Thank you so much for all the responses to my note of last night.

 

I wondered if it would generate a discussion.  

 

I think that the combination of working so much keeping data and doing
online research AND taking college classes that require reading on and
offline texts have done the most to slow down my reading for pleasure.
Secondly, my vision has continued to get worse and worse over the past
five years (and before).. and the last trip to the eye doctor - I was
told I have the beginning stages of cataracts. I also have frequent
migraines.

I am beginning to see - through the responses and some reflection - that
my case may be somewhat unique. 

When I go on vacations I DO read for pleasure - especially on airplanes.

:-) 


 

Speaking of vacations - a frequent vacation for me is to Yosemite where
my college roommate lives.  Her home is in the very town where the worst
of the fires in that area have been since this weekend (Midpines - near
the Yosemite Valley).  The last I heard, she had not learned if she had
lost her home to the fire (and in response to Holly - I was very
saddened to hear of the loss of your home). Please keep my friend Wendy
in your thoughts.... she and her husband and two teenagers are fine, and
that is a great relief.

Again, thanks for the discussion.

Was good to hear from you all!

 

Gina

 

________________________________

From: technology-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:technology-bounces at nifl.gov]
On Behalf Of David J. Rosen
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2008 10:31 AM
To: The Technology and Literacy Discussion List
Subject: [Technology 1697] Re: Technology Digest, Vol 34, Issue 15

 

Colleagues,

 

I read books (thanks to the Boston Public Library!), articles,
newspapers, web pages, (wanted and unwanted) mail and email and
discussion list postings like this, manuals, curricula, content
standards, policies, Requests for Proposals, proposals, evaluations,
studies, and much more. 

 

I am a critical reader. One of the documents that helped me to "get" why
it is important to be a critical reader many years ago is "Body Ritual
Among the Nacirema" https://www.msu.edu/~jdowell/miner.html  Wendy, and
others, this might be useful with some of your adult secondary
education/transition to college students. If you haven't read it yet,
it's a must!

 

The past couple of years, my book group has chosen to read books that
are essentially long (usually interesting) arguments. These include:

 

Two books by Yale Law School Professor, Amy Chua, World on Fire, and Day
of Empire, How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance--and Why They Fall;
and The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. 

 

I found each of these three books compelling. Each started with a thesis
and tried to prove it using arguments and a variety of kinds of
evidence. This kind of reading requires being able to follow a
well-developed argument and having a dialogue with yourself (and ideally
others) about the argument and its sub-parts. In the end, you have to
decide whether or not, and to what extent, to accept the thesis. This is
the kind of reading (thinking) we need in a pluralistic, democratic
society. We need other kinds of reading, too, but the ability to follow
(and dispute) an argument is especially important. 

 

David J. Rosen

djrosen at comcast.net

 

 

 

On Jul 30, 2008, at 4:28 PM, Wendy Quinones wrote:





Hi everyone and Gina especially,

I for one cannot imagine a life without reading books for pleasure.  At
any one time, I geneally have 3 or 4 books going at a time, plus at
least one book I'm listening to.  I HATE reading on the screen, although
I have to do a lot of it.  That's when I have trouble concentrating in a
linear manner for any length of time, unless I'm reading what I am
writing at the time.

 

I went to the "Tree Octopus" site, and I have to say that most of the
students I've had in the last few years would have fallen for it
totally.  It just doesn't seem to matter how many times we tell them to
apply reason to the internet -- especially if it looks as professional
as that one did, they're going to buy it.  I did an exercise once with a
"medical" site that promised a journal of a man's pregnancy along with
other absurd things, and although  we'd had a lengthy discussion of how
to judge a website's truthfulness (and this spoof site had red flags
galore), none of the students who got that as their assignment spotted
it as a fake.  We have our work cut out for us, friends!

 

Wendy Quinones

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