screening versus reading: comments pro and con DANNY BLOOM ANNE MANGEN ALEX BEAM
Sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy study to me.Reply | Report Abuse
agenthucky at 04:49 PM on 12/23/08
Just taking into my experience from reading online SCIAM vs the magazine, when there is a topic I am unfamiliar with, SCIAM has helpful links to other pages explaining more, and google is just a click away. For subjects which I am new to, online reading lets me catch up faster.
I do understand when I want to learn in depth, submerse myself in a topic I am familiar with, the imagination and creativity I gain when reading print isn't compariable to online reading.
I suggest if you are looking to invent or push the bounds of a subject, print is a must for the thought process, but catching up on learning something foreign, online is the way to go, resources. Reply | Report Abuse
AZeldenrust at 05:17 PM on 12/23/08
This may explain why i feel a complusion to print out things i want to read off the web.Reply | Report Abuse
liggybee at 09:41 PM on 12/23/08
I agree about the distractions. I think reading something in print allows one to focus better and "train" the young mind to concentrate on the reading material. I think concentration is a skill that needs to be learned and it can be a difficult one to learn when there is so much distraction in place.
...and like AZeldenrust mentioned, I, too, feel the compulsion to print out things I want to read off the web. Sometimes I just want to read a specific subject matter without the "clutter" all over the page. Reply | Report Abuse
sanserene at 10:29 AM on 12/24/08
I tend to agree with agenthucky: "..print is a must for the thought process..".
I guess it explains why I choose a book for reading History or for that matter anything for which one needs to take a "long view" - in-depth knowledge - thinking why a historical figure happened to think and act in a particular way, and finding those answers that ultimately led him/ her to fashion history.
I doubt gaining that knowledge from a computer is easy(even for the next generation).
That should infer: I am not here to gain in-depth knowledge.
Then what am I here for? Find/ Know interesting facts? Definitely. Entertainment? Possibly. Develop the scientific temper? Probably. In-depth knowledge? No.Reply | Report Abuse
dcary3133 at 12:19 PM on 12/24/08
"....there is the issue whether kids stick to reading..." I believe this is an important issue to decide. Could it be that what we require students, especially high school students, to read (the "classics") that turns them off to reading for life? I graduated from high school thinking I hated to read because I had to read Charles Dickens, Moby Dick, Great Expectations, etc. It was boring to the ultimate. When I got into college I started reading what was interesting to me (it jus happened to be about mountain climbing) and found that I loved to read. Now it's mostly history, science, biography - things that educate a person in addition to entertain them. As for whether it should come from the screen or a book, I'll take the screen for the surface content and a book for in-depth coverage.Reply | Report Abuse
Ziad Sawaf at 01:45 PM on 12/24/08
My major problem with online reading is with the hot links. Although they provide very helpful supplementary information, they disrupt the flow of thought that comes with reading the text continuously. When I follow hot links while reading online I often find myself many levels away from the original text, and very often I never get to come back. I wish there were the possibility to configure hot links such that when you click on one, it adds an entry in a "further readings list", so that after finishing the text, you can explore the information of the hot links.Reply | Report Abuse
hastigo at 03:39 PM on 12/24/08
Has our lady heard of flashblock ..or the like? Works fine.
Nothing on the page needs to be jumping.
As to following links; don't!..if they distract you.
I find that a piece I want to peruse and maybe annotate ( crazy for formatting), I just do a select all and copy it to a good office client..and then understand it , play with it, at your leisure.
VERY rarely I paper print something and want to mark it all up with marker and highliter..but that's just because I love it...like maybe the Chaos piece in this issue...we'll see.
Another exception would apply to some of the amazing illustrations Scientific American does...I would buy the issue to marvel and touch or maybe even smell the slick paper and all that.
[hard to buy hard copy from them tho']
ALL that said; I do not know if I learn as well as I did with paper/hardcopy, but I do not read very much bookwise anymore (there are specific places where it works pretty well though..and we all know where they find themselves.)
Reply | Report Abuse
hastigo at 04:07 PM on 12/24/08
Anybody interested in an example of the Chaos piece done on open office can contact me for an attachment.
Merry Christmas and stuff, all.Reply | Report Abuse
rocandroll at 04:37 PM on 12/24/08
The following is a direct response to this comment.
try cooliris a firefox add on that previews links as a "picture in picture" and that can then be stacked as tabs in the margin for later recall.Reply | Report Abuse
agenthucky at 04:49 PM on 12/23/08
Just taking into my experience from reading online SCIAM vs the magazine, when there is a topic I am unfamiliar with, SCIAM has helpful links to other pages explaining more, and google is just a click away. For subjects which I am new to, online reading lets me catch up faster.
