While preparing my final draft for my web 2.o paper I came upon this article by Wendy Sutherland Smith, in which she clearly outline some of the some of the difference between that of conventional reading versus that of web reading. I admit the article had me a bit confused, since I believed that readers would employ the same strategies that they did to paper based text a to that of electronic text. The article on the whole presented some interesting facts.
Some experts like Birkerts, (1994) and Postman, (1995) both believe that with the integration of computer technology came the ruin of the English language. Surprisingly many researchers and educators stand firmly behind this statement. They propose that “texting” has bought about the demise of spelling and grammar structure. There are many who advocate that technology has done just the opposite.
As I read on, many students believed that they had to approach reading on the net with speed, while the approach to a conventional books, was much slower. They also quickly added that they found the internet to gratify their needs quickly while traditional reading was more laborious and time consuming. What was most interesting was that 90% of the students held the belief that books were the better authority on giving accurate information.
Finally she indicated that reading web texts required:
Non-linear strategies of thinking
Use of non-hierarchical strategies
Offered non-sequential strategies
Use of literacy skills to understand multi-media components
Further studies indicates that web reading is interactive, with the reader able to add, change or move text which enables a blurring of the relationship between the reader and the writer.
To read the full article go to: http://ra.tapor.ualberta.ca/Resources/e-text%20reading/Sutherland%20-%20Weaving%20-%20RT%2055.pdf
No comments:
Post a Comment