Why do we value reading? What do we mean when we say "reading" in academia?

As a librarian, I often find myself being engaged by people who want to talk about books and reading. Sometimes e-books and e-readers come up. Sometimes people LOVE their nook or Kindle or (insert latest thing here). Other people talk about how much they like the feel and smell of a paper book (which might be more accurately be referred to as a codex).

There are pros and cons to both. But as Ranganathan says "every book has a reader" and "every reader has a book".

But, there is something that seems to me is left out in the discussion. And that is that not all reading is the same. Reading billboards doesn't count in my public library's summer reading program. I doubt reading facebook statuses (even long ones) counts. And I have no concrete statistics that I'm going to look up to support this point, but I think it is almost self-evident. If you are talking about reading as interacting with text, then students today are, must be, reading more than ever. Text messages are written. They are reading them.

But that's not the right sort of reading, is it? There is something more that we must be talking about when we are talking about capital-R Reading.

I think that additional piece we are missing is "focused concentration on one topic". That's not a great phrase. Sometimes a good reader is struggling with a stream-of-consciousness piece that is doing everything but staying on topic, but they are focused on it. Somehow that is different than reading a twitter feed, even if sometimes they might look similar.

So, at essence, I think that "focus" is the thing. We are listening to, interacting with, decrypting the prose or poetry of one piece (usually one person). And deciding not to do anything else. Or if we notice our eyes have slipped down the page or screen while we were thinking about what to have for dinner, we either re-read or go eat dinner and come back to the book.

So the Reading we are looking for is not just exercising our literacy skills, but entering at least a semi-meditative state. Where we are consciously focusing on just one thing, if only for a little while. Which for me is different than reading facebook/twitter/reddit, or even most short magazine articles. The short bursts of text are diverting, and sometimes interesting, but if it says "you aren't going to believe number 7 on this list", they changes are that you forget what the list was even about within 30 minutes of finishing it.

So if communing with good, long, thoughtful fiction or non-fiction is like well-balanced meals for the mind, the "short burst" reading is like junk food. Yes, it was tasty/interesting, and I did read it, but I didn't have time to savour the ideas, digest them, and have them nurish me. So, take 15-20 minutes to read a monograph today. You may have already read hundreds or thousands of words, but you haven't really done your reading yet. Give yourself the gift of being transported to a place, in a codex or electronic book, where you only have one thing to focus on at a time. The world can wait, and you will be better prepared to deal with it, having taken time to Read.

Managing myself - suggestions from Drucker

As I move from the coveted academic role of managing just myself to the less-desirable administrative role of managing myself and others, I should be reading more about management.

To that end, I actually paid for a book (or used a gift card on a business book, which is almost the same thing).

I picked up Harvard Business Review's 10 Must Reads - The Essentials.

I started with the Peter Drucker piece, since I remember liking his _Innovation and Entreprenuership_ back before graduate school.

"Managing Oneself" reminds us to look at some basic questions: am I a reader or a listener? Do I take in and process information better via spoken word or written word.

I'm not positive I know. I like some things written and other things verbal. I guess, as with most people, it is probably best to do both whenever possible.

Aloha from Kentucky - Howdy Y'all to Hawaii

What is your intention for this course (why are you here)? I'm a librarian at Bluegrass Community and Technical College, and I want to find ways to reach students better, and one way to do that is to become more embedded in online teaching. So, I'm here to see how the library can fit in all this.

What issues do you think are important? It is hard to know where to start on this one.

• There seem to be a lot of tensions: engaging students as interactively as they are used to communicating with their friends, but not violating their privacy (even if they don't yet acknowledge that they have any)
• Providing students with a well-rounded educational experience in a media environment that is still developing (when I explain something in the classroom, I can SEE how many people "get it" - how can I do that online?)
• How do we compete with free? If my students could watch MIT or Stanford or Sorbonne lectures, while would they continue to take mine?

How will contribute? Not sure what I'm supposed to put here "a lot"? I'm hoping to post as often as prompted is probably closer to the truth

How would you like to see community develop among participants? It would be nice to have more people to commiserate with: to let us know that we are not alone. It would be even better to learn how others have overcome those challenges. Or re-directed their energies into more fruitful paths (maybe some obstacles are meant to be gone around).

These types of courses are new for most people. In fact about 90% don’t even participate. How will you overcome the fear of learning in the open and the frustration of using new technology? How do you plan to courageously work through any setbacks, and not give up? I have courage, but only some. I have energy, but only some. My challenge will not be courage/openess, but prioritizing, and keeping up with this, along with all the other stuff I'm trying to keep up with.

Skype Launches a Dedicated Network for Teachers

Skype Launches a Dedicated Network for Teachers - Mashable lets us know that "Using the platform, teachers can create profiles that describe their classes and teaching interests. They can also search a directory of teachers from all over the world by student age range, language and subject." Which facilitates collaboration.

Not sure if they are using it in higher ed much yet or not.

Facebook In The Classroom. Seriously. | Emerging Education Technology

Facebook In The Classroom. Seriously. | Emerging Education Technology

The post, “100 Ways To Teach With Twitter”, is the most consistently viewed article on this site. Similarly, “Facebook As An Instructional Technology Tool”, resulted in the 2nd most trafficked day here last year. While Facebook and Twitter are both hugely popular Internet tools, I still find myself a little surprised by the popularity of these posts, considering the academic perspective of this site. Teachers are rightfully hesitant to use such popular tools, given their inherent risk of exposing students to inappropriate content.

6 Questions to Ask About Your Team’s Effectiveness: Online Collaboration «

6 Questions to Ask About Your Team’s Effectiveness: Online Collaboration « How much could higher education benefit from these corporate ideas about being more effective?

If you want to truly engage students, give up the reins - Ewan McIntosh | Digital Media & Learning

If you want to truly engage students, give up the reins - Ewan McIntosh | Digital Media & Learning.

From a presentation, McIntosh says that our happiest memories in school are of "making stuff", but that has little room in the curriculum.