I do understand when I want to learn in depth, submerse myself in a topic I am familiar with, the imagination and creativity I gain when reading print isn't compariable to online reading.
I suggest if you are looking to invent or push the bounds of a subject, print is a must for the thought process, but catching up on learning something foreign, online is the way to go, resources. Reply | Report Abuse
AZeldenrust at 05:17 PM on 12/23/08
This may explain why i feel a complusion to print out things i want to read off the web.Reply | Report Abuse
liggybee at 09:41 PM on 12/23/08
I agree about the distractions. I think reading something in print allows one to focus better and "train" the young mind to concentrate on the reading material. I think concentration is a skill that needs to be learned and it can be a difficult one to learn when there is so much distraction in place.
...and like AZeldenrust mentioned, I, too, feel the compulsion to print out things I want to read off the web. Sometimes I just want to read a specific subject matter without the "clutter" all over the page. Reply | Report Abuse
sanserene at 10:29 AM on 12/24/08
I tend to agree with agenthucky: "..print is a must for the thought process..".
I guess it explains why I choose a book for reading History or for that matter anything for which one needs to take a "long view" - in-depth knowledge - thinking why a historical figure happened to think and act in a particular way, and finding those answers that ultimately led him/ her to fashion history.
I doubt gaining that knowledge from a computer is easy(even for the next generation).
That should infer: I am not here to gain in-depth knowledge.
Then what am I here for? Find/ Know interesting facts? Definitely. Entertainment? Possibly. Develop the scientific temper? Probably. In-depth knowledge? No.Reply | Report Abuse
dcary3133 at 12:19 PM on 12/24/08
"....there is the issue whether kids stick to reading..." I believe this is an important issue to decide. Could it be that what we require students, especially high school students, to read (the "classics") that turns them off to reading for life? I graduated from high school thinking I hated to read because I had to read Charles Dickens, Moby Dick, Great Expectations, etc. It was boring to the ultimate. When I got into college I started reading what was interesting to me (it jus happened to be about mountain climbing) and found that I loved to read. Now it's mostly history, science, biography - things that educate a person in addition to entertain them. As for whether it should come from the screen or a book, I'll take the screen for the surface content and a book for in-depth coverage.Reply | Report Abuse
Ziad Sawaf at 01:45 PM on 12/24/08
My major problem with online reading is with the hot links. Although they provide very helpful supplementary information, they disrupt the flow of thought that comes with reading the text continuously. When I follow hot links while reading online I often find myself many levels away from the original text, and very often I never get to come back. I wish there were the possibility to configure hot links such that when you click on one, it adds an entry in a "further readings list", so that after finishing the text, you can explore the information of the hot links.Reply | Report Abuse
hastigo at 03:39 PM on 12/24/08
"The visual happenings on the screen& and your physical interaction with the device is distracting," Mangen says. "All of these things are taxing on cognition and concentration in a way that a book is not."
Has our lady heard of flashblock ..or the like? Works fine.
Nothing on the page needs to be jumping.
As to following links; don't!..if they distract you.
I find that a piece I want to peruse and maybe annotate ( crazy for formatting), I just do a select all and copy it to a good office client..and then understand it , play with it, at your leisure.
VERY rarely I paper print something and want to mark it all up with marker and highliter..but that's just because I love it...like maybe the Chaos piece in this issue...we'll see.
Another exception would apply to some of the amazing illustrations Scientific American does...I would buy the issue to marvel and touch or maybe even smell the slick paper and all that.
[hard to buy hard copy from them tho']
ALL that said; I do not know if I learn as well as I did with paper/hardcopy, but I do not read very much bookwise anymore (there are specific places where it works pretty well though..and we all know where they find themselves.)
Reply | Report Abuse
hastigo at 04:07 PM on 12/24/08
Anybody interested in an example of the Chaos piece done on open office can contact me for an attachment.
Merry Christmas and stuff, all.Reply | Report Abuse
rocandroll at 04:37 PM on 12/24/08
The following is a direct response to this comment.
try cooliris a firefox add on that previews links as a "picture in picture" and that can then be stacked as tabs in the margin for later recall.Reply | Report Abuse
posted by dan at 9:54 AM
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