Way to boil it down.

Ms. Van Kooten does a wonderful job of boiling down a complicated issue. Let me begin by saying that I am one of those who believes that CMC "pollutes" standard written English. I feel that the problem stems from the overuse of this medium. I fear that today's students, who, as Van Kooten's numbers show, spend so much time communicating informally via such mediums, have great difficulty transitioning from informal communication to formal communication, or, put differently, they fail to appreciate the audience with whom they are communicating. For example, in class we have spent some time discussing the need for writers to know their audience; furthermore, Professor Tolar-Burton has pointed out that email communications from students to teachers tends to be an area where students fail to appreciate their audience, I believe that this failure is directly related to how dependent we as a society have become on such forms of communication.

Placing my own beliefs aside, Ms. Van Kooten does a wonderful job of presenting the facts. And the inescapable fact is that internet, email, social networking cites etc. etc. is here to stay. It is here to stay because it is both popular and convenient. Because of the popularity of this medium, it needs to be embraced in the classroom. Teachers will need to teach, not just teach about audience, but also teach proper internet research methods. What I am really trying to say is that Wiki is not research.

I guess my point is Ms. Van Kooten, in just under six minutes, did a nice job of boiling down a complicated issue.