Virtual Literacy and IQ

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Subject: [PD 3883] Some questions for "virtual literacy"
From: Tom Sticht
Date: Wed Aug 5 13:50:08 EDT 2009

Here are a some thoughts stimulated by the "virtual literacy" discussion.

First: If we have machines that will write speech and read print, are the machines literate? They can read and write. With the use of Google-type components they can even answer questions.

Second: Some time back I got interested in why employers may not recognize that their employees have literacy problems. I got two adult literacy students who had scored at the 5th grade level on a standardized test. Of course, if you average their scores, the average is also 5th grade level. But then I took one student's correct score and added to it the other student's correct answers that the first student got wrong. I found that by combing the two student's scores, the combined score was about the 8th grade level. I called this an example of what might be called "virtual minds" and noted that in the workplace "virtual minds" may abound and conceal the fact that employees may have lower than desired literacy skills. In most workplaces people can share their minds and thus produce what in the present discussion might be called a more highly "virtually literate" set of "virtual minds". Social cognition in the workplace. Of course, these findings might also apply to other social settings, home, club, community settings, etc.

Third: Lots of the discussion of "virtual literacy" has focused on learning disabled, such as dyslexia. In the olden days this was defined as someone with a normal or higher IQ (intelligence) but a low reading score. In this case, one could substitute a text-to-speech technology and help the person virtually read and learn. I wonder, however, if there are genuinely lower intelligence persons who also have trouble with learning to read and are not dyslexic or otherwise learning disabled. In this case, will text-to-speech technology still be of use. Also, if there are still lower intelligence adults in adult literacy programs, is there any determination of this and anything done to assist such learners?

Enquiring "virtual minds" want to know (virtually).

Tom Sticht

Subject: [PD 3891] Re: Some questions for "virtual literacy"
From: Glenn Young
Date: Wed Aug 5 16:20:59 EDT 2009

Tom ...

I had a discussion long ago with Reid Lyon along the same point you are raising in your third section.

And he clearly stated that if you have two people .. one with 130 IQ and can't read and one with 85 IQ and can't read ... and you somehow teach them to read ... it is more then likely that someone with the 130 IQ will be able to do a great deal more with the information they now have .. then the person with 85 IQ ... but you still teach both to read the best they can .. because they will both benefit ... one will perhaps "achieve" more with the new skill ... but they both will benefit.

The same will be true if we really put together a VL process ... where it is more than likely the higher IQ persons will learn the tools quicker and get more out of it quicker ... (maybe less so if we factor in age ... since the younger person with a lower IQ may be far more comfortable with the new tech then an older person with higher IQ) but the lower IQ person will still benefit greatly ... it may take a bit more training and support ... but they will benefit greatly ...

And we see the results in the blind and low vision community. All blind regardless of their IQ's benefit greatly to various degrees from VL ... some just to function a bit better ... some to become governors ... but they benefit ...

In the adult literacy community ... some will benefit quicker with greater success and some ... well will function better ... but they will all benefit.

Your first two points are a bit too theoretical for me and better discussed over a beer ... (if only at the White House)

Glenn Young
CSLD

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