So, it seems like our readings for this week deal very specifically with "information overload" due to technological access to everything and the idea that because of our the vastness of information readily available to people everywhere, specifically online/screens, people have to categorize which type of reading they will read deeply and which they will skim. I am relatively certain that most students do this quite a bit of their time in school. In order to be a successful student, you have no real choice but to skim and do it efficiently while extracting exact quotes you need and, more importantly, important information that will help you with a specific course or in a career later.
In response specifically to the Sosnoski article, I don't think students need to be taught to be hyper-readers -- it happens naturally and quickly. Plus, teaching people how to read and what for is completely ridiculous. It has to be a process where the reader knows what they are looking for and the teacher cannot teach them how to find something like that. It must be an independent learning process or the student will not be able to deep read or hyper-read a text on screen or off.
As far as the "We Can't Teach Students to Love Reading" is concerned, it is too true. I hate reading... and I don't mean to give off the wrong impression, what I mean is: I hate wasting my time. I don't like to name-drop with literature and classical ideas and theorists and I am never going to be that person. I've spent a good two years trying to fit the mold with Lit students and ... well -- the people are great, I love the department and most of the students but I felt like it was wasting my time -- almost always (and, for those of you in Lit, I don't judge you and don't want to fight it out). But I love to spend time reading/skimming things that will actually really help me in school and life. I love Wikipedia. It is not that I would base a book report off of Wikipedia but I have definitely done in-depth reports, gotten to the 15th page, decided to look up a term on Wikipedia and realized that all of my sources (books from the library that other people have actually written and read) are cited on that specific page. -- Imagine my dismay upon realizing all of my hard research could easily be found with a blue highlighted link! With keyword searches!!
That is the beauty of online and screen text... or one of the many. Don't get me wrong... I love physical books -- Thumbing through them, smelling them when walking into a used-book store, mm! But, I love not breaking my back with a million books that I may never find anything useful in when I can key-word/phrase search topics and read ten really helpful articles all with through the convenience of my lightweight laptop! :) Woohoo! (I don't have a kindle/ipad but they look pretty much awesome... any reviews for preference between either of those and physical text reading?)
Most importantly, what I always think about with anything is communication. I love that people are tapping into a completely new world of communicating with each other. I'm not a huge networker/online communicator but technology is certainly changing the way people communicate and more-so how they learn to communicate... I won't rant on about that but I do love the new doors opening for people and kids learning how to read, write and speak in many languages and societies worldwide: who'd have thought?
Youch... sorry that was so long... and dull! I'll do better next time
Trudi, I didn't find it dull at all. It's nice to know I'm not alone when everyone else in Lit class is talking about a playwright I've never heard of before.
ReplyDeleteQuestion though-the general thought of today's reading seemed to be that it's okay that reading is becoming more hyper-text orientated, because people are still learning. However, do we have anyway of knowing if kids are reading educational things online? I know my younger cousins spend the majority of their time on the internet, but it's usually to look up stupid videos on youtube than to read an article from The New Yorker. Thoughts?
I guess I would say, as far as kids reading educational vs. entertaining information online, and as far as I'm concerned (I think other people have different ideas on this) I don't know how much it matters. Although I was interested in education as a child (even up until late high school) I was more interested in being entertained than making myself "smarter" or more informed.
ReplyDeleteNow that I'm a little older, I use the internet almost solely for education, research, news, etc. I don't know necessarily that kids should feel obligated to read educational information outside of school, although some naturally will.
I guess I don't see the evil that the internet is, although it definitely can hold a great deal of bad or misinformation when we are talking about developing minds.... What do you think? Do you think internet texts are a good thing or a bad thing? Or how would you suggest teaching the next generations how to use online/screen text?
You pretty much nailed it on the wall, Trudi. Technology has transformed the experience of education for students in millions of ways we never thought possible. The idea that we can possibly fit all the world's information into tiny screens would have been considered outright insanity forty years ago, but now with those possibilities on the tips of our fingers, we can gather anything and almost everything we need to pursue what we want to learn and absorb.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I got the Kindle for my birthday and it works like magic. I don't have all the books I need for classes on there, but it is downright amazing what I can gather from this tiny little device ( I personally think the Ipad is too damn expensive to be worth it).
Quick question: how much did your laptop cost? I'm thinking of getting a cheapo for the academic texts I need that are all online and I just wanna know what the cheapest ones go for?