I have read 5 of the articles for the Media Coordinators. I previous blog postings I have commented on :
*The Media Center: From Musty Old Library to 21 Centeury Program by Mary Alice Anderson, Multimedia Schools, January
*Librarian Brings Kindles into the Classroom by Kathy Parker.
At the dpslmc.pbworks I have commented on:
"The Class of 2022: How Will We Meet Their Needs and Expectations" by Elizabeth Haynes.
I have also read
*The Case for Social Media in Schools by Sarah Kessler
*Carr, N. (2008). Is Google making us stupid? The Atlantic
What I found in commenting on these articles from my blog is that while easy to do, it is only going to reach someone reading my blog. (This is a very limited population.) In reading someone else's blog, who happens to have read the same article and then making my comments there, I have shared my thoughts with one other person, or maybe more if their blog is also read. By reading the article online and having the ability to post directly to the article, my thoughts are expressed and read by lots of others who happen to read that article directly. (As in the case of the "Is Google making us stupid", I like others felt compelled to read every last comment, as well as the article itself. This was indeed time consuming, but for the compulsive types like me, I didn't want to negate someone else's thoughts by not reading them, having the feeling like in school, that if you raise your hand or in this case post a comment, you have somethig to say and it should be heard. The last format tried was the dpslmc.pbworks. I know that ultimately my comments should reach all of the other media coordinators, however; I found the site frustrating. It seemed like my computer froze. I was able to add my comments about "The Class of 2022: How Will We Meet Their Needs and Expectations" by Elizabeth Haynes to those of Anita's, but it took a couple of tries, hence the comment with no comment.
I thought that I would like to create another page to start the discussion on "Is Google making us stupid?" by Nicholas Carr. It didn't happen. Perhaps it is all "user error" on my part. There is something to be said for many of our frustrations and inabilities to get things done be a "problem between the mouse and the seat" as my sister says.
That said, "Is Google making us stupid?" by Nicholas Carr says that because of the online articles ans web surfing, the way we read has changed. Many people are only willing to read the first two paragraphs of an article to gain information and if the points aren't made in those two short paragraphs, many will surf on to the next article to see if they can quickly glean necessary information there. People complain that they just can't concentrate for the length of a very long article. The more they surf the Web, the shorter their attention span. Many times people are also multi-tasking while they surf and this too can reduce focus. One person made the point, in France news stories tell the important info in the first paragraph and as you continue through the article less pertinent information is found, wheras in the US many of the news stories will start out with less pertinent info and toward the bottom will be the focus of the story.
I can see what they mean. Generally, I feel that news stories do try to focus the who, where, when , why at the beginning of the article and the human interest are to ones that have the wide view narrowing to topic as you read through the piece. With people crunched for time, trying to do the most with less, there is a rush rush to gain the knowledge in a 2 paragraph bite. It may be the wave of the future. Use the fewest words, symbols, pictures to get your point across, but along the way, people are going to stop reading/listening to what all of the group are saying and only focus on the top two or three speakers/writers and that would be sad. Maybe one of those people toward the end of the comment line had the most pertinent thing to say, but if you were the type to only read the first two paragraphs, you'd have never read it. Maybe it is also a cry that we need to help our children gain that first line of concentration early on, so that they develop the ability to delve deeper into a topic than just a cursory glance. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. A great motto.
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