I used to find it difficult to correct student papers on the computer screen, preferring to print out dozens of pages to correct then with red pen in hand. Over the years my predilection has switched: I’ve come to prefer editing on the computer screen. I rarely print out student work submitted via computer (e-mail or via our seminary online learning system). I correct papers and projects on the computer screen, make annotations, add links to appropriate internet help sites, and then e-mail it back to the student. I’m saving a lot of red ink and paper these days.
And in the past couple of years I’ve become hooked on digital books. In addition to my SONY Reader, which holds hundreds of books and articles (I’m not making that up), I have dozens of other ebooks on my Dell Axim. Yes, I still read ”real” books, and I’m not really convinced about the superiority of one over the other.
However, I do respect that phenomenology affects our thinking and can re-wire our brains. Motoko Rich wrote an interesting article in the New York Times, ”Literacy Debate: Online R U Really Reading?” (July 27, 2008) in which several interesting angles of the debate are explored.
Here are a couple of excerpts:
Clearly, reading in print and on the Internet are different. On paper, text has a predetermined beginning, middle and end, where readers focus for a sustained period on one author’s vision. On the Internet, readers skate through cyberspace at will and, in effect, compose their own beginnings, middles and ends.
Literacy specialists are just beginning to investigate how reading on the Internet affects reading skills. A recent study of more than 700 low-income, mostly Hispanic and black sixth through 10th graders in Detroit found that those students read more on the Web than in any other medium, though they also read books. The only kind of reading that related to higher academic performance was frequent novel reading, which predicted better grades in English class and higher overall grade point averages.
Elizabeth Birr Moje, a professor at the University of Michigan who led the study, said novel reading was similar to what schools demand already. But on the Internet, she said, students are developing new reading skills that are neither taught nor evaluated in school.
You can read Rich’s article here.
This is a very interesting topic. One of which I am also as undecided on as Dr. Galindo. I for one did a lot (but no where near the magnitude of our esteemed bloggist) of novel reading as a youth. I enjoyed reading, being able to take the book with me, and the ability of the human imagination to move in lock-step with a gifted writer’s ability to paint a detailed image in my mind using only words to describe scenes, moods, feelings and other things. It made the experience of reading much more rewarding, and more personal.
Before going into my spiel, I will do an ego check and make the following disclaimer. I am not an English Major, Writer, Poet, or otherwise, but in making my observations and points in my comments I hope to illustrate the importance of good writing and reading. If I fail, then this entire blog comment will be rendered moot.
Reading words and only words in a linear fashion in a book is a journey. As is the process of writing the book was to the author. Novels are of course meant to be read from start to finish, in an orderly fashion, one chapter after the next. I found that simply reading in this linear fashion added a great deal to my understanding of the construction of sentences, making points, correct spelling, and grammar.
Another important point is books are almost always edited by a “professional” editor. Blogs, Technical Articles, Web Pages, and other electronic forms of writing are (as we have all observed) are not always edited, in fact, it’s probably the rarity given the ratio of editors to writers, and the volume of written material pushed to the Internet on a daily basis in the form of blogs, articles, and websites.
Additionally, the constant and seemingly endless decay of proper linguistic skills (and English in particular) are not creating better reading or readers. The use of shortcuts, lingo, acronyms, technical jargon, text messages, instant messaging, and slang all add up to a swirling quagmire of gutter-speak that can be found only on the Internet.
The nature of the Internet is well suited to the “Short Attention Span Theatre” age group who are used to getting what they want and moving on. Hyperlinks, search engines, and all the other wonderful mechanisms that make life on the Internet tick don’t contribute to learning things like style, or creative ways of getting your point across using only words.
We also need to remember that reading on the Internet is something you usually do when you know what you want or are looking for something. The Internet is a lot of things, among them, a research tool. I tried to think of something analogous to this for illustrative reasons and the best thing I could come up with was driving a car on a city street as opposed to a racetrack. On city streets, there are rules to follow, (and punishment for disobeying them), and everything must proceed in an orderly fashion or there are problems and accidents, and you usually have a destination. On a racetrack there are fewer rules, the object is speed, and the path usually ends where it started. Sure, both involve cars, but the objectives are totally different, and the skills learned and required are vastly different.
Having said that, I think there is something to be gained from both linear, AND reference-style reading. I am a student of both as I came up through the birth and development of the Internet. One other interesting observation is that the Internet started out as a research tool and was meant to replace or enhance the ability for people to do research; research that years ago meant pouring over books, papers, and notes of those that went before you. Now, a lot of that is online. I believe the speed at which language and communication have developed over the last 20 years have added and taken away from conventional means of communicating and added to and taken away from language as a whole. One of my professors at school had the idea that we are moving towards a largely symbolic language that will unify communication between humans eventually.
When symbols represent feelings, places, directions, instructions, warnings and other things I can now understand what he meant by that. The older I get the more everything I see is a double edged sword, something is lost, something is gained. Whatever we are witnessing, I’m sure it’s evolutionary.