In fact, the more tech seems to be removing some of the basic language skills from kids today.
That is the complaint of many teachers; I guess it a natural consequence of a young population that doesn’t read books at all. I’m no Harry Potter fan, but I always thought at least those kids were reading SOMETHING. To me remembering how to spell a word always came from remembering what it looked like in print (I always read a lot, since childhood); once people never see print anyway (except abbreviated text messages), then it becomes much harder.