Reading In The Age Of Distraction Nlb

[Rolando Kumar]

The first thing I ask them to do in the research process is to spend a painfully long time looking at that object. Say a student wanted to explore the work popularly known as Boy with a Squirrel, painted in Boston in 1765 by the young artist John Singleton Copley. Before doing any research in books or online, the student would first be expected to go to the Museum of Fine Arts [Boston], where it hangs, and spend three full hours looking at the painting, noting down his or her evolving observations as well as the questions and speculations that arise from those observations.

During those sessions, other faculty members confirmed what Patkus and Zlotnick had seen. Librarians also noted an increased tendency among students to multitask in the library (for example, checking their devices frequently while studying).

Patkus and Zlotnick say that faculty members came away from the two sessions not with a judgmental perspective on student behavior, but rather, with an acceptance that there is, indeed, a shifting culture of learning and that they must realign their pedagogies accordingly.

In panel discussions, participants introduced the questions: What have we noticed about shifts in student reading? In what ways might we adapt our pedagogy to the realities of the digital age? What new strategies are needed to encourage a deeper engagement in reading?

In a 2009 study, published in the journal Computers & Education (Vol. 54, Issue 2, May 2014), researchers from the Central Connecticut State University tested the effects of instant messaging on reading comprehension. They had one group of students read and respond to instant messages (IMs) while reading an online textbook; another received an IM before reading, but not during; and another read the textbook without interruption. Researchers tracked the time it took for each student to read the passage, and then tested their understanding of what they read.

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Everyday reading occurs in different settings, such as on the train to work, in a busy cafeteria, or at home while listening to music. In these situations, readers are exposed to external auditory stimulation from nearby noise, speech, or music that may distract them from their task and reduce their comprehension. Although many studies have investigated auditory-distraction effects during reading, the results have proved to be inconsistent and sometimes even contradictory. In addition, the broader theoretical implications of the findings have not always been explicitly considered. We report a Bayesian meta-analysis of 65 studies on auditory-distraction effects during reading and use metaregression models to test predictions derived from existing theories. The results showed that background noise, speech, and music all have a small but reliably detrimental effect on reading performance. The degree of disruption in reading comprehension did not generally differ between adults and children. Intelligible speech and lyrical music resulted in the biggest distraction. Although this last result is consistent with theories of semantic distraction, there was also reliable distraction by noise. It is argued that new theoretical models are needed that can account for distraction by both background speech and noise.

His current research includes the experience of print and digital reading, attention and distraction, and the impact of digital technology in everyday life; and he has published on social media, online culture and philosophy.

With such an impressive resume and interest in topics near and dear to our heart, we were curious to sit down with Tyler this week to learn a little more about how he manages to find focus amongst all the digital distraction.

During my career, I was able to work on a program called Authors@Google based out of the main Google office in Mountain View, California. I managed a number of events with some of the most fascinating authors I could ever hope to meet. I have been a teacher at heart for a long time, and hearing all of those authors talk about their work inspired me that the written word could be a powerful way of reaching people with useful information to share.

While working at Stanford, I decided I wanted to be better prepared to help bring the valuable insights of educational and scholarly research to the actual learning outcomes and reading habits of everyday students, teachers, and readers.

The nice thing about having multiple roles as a writer, researcher, teacher is that no day is exactly like any other. However, that makes routines hard and writers do like our routines (this book by Mason Curry has some interesting information on the routines of famous writers, for anyone that is interested).

I prefer to have days devoted entirely to certain things, ideally. I tend to find having to switch gears many times between different tasks and that call upon different kinds of thinking to be exhausting, so I like to make things easy on myself when the schedule allows for it.

I do not know when I realized it, but I started to look forward to longer flights. Especially the flights without internet access. And part of that is because of the enforced time away from our online connections. Freedom helps me replicate that plane feel, but with more legroom.

I love minimalist settings. While I love libraries, I sometimes find the silence oppressive and favor coffee shops. Some research suggests that a level of ambient background noise can be helpful for our creative thinking.

I am also not anti-distractions. Sometimes distractions can be a good thing. Part of the takeaway of my current research and work is that I believe that we need to rethink our at least be reminded of our relationship with personal everyday technology. Our habits can change invisibly, and sometimes a reality check can be instructive.

The open-ended nature of the work is challenging. There can be no shortage of angles to chase up. Academics are no strangers to productive procrastination. Having social pressure can be a wonderful way to not take too long with things.

I am a bit of a hybrid. Sometimes I think better on paper and pencil. However, my iPad is a very expensive PDF reader, and I think the Apple Pencil and PDF Expert has become the closest approximation to pencil and paper thus far. I also strongly prefer Pomodoro apps as a means to break up writing sessions into focused bursts.

My wife is a runner, and although I do not self identify as a runner, I find it incredibly helpful as a means to counteract all of the time we spend sitting in academic and writing work. Time away from screens is really important.

On the web, we are confronted with an unprecedented amount of distractions that gave birth to various tools like Readability, Instapaper, Adblocker, etc. Attention span shortens while the quality of reading experiences declines; ultimately leaving a lot of great content out there undiscovered, unloved, unshared and unread by most.

While sticky elements do share a lot of similarities with position fixed items, there is one major difference. They are not fixed from the beginning. As a result, they distract readers with unexpected visual changes.

In my post about transitions, I discussed how valuable the appropriate use of transitions & animations can be. When it comes to reading, everything that moves, shakes, pulses or even flies around is nothing but a distraction.

Advertising is definitely gonna stick around, so we better start dealing with it. One way not to do it is how Forbes Magazine does. I tried to read some stuff about management on their website and the first thing I saw is this:

Mandy Brown wrote in her article on A List Apart that the design of a page should respect the different phases of the reader. It starts with inviting the reader, leaving them alone during the reading process and finally offering additional venues to pursue their interests.

Do we want to be the nitty-gritty mean little bastards who add noise to the web and impede people to get their messages across, or do we want to be the ones who push the web forward and help to make it a better place for reading and discovering information?

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Today's digital world is bombarded with information from all sides. A tweet here, a blog post there, or perhaps a quick audio snippet from a podcast. But when was the last time you truly committed to an author's work, something that demanded more than a mere few minutes of your attention? I pondered this recently in a conversation with a former student.

The digital age has unquestionably expanded our avenues for consuming content. We live in a fast-paced, internet-driven world, from TikTok videos and YouTube shorts to tweets and social media posts. While these platforms offer unique and engaging content, they often don't require long-term engagement from the audience.

Research indicates that reading for pleasure has declined among young people. Studies by the National Center for Education Statistics support the notion that not only are kids reading less for enjoyment, but this trend also extends to individuals under the age of 55. However, it's not entirely fair to place the blame solely on technology and mass media.

One contributing factor could be the way reading is taught in schools, particularly over the last few decades. English and Reading teachers are frequently under pressure to adhere to standardized curricula that focus heavily on skill development, often at the expense of fostering a love for reading.

Take, for example, this anchor standard for sixth-grade reading: "In literary texts, analyze how a particular sentence, paragraph, stanza, chapter, scene, or section fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of theme, central idea, setting, or plot." While it's crucial to teach these analytical skills, it's equally important to consider the role of personal identity in reading comprehension.

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