When people feel they have increased demands of
accessing information and they don’t have enough time to read; maybe there is a
great change in the society demands, but not only in how the digital devices
influence people’s reading habits. It sounds like that as the developed of
digital technologies influencing the society, the society got powerful
enhancement and increased the need and requirements for people from keeping the
speed of development. Compared to the old days, people nowadays are surrounded
by more and more accessible information, and they are demanded to read the
information if they don’t want to fell behind the development of the world. In
other words, the technology evolution, such as Google, maybe one of the reasons
that caused the information exploding; and at the meanwhile, Google helps
people to speed-up in catching up with the updates. The problem is that, if
people know how to get used to the change in the world.
People who invented computer used to do research
in the library by reading paper based documents and books. There were many
brilliant people in the history made successful achievement, but they didn’t
have digital devices such as computer to assist their work.
Similar to Carr addresses in the article, when
television was first invented and became popular in publics’ lives; people felt
the difference between reading paper-based books and watching TV. There are
educators addressing how bad that watching TV affects children’s brain; some
educators appeal to reading books is the good way for education.
Computer-based internet searching and the
application of other digital devices are evaluation in the Human history; they
are changing the world and they can assist the traditional teaching and
learning methods. Carr mentioned that “the Net is becoming a universal medium” (Carr, 2008). Here
is a question: Can Google searching engine take place of library research? There
is not an easy answer.
Before comparing the difference between accessing
information from paper-based format and digital format, there is a need to
addressing people’s reading purposes. I assume that there is a big different
between people reading for research and reading for relax. Even though Carr
mentioned in the article that people exhibit the site “as ‘a form of skimming
activity,’ hopping from one source to another and rarely returning to any
source they’d already visited” (Carr,
2008);
there is no clear study on what are people’s reading purposes in this case.
The Library of Alexandria was the first library in
the world. I was founded in Egypt in the 4th Century B.C. During the
centuries, people study library science for building a better system for
collecting and organizing information. The library has paper-based books
organized under categories. Along with the development of technologies, new
formats of information storage got applied in the library, such as, Microfilm,
Microfiche, etc.; books were published in electronic versions; databases were
built; computers got installed in the library for publics. I can feel that the
computer technology is changing my expectation of seeking for information. When
I read a paper-based document, I was thinking to use “Ctrl+F” to look for the
keyword that I was looking for, which is the option in a computer-based
document.
I list the differences between accessing information
from paper-based format and digital format as follow:
Paper-based
books
Publishing
period:
The publishing of books take time. There is a
processing period from the author finish the book to the book is published in
the bookstore.
Library
is for general public needs:
The library may not be able to get the most
up-to-date books in the library storage; and the library cannot get every book
to meet all the readers’ need.
Waiting
time:
People can get books from Inter-library loan, but
takes 2 to 3 days to actually get the book.
Storage
format:
Paper-based document needs physical space to store.
Google
and other Internet access
Publishing
period:
The information online is much more quickly
delivered, for example, if you pay the fee and get access to the database, you
can read books or scholarly articles from nook, kindle, iPad, etc. The problem
is that not every book is published in the electronic version.
Searching
information online:
There is no guarantee that you can get all the
information you need from the internet either, but because of the technology,
such as Web 2.0; and searching engine, such as Google, Wikipedia, MIT
opencourseware; people have a broader varieties of information resources and a
better chance to get the information they need. The problem of online resources
is that the information may not be as accurate, academic, authorized, such as,
professors will not recommended students to cite information from an unofficial
website in their paper.
Waiting
time:
Accessing information online doesn’t require much
waiting time as far as you have a good internet connection; how much time that
you need to put into searching the information is also depends on how popular
is your research topic. There may not be mush resources online if your research
topic is merely heard of.
Storage
format:
Digital document is stored in the virtual world as
cloud or server; existing in the physical world as CD, hard drive, etc.
Conclusion:
Paper-based information is classic which people got
used to. Accessing information online provides people convenience and
efficiency. 21st is called information explosion era. It is a whole
new way of doing business which may be benefit to the publishing industry to
save materials, money, and time to publish paper-based products, and store
information in digital format to circulate information more rapidly and easier.
Are we becoming wiser by using the technologies in learning? In other words:
Are there many differences between publics nowadays and people lived centuries
ago? Do people from different centuries have different cognitive styles or
learning styles? How different do people perform and act in learning? Most of
the people living in the world nowadays don't have the great achievement as
some great inventors and scientists lived in the human history. Somehow it
shows the evidence that the efficiency of learning is not solely relay on
technology; learning happens from the connection of experience, prior knowledge,
practice, introspection, etc.; the studies on biopsychology and neuropsychology
discover the mystery of behavior and learning process. There is no doubt that
no matter living in which centuries, scientists are the people who focus on
their research, have the access to the most updated technologies, and have strong
creativity and problem solving skills. Similar to the example that two students
are learning the same content with the same instructor, but the learning
outcomes are vary on various scale; nowadays, living in the same technology surroundings,
people achieve learning outcomes differently. People seems don't know how to
read, learn, and remember things nowadays since there is too much information
and the brain is just not powerful enough to process efficiently. It is not
Google making us stupid; it is people don't know how to use Google to become
wiser.
Carr, N. (2008). Is Google making us
stupid? What the Internet is doing to our brains. Atlantic Magazine.
Retrieved from
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/
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