tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8924717973498368006.post236780413239929997..comments2024-01-01T07:46:50.896+00:00Comments on Effortless Incitement: Technology and the economics of reading 2.0Doctor Spurthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16403355179680558182noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8924717973498368006.post-31968987682013926862008-12-24T14:04:00.000+00:002008-12-24T14:04:00.000+00:00Interesting and relevant: http://judson.blogs.nyti...Interesting and relevant: http://judson.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/16/defeating-bedlam/Anony Mousehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08077107616686254136noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8924717973498368006.post-40643117085180102102008-09-11T08:13:00.000+01:002008-09-11T08:13:00.000+01:00There's a discussion of whether the internet is ma...There's a discussion of whether the internet is making us stupid (which I don't think it is) over at Britannica:<BR/><BR/>http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2008/07/this-is-your-brain-this-is-your-brain-on-the-internetthe-nick-carr-thesis/Doctor Spurthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16403355179680558182noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8924717973498368006.post-30681562308194637102008-09-06T10:09:00.000+01:002008-09-06T10:09:00.000+01:00Thanks, Sam. There's a Firefox extension that allo...Thanks, Sam. There's a Firefox extension that allows you to set limits on some sites (e.g. a number of minutes an hour, etc.) which could be a bit more sophisticated. I'd be playing with it, except I've already mostly switched to using Google Chrome.Doctor Spurthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16403355179680558182noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8924717973498368006.post-21206560679876988512008-09-05T09:12:00.000+01:002008-09-05T09:12:00.000+01:00It took me *days* to get around to reading this, w...It took me *days* to get around to reading this, which is significant in context. I'm glad I finally did it. I'm guilty of all the same defaults, and find it next to impossible to switch off the distractions. I've recently found a neat little app that blocks your internet and only unlocks it at the preset time, thereby forcing you to stay offline and do some actual reading/writing. I think I may have to download it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8924717973498368006.post-15463916171946033242008-08-26T07:10:00.000+01:002008-08-26T07:10:00.000+01:00Thanks very much for the comment. It seems to me t...Thanks very much for the comment. It seems to me that at the top end students are if anything more focussed and competitive - sometimes I think excessively so. But away from that end, it seems we do face a real problem. And focussed reading is a skill that requires practice, so it's harder to imagine plausible interventions.Doctor Spurthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16403355179680558182noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8924717973498368006.post-38577327949961642502008-08-26T06:16:00.000+01:002008-08-26T06:16:00.000+01:00Great post: you describe the conundrum of getting ...Great post: you describe the conundrum of getting focussed on reading perfectly (I've found another distraction is compiling wish- or to-buy lists on Amazon, only to abandon it when everything I "need" is clearly beyond my economic reach). <BR/><BR/>The question of new students is an interesting and important one: I've been getting Commerce students to do simple summaries of articles, only to have it confirmed that they are (mostly) patently unable to separate main idea from supporting evidence, and to distil ideas into their own language (which is also why I ban highlighters from note-taking: bright colours parade as insidiously as photocopies as "gathering" knowledge). What to do about it? As you rightly point out, without the memory of focussed reading, trying to instil it in competition with everything else may very well be a lost cause. As depressing as it may sound, the weight may be on us as teachers to accept that reading in the British Museum belongs to another era, and get creative about how to manufacture attention where there is too little, and way too much information. Wish I had the miracle cure...Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08718278240884269415noreply@blogger.com