Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit

Study headed by SU professor and doctoral student explores how adolescents use their reading and writing skills outside the classroom

Saturday, March 3, 2001, By News Staff
Share

Study headed by SU professor and doctoral student explores how adolescents use their reading and writing skills outside the classroomMarch 03, 2001Stephanie Hanzizasilis

Kelly Chandler-Olcott, assistant professor of reading and language arts in Syracuse University’s School of Education, wants to know how adolescents use reading and writing outside of the classroom as well as in it. Chandler-Olcott and her co-researcher, Donna Mahar, a doctoral student in reading education who is also a seventh-grade English teacher, are exploring how adolescent girls use various electronic technologies in and out of school. The research subjects are Mahar’s female students at West Genesee Middle School. The project is supported by a $5,000 Elva Knight Research Grant from the International Reading Association. A study done last year by the American Association of University Women (AAUW) indicated that a gender gap exists between girls’ and boys’ interest in and access to technology. Girls tend to take fewer technology courses in their schooling and express less interest in careers using technology. The research in Chandler-Olcott and Mahar’s study, “Adolescent Girls’ Use of Electronic Technologies in Their Literacy Practices,” is focusing on seventh-grade girls who exhibit knowledge of the Internet, digital cameras, video editing, HyperStudio and other technologies. The girls in the study are surveyed, observed and interviewed both at their homes and at West Genesee Middle School by Chandler-Olcott and Mahar. “It is important to look at children in their home settings in order to learn more about them and make the classroom experience more responsive to their strengths, needs and interests,” [THERE IS NO ATTRIBUTION HERE.] Chandler-Olcott and Mahar hope the study will help teachers and researchers understand adolescent cultures in a more sophisticated way and help them develop more efficient instructional strategies. The research is also intended to inform educators on the impact of various technologies on society and on girls. Mahar was drawn to the research because of a myth she wanted to disprove. “A lot of literature states that girls are not as tech savvy as boys,” Mahar says. “The truth is that girls just may not be as willing to openly demonstrate that talent as boys.” Chandler-Olcott applied for the Elva Knight Research Grant because of her interest in children’s out-of-school literacy. She has previously researched adolescents’ reading habits of popular fiction. She sees this study as an extension of her earlier work that attends to changing trends in society.

“Literacy and technology have become and are going to become more increasingly linked,”Chandler-Olcott says. “There is a definite need to explore the literacy demands of that trend.” The research is scheduled to take place over the next year-and-a-half.

  • Author

News Staff

  • Recent
  • Syracuse University Press Participating in Path to Open Program
    Friday, September 29, 2023, By Cristina Hatem
  • A&S Chemistry Professor Receives Award From the American Chemical Society
    Friday, September 29, 2023, By News Staff
  • ‘Guys and Dolls’ opens Syracuse University Department of Drama 2023/24 Season
    Friday, September 29, 2023, By Joanna Penalva
  • Libraries Add MindSpa Wellness Rooms
    Friday, September 29, 2023, By Cristina Hatem
  • Syracuse University Announces the Opening of the Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy and Astrophysics
    Friday, September 29, 2023, By Kerrie Marshall

More In Uncategorized

School of Education Awarded $3.7M Department of Education Grant to Recruit Special Education Leaders

Syracuse University’s School of Education (SOE) has been awarded a $3.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services to prepare—along with two partner institutions—a new generation of leaders in special education, early…

Law professor available to discuss ruling that Trump committed fraud for business properties

Reporters looking for a legal expert to help explain the issues facing the Trump businesses after a judge ruled  that former President Donald Trump committed fraud by inflating the value of his assets, please see comments below from legal professor…

Syracuse Views Fall 2023

We want to know how you experience Syracuse University. Take a photo and share it with us. We select photos from a variety of sources. Submit photos of your University experience using #SyracuseU on social media, fill out a submission…

Phillips Appointed Interim Director at Lender Center for Social Justice; Director Search Committee Named

The Lender Center for Social Justice has familiar leadership for the 2023-24 academic year while a renewed search for a permanent director is conducted. Kendall Phillips, founding co-director of the Lender Center and professor in the Department of Communication and…

Syracuse Views Spring 2023

We want to know how you experience Syracuse University. Take a photo and share it with us. We select photos from a variety of sources. Submit photos of your University experience using #SyracuseU on social media, fill out a submission…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2023 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.