So this harkens back to the “butterfly” post from a couple of days ago and hopefully extends the thinking even further in terms of what happens when we read online and how blogging plays a role in developing a sophistication in reading interactions. And, of course, what this all means for our kids.
The Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy has put out a “Full Circle” Resource Kit about Web 2.0 subtitled “a new practical resource for digital searching, evaluation and ethical use.” (Free subscription required.) It’s got articles by some familiar names, Joyce Valenza, Doug Johnson and others, and I’ve only gotten to a small slice of it. But I was drawn into a podcast interview with Mary McNabb of Learning Guage because of the way she made clear some of the issues we need to attend to regarding students reading online.
There’s no doubt that my own reading skills and habits have changed drastically since I started consuming so much more online content. And the biggest difference is that I am more of an active reader online than when reading in print. And for me, the biggest reason my reading has changed is because of blogging. I now read with an intent to write, and my writing (or blogging) is an attempt to synthesize and connect ideas, not simply summarize or paraphrase what I’ve been reading (if I even get to that.) I have many memories when I was teaching my Honors Expository Comp kids of their frustrations not with the writing…they all could do that pretty well…but the reading and the connecting. They found it so hard to take information from disparate sources and connect them some way into a coherent few paragraphs. And I would argue it was because, like so many other things we ask them to do in school, it was a contrived exercise. Pick a topic (abortion) create a thesis (keep it legal), find support, blah, blah, blah.
In this bloggy world, however, if you’re reading and writing regularly about something that you are truly passionate about, that synthesis becomes almost second nature. You are always making connections and writing your own narrative, as McNabb says:
…reading online requires synthesis of multiple perspectives and multiple information resources. We have to create our own narrative. And in a book the author creates a narrative for us and connects information and synthesizes through explanation. And we do that in our heads now when we are reading online.
But are our students doing that, and are our teachers helping them do that? They should, because hypertext offers a different structure that changes the reading process.
It changes the reading path. And the kinds of things that we do when we are reading hypertext are different from when we read a narrative print. And as a result, some students may encounter that it requires more mental energy to focus on creating a personal rhetorical structure while they are reading. It requires engagement in critical analysis of information.
And it also requires that teachers be able to assess their online reading skills differently from offline. And one suggestion she has is to use blogs not only as reflective writing spaces that support those critical reading skills but also as metoring spaces for watching it happen:
…you could sign up parents or reading tutors from the community to come in and blog with kids on more of an individualized basis or small group so that there is that feedback and monitoring of asking kids comprehension questions and seeing if they are really comprehending. And having somebody read the same thing the kids are reading to make sure that kids are actually understanding.
So here’s the deal:
FACT: Students are and will be doing more reading in hypertext environments.
FACT: Reading in hypertext environments requires different literacies than in print environments.
FACT: Teachers need to teach their students how to read effectively in hypertext environments.
FACT: In order to teach these literacies effectively, teachers must also model their use.
CONCLUSION: Teachers should be reading and writing online (blogging).
If only it was that easy, right?
(“hypertext 3-D” photo by Kathryn Cramer)
Technorati Tags: reading, learning, education
This post caught my eye immediately, since it is what I have been going around to the teachers in my school (the one’s who will listen) and preaching, lobbying and cajoling them to dip their toes into the Web 2.0 springs. I think I have two that are going to take that initial step.
The four ‘FACTS’ that you use to present your CONCLUSION should be the framework to start people along the road of using Web 2.0 tools and the ‘conversation’ we need to have with our colleagues and students.
The quote “writing regularly about something that you are truly passionate about” is something I have tried unsuccessfully to integrate into my teaching. My school’s wonderful Media Specialist and I tried this fall to do a multigenre research project allowing students to research “whatever they were interested in.” Only 1/5 of my students had an interest. Beyond that, they could cite 4-wheeling, Led Zeppelin, and MySpace. I thought they would have a variety of interests stemming from popular culture (I am very conscious of popular culture and want to integrate it into my teaching as much as possible to energize student learning). However, many claim “they don’t watch TV” or “see many movies.” When we really tried to put our heads togther, the unfortunate conclusion is that, it appears, most of my students don’t have many interests or do much of anything when they go home from school except text message, etc.
So…our next step was to somehow lead them to their innate interests. Using topic categories on SIRS, we tried to magically show how even a boring subject category such as “Communication” has a lot to do with them: why is MySpace dnagerous? how has cell phone usage changed society? Are podcasts really popular with teenagers? My Media Specialist is a big fan of having students develop their own research questions rather than us assigning topics for them.
So we are going to try it again next semester. Any advice on how to proceed? I have 30 computer stations in my own classroom (very lucky indeed) that run on Linux. Surprisingly, it’s been difficult to find useful web resources that are not exercises, drills, or fully curriculum based. What exists besides Youtube and MySpace that is interesting, appealing, and informative?
I like the idea of connecting and synthesizing narratives, but I’d like to see some research on students doing more reading in hypertext environments. According to Jakob Nielson (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html), “People rarely read Web pages word by word; instead, they scan the page, picking out individual words and sentences.”
Like one of the earlier commentors, this post immediately caught my eye for the simple phrase you used regarding you read now with an eye on how you are going to write about things. For me, this was exactly what caused the swelling of my bloglines account and the deluge of blog posts. Reading is personal process, and that is sacred, but I have always found that writing about what I am reading crystallizes what it is that I take out of the text.
It is like talking your way to a solution for a logic problem.