Blurts

I wrote recently about how one of the original forms of social media (the wiki) seems to be declining in popularity. The wiki had and continues to have great potential as an outlet for summaries of student learning. Yet, educators seem to be turning to other services if they encourage public scholarship at all.

The same seems to be true of the blog. Again, I see blogs as a great tool for both teachers and students to explore what they have learned and to share these insights with others. I continue to believe in the value of having an online presence that belongs to you rather than contributing to the content offered by massive online outlets (Facebook, Twitter). It is true that Facebook and Twitter offer a far easier access to an audience. However, these services just throw you in with everyone else and the reader experience experiences what you have to say in the same way – in the midst of positions taken on so many topics and even selected by algorithms (Facebook) to satisfy the reader’s priorities and biases.

The beginning of a new school year is a great time to refresh your interesting in blogging if you have been a blogger and to try blogging out if you are a novice. It does take some work and some commitment to create a body of content, but these demands are hardly unique in worthy endeavors.

Some similar arguments by fellow academics (Back to the blog, Rediscovering blogs). These academics both have a history as bloggers, but elders such as me have been involved in this form of writing far longer. I wrote my first blog post using blog software I hosted on my own server in 2002. Like other habits, quitting on something you have done for so long would not be easy.

I have been using the Acer Chromebook Tablet 10 now for a couple of weeks. I purchased it because it was a device that was developed for the K12 market and because I really like my chromebook laptop. The price point ($340 on Amazon, I purchased from CDW which was necessary at the time) is just a little less than the iPad mini 4.

After spending considerable time with this device, I would suggest that it is a worthy first effort, but I could not recommend it as an alternative to a low-end iPad or a quality Chromebook. The one specific complaint I have about my Chromebook Tablet is that it seems to offer a weaker wifi connection that other devices I use in the same location. Because a chrome device depends so heavily on the Internet for content and services, this is frustrating. I have read other reviews that suggest the device is underpowered. I think the issue I am raising is different – requested sites just seem slow to respond. Maybe we are describing the same user experience and maybe my experience is different. I can’t really say. The experience is tolerable when I use the device as I watch television, but I would use something else if I have a task I wanted to accomplish.

After using tablets since the first iPad and using them heavily, I must say I still prefer a keyboard-enabled device for content creation. I do spend time tapping on my screens for text entry, but this never seems to work as well for me as a keyboard and I will also switch to another of my devices when I want to get work done.

So, I will get use out of my Acer Tablet, but it would not be my choice if I had to make a choice.

I listen to quite a few audiobooks a year. I have a 24 book subscription through Amazon and am now accessing some for free through my library. I also “read” books through Kindle. Some don’t see Kindle books as reading, but I would argue that my opportunity to physically interact with these book via highlighting, adding notes, and then searching the books and my notes offer a deeper form of reading than is afforded by reading words on paper.

It is the reading versus listening difference I want to address here. This post was prompted by reading another post on this same topic. I can’t quite decide what this other author wanted his readers to conclude. I agree that listening to audiobooks allows a shallow form of processing. I typically listen on my Echo before going to sleep and I frequently have to ask Alexa to go to the previous chapter when starting again because I have nodded off before reaching the limit I set with the sleep timer. It is true that the audiobook player continues whether you are listening or not and most of us who consume audio content do so while doing something else (I listen to podcasts when we drive). I admit that when I want to process a book carefully I buy the Kindle rather than the Audiobook version.

So. I would also suggest I “read” 30 or so books by listening a year and maybe 40+ hours of podcasts. Much of this content would not be experienced via reading. I would very seldom read a book on history or politics without the audio. I would not read classics such as the complete works of Conan Doyle (70 hours of audio) or Winds of War (45 hours), but I did listen to both. I would also have listened to more music or maybe CNN without the many hours of podcasts.

I am certain that there is considerable research on the potential of reading versus listening. It is a complicated topic and certain issues vary with age (listening comprehension is more highly correlated with reading comprehension at lower grade levels). In some circumstances, I have been an advocate of reading over listening. Circumstances that might surprise you. As a college prof, I gave my share of lectures. However, I know that offer the same content in a written format would have offered students a greater element of control. You can reread when you fail to understand or are distracted, but you can’t relisten to a live presentation. A case can be made for putting content processing under learner control via their metacognition (the capacity to realize when you understand and when you don’t). I am not certain what the difference would be with one pass, but reading would typically be faster.

So, if you are against audiobooks, I would ask you this. Do you read a quality newspaper daily or do you watch/listen to television news programs? Which do you think allows you greater understanding? Why is it so few people read a quality news source?