THE ANSWER TO SAVING THE May 26, 2010

WORLD IS NOT ON GOOGLE

Can digital reading diminish cognitive skills? By Kelsey Briggs

Wheeling in a dusty, stacked book cart, librarian David Miller opens the doors to the hushed library of Noble High School, where

the majority of the sophomore class takes

their NEWA exams on their school laptops.

He continues to roll the cart behind the front desk and into the cluttered librariansʼ lounge, where the dusty smell of aged paper wafts from the piles and piles of books. “Sorry for the mess,” he apologizes as he hastily clears stacks of cardboard off a couple of chairs.

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Dave Miller has worked as Nobleʼs librarian for a number of years, and his

passion for great literature and the enlightenment of young minds is undeniable. At his job, he has seen students venture into the modernized, spacious library to find credible sources for research, scan the shelves for a reading book, or to simply find peace. So what, exactly, in this environment has changed?

Laptops.

Starting at the beginning of the school year in 2009, the One-To-One Program issued all students their own personal MacBook to use both during and outside of school.

In years past, students were only permitted laptops occasionally during certain classes, which were limited and transported by cart.

At first, the new laptops were seen as a great opportunity to teach more efficiently, keep students organized, and get a leg up on technology in school. And, of course, the students love them. However, as the first year with laptops comes to a close and the excitement of a brand new tool subsides, questions are brought to the surface concerning the effects of these computers.

In the place where literature comes first, that question is this: Is technology diminishing our cognition of literacy?

“When kids are required to use text before internet research, teachers notice a better understanding of the material,” Miller settles into a musty lounge chair and dives head first into a topic he knows well. “We have to train the students to read the article rather than a Google explanation. As a generation from the 20th century, we have to teach a generation from the 21st century to understand how to effectively learn. Technology in general allows us to not engage with the text.” According to Miller, cognitive learning all has to do with extensive, active research. “If your not actively engaged in the text, it means nothing.”

With a subtle grin, Miller adds, “If someone searched quickly, ʻWhy does a plane flyʼ?ʼ They'd walk away saying “It has wings.” In reality you need to know the physics of a plane, which requires

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considerable research.”

It has become relevant that the problem with researching is the phenomenon of “quick searching” or “Googling”, which offers an easy way out

Librarian David Miller helps a student return a book at Noble High School.

for students to avoid the kind of reading they really need.

In an internet blog by Larry Rosen, which was later formed into an article called “iGeneration”, Rosen explains the growing dependency on the Internet among adolescents:

“Most children and adolescents have

grown up with the largest storehouse of information in history ― the Internet... They learned to Google anything they wanted to know, MapQuest directions, go to Wikipedia for school reports, and use dictionary.com for definitions. Many have never used a card catalog, a "real" encyclopedia, or Webster's Dictionary. To children and teenagers, the Internet has always been just a click away, and they use it for a variety of purposes that are beyond the scope of anything imagined just a decade ago.”



In an era where any major search

engine can be used as a verb, the convenience of Internet learning allows our minds to become accustomed to skimming and only grabbing onto clear, concise information rather than analyzing and drawing connections with the overall text.

In the article, “Canʼt Get Kids To Read? Make It Social”, William M. Ferriter noted that,

analytical thinking skills, the less accustomed we become to using those skills.

commonly, in schools today, “Students even skip text providing simple directions; they seem intimidated by any paragraph that continues for more than a few sentences.” In another article, “How Much Information? 2009 Report On

Not only does online reading weaken our analytical skills, but it can actually change the process in which we think.

American Consumers”, R.E. Bohn and J.E. Short report that “Of the 11.2 hours each day that the average American spends interacting with information, slightly more than 30 minutes is spent with books, magazines, or newspapers.”

At Noble, those statistics, relatively, seem to apply to the students. When Miller was Nobleʼs library has their own Mac computers in addition to the studentsʼ laptops. asked if actual book use in the library had decreased since the laptops, Miller responded

In an article from The Atlantic magazine, with, “Yeah, in the general reference books. In “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, Nicholas Carr terms of sitting down and researching, I would quotes Maryanne Wolf, a developmental say yes.” psychologist at Tufts University, who claims the So what's the difference between choice to read text on the internet alters the reading from books and reading online? With strength of our mentality: books, there are no loopholes that lead to “the

gist” of the particulars, and students are forced

“We are not only what we read,” says to focus to get the information they need. While Maryanne Wolf. “We are how we read.” Wolf worries fidgeting is bound to happen, with Internet as a that the style of reading promoted by the Net, a style

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problem or not, the inability to concentrate is becoming increasingly worse due to the dependency on summarization.

