Thursday 10 February 2011

Texting aids literacy


According to an article in the Times Educational Supplement (and widely reported by lazy journalists in most national newspapers): “pupils who send large numbers of text messages are more likely to do well in school literacy tests than their text-averse classmates.”

This is based on research carried out by Coventry University.

However, according to the University’s website, the research involved just 114 children. It is estimated that half of the world’s population has access to a mobile phone.

Clearly, the test sample is too small to be statistically significant, but reporters are not a group renowned for letting facts get in the way of a good story.