Google and The Reading Habits of a Net Explorer

I have been musing for a little while now on my reading habits, but also on those of the young people around me.  I watch them and study myself.  I have noticed some salient points with regards to reading, the web and my use of web2.0 tools.  It was with great interest when the following article came through on my Google reader this morning.

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

I also picked up the following article and stored it on my diigo bookmarks a week or so ago.

Writing Style for Print vs Web

Both articles illustrate the difference in online reading and the habits of online readers.  However, Nicholas Carr goes one stage further and elaborates on his own online journey with that of his colleagues.  In a lot of respects I have to agree with him, my own reading habits have changed and when I reflect on them this is what I have noticed.

• Articles, blogs and news information is fed through my Google reader giving me instant access to a rich and varied flow of information.
• I skim through these articles at various points through my day; in fact I have an almost anal need to make sure that my read items are always at the lowest number possible.  I do get agitated if they get over 100.  Therefore, due to the number of feeds I have coming through I am ever vigilant.
• Once skimmed I then hover over the information to get a ‘blurb’ of what it is about.  If it piques my interest then I will open the full article.
• The opened article is then read, often very quickly.  At this point my brain is trying to categorise the information.  Is it funny? Where does it sit in my library on diigo? Will anyone else find this information useful? What do I want to do with this information later?
• If it hits my criteria (which takes about 1 minute to make a decision).  I will diigo the article.
• I will also highlight it, or sticky it, or send it via email (via diigo), or twitter it, or blog it.
• Once stored it has been tagged and added to various lists in my diigo and my library is complete.

This process per article can take anything from 2 to 5 minutes.

I have also noticed with students that they are also reading and using the net in this fashion, shifting and sorting information.  Humans are great categorises and the net provides us with a rich source of interest to categorise and sort.  I agree with Nicholas Carr that I am also noticing that I do find longer reading more difficult now.  I almost have to push my way through larger articles and books, forcing myself to remain interested through the materials.

Why is this happening?

Probably because my brain actually enjoys the way I am gleaning information on the internet.  It is an interactive process of reading, a quick absorbing method that keeps my interest up.  My frontal cortex must be firing on all cylinders when choice bits of information come my way.  Ohh Yes it must be going…..another piece of really interesting stuff to squirrel away.   I think it is more than that though.  There is also the social aspect of my quest on the net, the sharing and learning is quite profound.  It engages and excites my imagination.  So, my brain doesn’t quite want to go back to traditional texts!  It enjoys the interaction and of course we are strong social animals so the chance to ‘share’ is really making me want to jump with joy.

What does this mean for learners?  Ok maybe what I am going to say next will make me out to be a fuddy duddy.  I have a foundation of knowledge that I have built on and gone through, a rigorous discipline behind me.  Therefore, my quest on the net is adding and enriching what I have learnt in the past.  A new way of learning for me, yes, but still I have experienced other ways.  What about our learners?  Well they are growing up in a digital world, where their interactions are being driven by online texts.  I know that text books are increasingly becoming a thing of the past, even publishers are now giving us online versions of school texts we are putting on the intranet at school.  What does this mean for the reading habits and learning habits of the 21^st Century learner?  All I hope is….

• My learners can learn deeply and understand the depth of a subject they are interested in.
• They can understand information from a variety of sources.
• They know where to look for reliable information that gives them further understanding.
• Critical analysis of information sources can only be achieved once a good understanding of a subject area has been processed by the learner.  I hope my young learners have this ability.
• If the net gives them excitement in their learning, excellent! Engaged in your own learning brings about more learning.
• They have a tool kit that will allow them to circumnavigate the global digital world.

My worries and fears are that we will have a generation of learners who are looking for the ‘quick fix’ in terms of information processing.  As educators how do we work with young people to help them use the information sources wisely?

As a learner myself, I am glad I have my traditional learning to fall back on, or I could be sucked into this vast world and not have my tools and necessary equipment to help me.  I would be lost, and the sad thing would be, I would not even know it. I am being drawn into the quick, exciting world of information flow and the pace in which my own learning habits are changing is quite interesting.

What does this mean for our young learner’s and their future learning habits?

Web 2.0 What the hell is that?

Web 2.0 is the term widely used to describe a technological revolution that many people are using and they don't even realise it.  So without getting all TECHIE what is it in plain and simple language?

My understanding is that it is interactive web platforms that can be used online or offline with stuff that is easy to use.  There could also be opportunities for networking or in fact changing how your experience on the web looks for you.

So now your saying....what does that mean?  Ok so what Web 2.0 do you use?  Lets try and find out and then match it with the Guru list.

• Facebook
• Myspace
• Skype
• Bebo
• iGoogle

Are all common platforms that many people use for the first time and are dipping their toes into Web2.0.  These sites offer user interfaces that you can customise in various ways along with networking features.

Lets look at the list that O'Reilly used back in 2005

<#document-fragment>

The above list probably means very little to many teachers.  To be honest the only things I recognise on there is Britannica, Wikipedia, blogging, personal websites and flickr. 

What does Web2.0 mean to me as a teacher?

Well it can mean many things.  It just depends how much you want to explore, experiment and interact.  Its ok to not GET IT and think you have no skills, because all the applications are designed in such a way that anyone around the world can use them with no technical abilities.  Sometimes I have found it is about imagination and just having fun with it. 

The point I want to stress is, you might not GET IT but all our kids do.  They are using these technologies all the time.  BUT I have found in lots of respects they are also naive in their exploration of the Web.  They restrict themselves to social networking sites of various kinds for 'social reasons'. 

My challenge is......

Find out for myself, experiment and bring Web2.0 into the classroom.  Get my students OFF sneaky social networking (through proxy servers) and engaging their imagination and learning in technology that enriches their learning.

Oh and one of my Twitter colleagues in the US did a presentation on Web2.0 at the end of his presentation at his school one of the teachers came up to him at the end and said 'So this Web2.0.....its basically just a website....can you give me the link?'

Of course this made me laugh, but also illustrates a point.  Sometimes its not about being talked to about something on Powerpoint, its actually about seeing it and doing it for yourself.  Then we can be inspired to give it a go.

Here is the links from the web that I used today....

Timeline  This is a timeline tool that can be used in many subjects.  You do need to register with the website so you might want to think carefully about how you would do this with students.

Electronic Fruit Machine  This is a really fun tool that you can customise and use with classes.

Diigo  The registration page for Diigo for you to look and join up if you want to.  If you want to add me as a friend click on the link on the gray side bar.

The following photogallery represents all the thoughts and ideas gathered from the training session.  I know in many respects it is not 'pushing' at the boundaries of what we can do.  However, it is giving staff an opportunity to experiment and try out new formats for learning using the NTCi web domain.  It is a starting point and a good time of year for subject staff to be adding some of these new technological ideas to their yearly development plans.

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26th May I really like this blog from Miguel one of my diigo colleagues.  I think he makes some very valid points about how web2.0 can be used within education.  It is going to take a quiet revolution of information showering for the message to get out and for practice to change within the classroom.

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