Are smartphones dumbing your kids down?

• Pew Center%3A 96%25 of teachers said digital technologies let students share work more widely.
• Pew%3A 68%25 of teachers said digital tools made students likely to take shortcuts and not try so hard.
• Pew%3A 78%25 agreed that digital technologies %22encourage student creativity and personal expression.%22
• Pew%3A digital technologies make writing both more meaningful%2C less intimidating for students

Monmouth University professor Elizabeth Gilmartin's writing lab is lined with computers, but she starts her classes out the old-fashioned way. First things first: She instructs students to put away their smartphones. Then, she tells them to write an essay — by hand. Sometimes the response is downright hostile, Gilmartin said.

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"You see a decline in respect (for working without technology) in some ways, in ways we never would have done when we were young," Gilmartin said. "The technology has changed the way students communicate."

Therein lies the problem, said some Shore area educators heading back to school this week.

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Educators said crutches like autocorrect, spellcheck and text message shorthand are teaching students to "LOL" at the idea that they may need to sharpen their writing skills. As a result, teachers said they're struggling to teach students to write, spell and use proper grammar.

Others, however, say technology — such as blogging tools and collaborative writing programs — can help students learn writing skills in new and better ways unheard of a couple decades ago.

The numbers point to trouble for students' language arts skills: Only a quarter of the 50,000 fourth- to 12th-grade students nationwide who took the National Assessment of Education Program writing assessment in 2011-12 scored proficient.

And the news gets worse: Those students had access to spellcheck and a thesaurus during the test.

Teachers' text troubles

Students' troublesome text-messaging techniques also are slipping into their class work. According to a 2008 Pew Research Center report:

• 50 percent of teens said they wrote without proper capitalization and punctuation in their school assignments.

• 38 percent said they have used text shortcuts in school work such as "LOL," or "laugh out loud."

• 25 percent said they used emoticons, such as smiley faces, in school work.

• Overall, about 64 percent of teens surveyed said they incorporate informal styles from their text-based communications into their writing at school.

Shore-area educators say they'll make proficient writers out of their students yet.

"It's more important now to learn to write well than it has ever been. So much of our communication is through writing, through email, memos, reports, even social media and texting," Gilmartin said. "I hear from my friends in other fields saying frequently that if they are in the position to hire someone, they want the person to be able to have good written communication skills among other desirable skills. People joke about the grammar police on the Internet, but there's a lot of pressure to write well."

Gilmartin says the words for her students' work must come from the students. They must learn how to assemble those words in a logical and compelling format — without help from Siri or Google.

"We try to have students do one essay in class, writing by hand, and that gives us a real sense of who they are and their real writing ability," Gilmartin said.

She shares the concerns of teachers surveyed last year by Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project. Most teachers in the study, too — about 68 percent — agreed new technologies lead students to take shortcuts in their writing, such as those common in the abbreviated language of text messages: "wud" for would, "nite" for night, "u" for "you," and so on.

Teachers surveyed said students today are less able to "produce a solid piece of writing containing a coherent and persuasive argument that synthesizes material well."

About 46 percent of teachers agreed that digital technologies lead students to "write too fast and be careless," according to Pew's 2013 report. Others surveyed pointed to students' use of "poor spelling and grammar."

Easier, not better

The availability of research paper writers-for-hire and pre-written research papers for sale online doesn't help, teachers said.

Students will try to go through the pre-written papers and change the words before turning in an assignment. But if the students don't understand the words or their context, it becomes clear there is a problem, said Gilmartin, adding that "sometimes, it may result in a humorous sentence."

But teachers have their own tools, such as the plagiarism-detection website Turnitin.com, to root out copycats.

CliffsNotes, Spark Notes and such websites were meant to help the students, not to be used as alternatives to the assigned reading, educators say.

"If it is easier, that is not good for them," Brookdale Community College English professor Karen D'Agostino said of the technology.

Some researchers say that even the act of ditching handwriting for digital forms of communication may affect how students learn. They say that forming letters, words and symbols on paper increases the ability to recall information.

"In class, all you see is people writing their notes on laptops," said Susan Pagano, 21, a Monmouth University political science major. "I find if I type something, I have to study it more. If I write it, I don't have to go over it a second time" to commit it to memory.

Pagano said she's a Facebook, Twitter and Instagram enthusiast, but knows more skills are needed in the world beyond school.

"I think it is necessary when you go into a profession. You need to be able to express yourself in a clear manner," she said.

Employers in a 2006 study by market-research nonprofit The Conference Board might concur: About 72 percent of employers in the study said high school graduates they employed were deficient in English writing, and 38.4 percent said high school graduates were deficient in reading comprehension.

Digital benefits

Despite all the grumbling and classroom growing pains, digital technology has "tangible, beneficial impacts on student writing" and on writing instruction, according to Pew's 2013 report.

Kayla Williams, a 17-year-old creative-writing student at Red Bank Regional High School's Academy of Visual and Performing Arts, said she prefers pen and paper but uses Chromebooks or the collaborative-editing program GoogleDocs for group projects.

"It (the technology) definitely makes it easier" to work as a team, Williams said.

As about 77 percent of young people ages 12 to 17 now have cellphones, according to the Pew Center, some Shore area schools now are asking students to bring their phones in to class.

Teachers may ask students to use their smartphones to look up a vocabulary word, take a photo of an assignment written on the board or text themselves a homework reminder. And the learning can continue outside the classroom, 24/7, not just during school hours, advocates say.

Jackson Memorial High School English teacher Dyanne Lepold said it's up to her and other teachers to encourage students to use the technology but still be aware of what is acceptable and what is not.

She found with GoogleDocs, she could immediately jump into an assignment and point out where a student may be losing focus or she can suggest avenues for the students to explore.

"I'm giving them feedback immediately," she said. "They can see what I am doing and I can see what they are doing."

Without the technology, she said, she must wait for students to submit assignments and simply correct after the fact.

"Technology empowers students to publish to the world and serve as solution makers in global problems," said Jeffrey Moore, director of curriculum and instruction at the Freehold Regional High School District. "That's far more compelling to us than what may be a natural, if jarring, evolution of the language. So, we're more excited than concerned."

Carol Gorga Williams: 732-643-4212; CGorgaWilliams@app

.com.

SLOPPY SCHOOL WORK

• 50 percent of teens said they use informal writing styles instead of proper capitalization and punctuation in their school assignments, according to Pew.

• 38 percent said they have used text shortcuts in school work such as "LOL," or "laugh out loud."

• 25 percent said they have used emoticons, such as smiley faces, in school work.

Pew Research Center

BACK-TO-SCHOOL BULLETIN BOARD SWEEPSTAKES

Calling all Shore-area teachers: Have you been hard at work on a cool bulletin board design to welcome your students back to school? Are you busy stapling, pinning or taping up a colorful creation for your kids?

We want to see your work.

Participate in our back-to-school Best Bulletin Board Sweepstakes for a shot at a $250 Staples gift card — to pay for all those supplies that come out of your own pocket this school year. Consider it a "thank you" to the educators who make a difference in our children's lives.

Starting today, visit APP.com/share and upload a photo of your board. All entries should include "Best Bulletin Board" in the photo title, the name of teacher, the name of the school and its location, grade level of the classroom, and the submitter's name and email. Complete rules are posted at app.com/contests.

SCHOOL SCOOP

What's going on in our schools? Visit Home & School, blogs.app.com/learning for more.