Science+Fair+Lit+Review+KD

= =  **Review of Literature **

Writing has always been important since the brink of the first civilizations. The Sumerians of Mesopotamia have been the first in the world to develop this advance technology during ancient times. However, writing today has been immensely changed from back then. The technology of the first movable type was invented and developed in China by the Han Chinese printer Bi Sheng between the years 1041 and 1048. In Korea, the movable metal type printing technique was invented in the early thirteenth century during the Goryeo Dynasty. In the West, almost 800 years after the first printing press, a new invention of the improved movable type and mechanical printing technology is credited to German printer, Johannes Gutenberg. His new invention included the different versions of the printing presses throughout the world. This new invention also allowed printers to print books in a rapid pace. It also was the reason how the spread of books started and mass communication in the world. (Printing Press)

Before the age of the computer or word processor, there was a time where just about everything was handwritten. Everyone had different handwriting, and there was something personal about reading a handwritten note from someone special. Things are very different nowadays. Without the need to hand write much of anything, there is less emphasis put on much of what was important in the past when it came to writing. For example, decades ago handwriting was looked at as an art. I know that people from my grandparent's generation were taught calligraphy. This beautiful and intricate way of writing showed the importance handwriting had. If the first thing someone saw of you was your handwriting, then you would obviously want to come across in an exceptional manner to make a good first impression. Therefore, the better your handwriting, the greater you were perceived. Until about 40 or 50 years the definition of a writer was someone who had professionally published, or was working on publishing their writing. The steps they had to take were to write a first draft of their piece, and bring it to multiple publishing companies to try and get them to publish it. Now with the new advances in technology a writer has basically become anyone who has a computer. Writing has now become as easy as typing on a keyboard and pressing the post button. This easy technology has made it simple for people to post any of their ideas on any number of issues. (Roblyer)

The modern typewriter, the word processor, is a very helpful. The word processors have a tool called Spell- Check which corrects spelling, morphology and been able to save time while typing; enhance document appearance, sharing of documents, and the collaboration of document. The word processor also allows faster writing, but writing on computer can allow distractions as well. The typist can have the temptation of listening to music or using the internet which can greatly affect your writing quality. This addition allows the typist to type with little or no worry about errors, but sometimes the word processor cannot fix all mistakes because it is not perfect. Because of technology, it may lead to make writing more informal because it is easier to do so.(Toft)

However, experts such as associate professor Anne Mangen, from the University of Stavanger, and Jean Luc- Velay, from the University of Marseille, have concluded after series of tests that handwriting is very different from typing. An experiment carried out by Velay’s research team in Marseille establishes that different parts of the brain are activated when we read letters we have learned by handwriting, from those activated when we recognize letters we have learned through typing on a keyboard. When writing by hand, the movements involved leave a motor memory in the sensory part of the brain, which helps us recognize letters. This implies a connection between reading and writing, and suggests that the sensory system plays a role in the process of visual recognition during reading.

“There is a lot of research on haptics in relation to computer games, in which for instance vibrating hand controls are employed. According to Mangen, visual drills with sound and vibration are used for training dentists, But there has been very little effort to include haptics within humanistic disciplines, she explains. In educational science, there is scant interest in the ergonomics of reading and writing, and its potential significance in the learning process. Mangen refers to an experiment involving two groups of adults, in which the participants were assigned the task of having to learn to write in a unknown alphabet, consisting of approximately twenty letters. One group was taught to write by hand, while the other was using a keyboard. Three and six weeks into the experiment, the participants’ recollection of these letters, as well as their rapidity in distinguishing right and reversed letters, were tested. Those who had learned the letters by handwriting came out best in all tests. Furthermore, fMRI brain scans indicated an activation of the Broca’s area within this group. Among those who had learned by typing on keyboards, there was little or no activation of this area.” (Hogan)

Within the field of psychology, there is an awareness of the danger of paying too much attention on mentality. According to Mangen, perception and sesorimotor now plat a more prominent role. “Our bodies are designed to interact with the world which surrounds us. We are living creatures, geared toward using physical objects—be it a book, a keyboard or a pen – to perform certain tasks,” she says. Being a media and reading researcher, Anne Mangen is a rare bird within her field of study. And she is very enthusiastic about her collaboration with a neurophysiologist. “We combine very different disciplines. Velay has carried out some very exciting experiments on the difference between handwriting and the use of keyboards, from a neurophysiologic perspective. My contribution centers on how we – as humans with bodies and brains – experience the writing process, though using different technologies in different ways, and how these technologies interfaces influence our experiment. “ (Hogan)

= = = Works Cited =

"Does Typing Make Learning Harder?" //'Writing Better than Typing for Learning' // National Health Society, 11 Jan. 2011. Web. 08 Oct. 2013. <[]>.


 * This website is part of the information services in the UK.gov

Hogan, Dan. "Better Learning Through Handwriting." //ScienceDaily //. ScienceDaily, 24 Jan. 2011. Web. 25 Sept. 2013. <[]>.
 * This website has won awards from famous science magazines such as Popular Science.

"Printing Press." //Wikipedia //. Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Oct. 2013. Web. 22 Oct. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_press>. []

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Pratury, Lakshmi. "Lakshmi Pratury: The Lost Art of Letter-writing." //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">TED: Ideas worth Spreading //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">. Ixoraa Media, Mar. 2007. Web. 24 Sept. 2013. <[]>.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">www.ted.com is a worldwide known website which allows the dispersion of "ideas worth spreading". Lakshmi Pratury, the co-host of TEDIndia 2009, is featured "100 Most Powerful Women" by Forbes Asia in 2010.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Roblyer, M. D., and A. H. Doering. "The Impact of Word Processing in Education." //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Education.com //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">. Education.com, 20 July 2010. Web. 01 Oct. 2013. <[]>.
 * Education. com is partnered very important organizations such as with the NEA (National Education Assocaition) and the Harvard Family Research Project.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Toft, Trond Egil. "Better Learning Through Handwriting." //ScienceDaily//. ScienceDaily, 24 Jan. 2011. Web. 03 Oct. 2013. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">[]


 * This website has won awards from famous science magazines such as Popular Science.