicating with his or her friends at any given time of any given day and with “cell phone novels” the idea of instant feedback is now in written form. Due to the young age of the readers and the relatable properties of the books, the youth is starting to enjoy reading more and this is will segway young readers into reading longer and more advanced novels as they progress through school. This will have a positive effect of student because reading is such an important part of the learning process and the more children read the more they will be able to learn. Another positive effect to reading the “cell phone novels” is that a child’s vocabulary will be expanded because while reading one of the books a reader will have to decipher the text lingo words into real words and will benefit the reader by improving his or her vocabulary so when they go to read more advanced b