mixed (media) messages

I saw this sign:

I guess we live in a world that always sends mixed messages. But this sign made me think about the ways we use both digital writing and hand writing, both in our lives and in our classrooms. I started to wonder if there are benefits to handwriting--even though my students often resist it since word processing is so much faster (one of its benefits). I went online (of course) and found this:

In the segment titled “This or That? Longevity Boosters,” Dr. Oz asked what is better, “typing or writing by hand?”In the segment, he said, “Writing by hand gives your brain a workout and reduces incidents of cognitive impairment in Alzheimer’s.” He went on to say that “…there was a big study in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience that said writing is associated with improvements in memory compared to typing.” on this site.

Maybe we should do some of both???