According to Ferriter, a school took notice that “Classrooms are one of the only

that puts “efficiency” and “immediacy” above all

text-driven environments that [their] students experience,” while anywhere outside of school they are using media and the internet. More importantly, “Much of this electronic information is visual or is processed passively, in small

read online, she says, we tend to become “mere

else, may be weakening our capacity for the kind of deep reading that emerged when an earlier technology, the printing press, made long and complex works of prose commonplace. When we decoders of information.” Our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction, remains largely disengaged.”

bites,” which can almost guarantee that anyone

What many teachers and administrators using any source of technology is not making do not ponder on is the alarming fact that over a connections as actively as they would with thousand students in the same building are written text. The less our brains exercise becoming “mere decoders of information” by the minute.

As teachers rid of the old text books and creativity, learning, and discovery that replace their lesson plans with online searches, encourage deep thought is immense.” or even simplified keynote presentations, the cognitive abilities of the students to deep read may be decreasing. As Wolf explains, “Reading is not an instinctive skill for human beings. Itʼs not etched into our genes the way speech is.”

However, the phenomenon of digital reading is easily abused and is not commonly realized to be in any way negative. As Wolf and Barzillai phrase it, “This great gift of easily accessible, readily available, rich information

Reading is a self-teaching and learning process that relies on translating characters into a familiar language we can speak. In that case, shouldnʼt we consistently be exercising our minds with the most effective method of

has the potential to form a more passive and, as Socrates put it, an even more easily "deluded" learner.”

In the slightly comforting disorder of the

learning literacy? The technology we use to practice reading plays an impacting role in “Shaping the neural circuits inside our brains.”

libraryʼs lounge room; books strewn everywhere like dirty clothes in a teenagerʼs room, David Miller finally takes a break and a breath from his continuous thought flow, but only for a moment. “This is going to sound deep,” he announces like it should be shamed upon. “But I think laptops and technology in general has made teaching and learning harder. It's easier to find boatloads of information, so its easier to get overwhelmed. It's actually making it harder to

While reading written text may prove to benefit overall comprehensive skills, relying on tangible books all the time is not completely relevant in the digital age. Indeed, incredible progressions are made with technology when it comes to efficiency, creativity and diversity. Classroom environments can be changed in the blink of an eye with handy access to a laptop. Whether itʼs taking notes, quickly researching a topic for clarification, or creating online class discussions, there is a great advantage with digital text, and according to Maryanne Wolf and Mirit Barzillai in their article “The Importance of Deep Reading”, its “Potential for

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define good and bad information.” He pauses for a moment to find a suitable example. “Its like finding a needle in a haystack when the haystack just gets bigger and bigger.”

And this haystack of an internet expands more everyday while we, as clueless farmers with our pitchforks, become more engulfed with the appealing factors of efficiency and convenience, speed and simplicity, directness and clarity. If our society becomes even more dependent on technology than we already are, all reading will be based upon efficiency, convenience, speed, simplicity, directness and clarity. Then, since there will be no one left on Earth who can analyze and comprehend complexities, high paying jobs will lose demand. Authors will not write because they cannot comprehend the classics.

Mathematicians will not calculate new equations because they can no longer understand the old ones. Scientists will make no new discoveries because everything they already know is on Wikipedia, and where else is there to look? Politicians, well, they will be powerless. They cannot make decisions when they cannot analyze difficult situations. The world economy will disintegrate. The only hope that remains is the sole leader of the world: A 17 year old boy trying to find the answer to saving the world on Google.

As the English poet John Dunne once

spoke:

“Of the three lives Aristotle speaks of, the life of action, the life of contemplation, and the life of enjoyment, we have the two, action and enjoyment, but we lack the other, contemplation. That, I thought, is why ours is a violent city.”

~~~

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Works Cited Bohn, R. E., & Short, J. E. “How Much Information? 2009 Report On American Consumers.” San Diego: University of California. Web. May 2010. Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Atlantic Magazine. July/August 2008. Web. May 2010. Ferriter, William M. “Can't Get Kids to Read? Make It Social.” Educational Leadership. March 2010. Web. May 2010. Miller, Dave. Personal Interview. 20, May 2010. Rosen, Larry. “iGeneration.” The Psychology of Technology Blog, August 27, 2009. Web. May 2010. Wolf, Maryanne, Barzillai, Mirit. “The Importance of Deep Reading.” Educational Leadership. March 2010. Web. May 2010.

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