Eide Neurolearning Blog: Visual Overload and Visual Crowding - When More Means Less:
"Take-home points:
- Critical print size is larger for dyslexics than controls
- Critical spacing between characters is larger for dyslexics than controls
- Reading rate improves with print size to a critical point
- Explains why many dyslexics with excellent verbal funds of knowledge still have trouble reading long words
Classroom and Test Accommodations
In the classroom, more attention should be paid to print size and spacing in daily classroom (worksheets, handouts) and testing materials (as many as 1 in 5 students are dyslexic), and print size and spacing should be considered when purchasing books for students."
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Eide Neurolearning Blog: Visual Overload and Visual Crowding - When More Means Less
Eide Neurolearning Blog: Visual Overload and Visual Crowding - When More Means Less: "For visual scientists, visual crowding is a specific term that refers to a greater difficulty in seeing when other visual objects are present. When we look at a complex scene, for instance the picture above, it is impossible to take in all the other visual details. It's what causes some people to overload when they go to large gatherings like music concerts, Disneyland in the summertime, or a crowded Home Depot, but also children in crowded classroom, all-school assembly, writing on a scantron, or completing Mad Math Minutes."
Friday, April 23, 2010
Mick West » Sharing Two Kindles, How does it work?
Mick West » Sharing Two Kindles, How does it work?:
"Re the Nook swap vs Kindle. I read that you can only “loan” the Nook book once for a specific number of days and if the reader hasn’t finished the book, too bad, it comes back to you and you can’t resend it. It’s a feature that’s not quite as good as it sounds."
The sharing feature of the Nook seems more marketing ploy than substance. It does suggest, though, that the Nook firmware contains the code for a capability that could be very helpful in schools if its settings were not so restrictive...
"Re the Nook swap vs Kindle. I read that you can only “loan” the Nook book once for a specific number of days and if the reader hasn’t finished the book, too bad, it comes back to you and you can’t resend it. It’s a feature that’s not quite as good as it sounds."
The sharing feature of the Nook seems more marketing ploy than substance. It does suggest, though, that the Nook firmware contains the code for a capability that could be very helpful in schools if its settings were not so restrictive...
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Higher Education Reimagined With Online Courseware - Education Life - NYTimes.com
Higher Education Reimagined With Online Courseware - Education Life - NYTimes.com: "P2PU’s mission isn’t to develop a model and stick with it. It is to “experiment and iterate,” says Ms. Paharia, the former executive director of Creative Commons. She likes to talk about signals, a concept borrowed from economics. “Having a degree is a signal,” she says. “It’s a signal to employers that you’ve passed a certain bar.” Here’s the radical part: Ms. Paharia doesn’t think degrees are necessary. P2PU is working to come up with alternative signals that indicate to potential employers that an individual is a good thinker and has the skills he or she claims to have — maybe a written report or an online portfolio."
Sunday, April 18, 2010
The Long Form
The Long Form: "Over the past year it really began to bother me that as I spent more and more time trying to stay up-to-date with RSS feeds, tweets, emails, and other bite-sized pieces of content, this came at the expense of reading long-form content — and books in particular. Sure I was still reading, but what I was reading was less substantive. Most of my reading was being done very quickly and in short bursts, and neither my life nor my reading habits were oriented to consume long-form content. I came to view this as a “reading gap”. Even though from one perspective I was reading more, I was really reading less."
Saturday, April 17, 2010
My iPhone has revolutionised my reading | Education | The Guardian
My iPhone has revolutionised my reading | Education | The Guardian:
"So why I had found it easier to read from my iPhone? First, an ordinary page of text is split into about four pages. The spacing seems generous and because of this I don't get lost on the page. Second, the handset's brightness makes it easier to take in words. 'Many dyslexics have problems with 'crowding', where they're distracted by the words surrounding the word they're trying to read,' says John Stein, Professor of Neuroscience at Oxford University and chair of the Dyslexia Research Trust. 'When reading text on a small phone, you're reducing the crowding effect.'"
So, when kids crank up the font size on a Kindle, maybe they are just creating less text and more white space on the page that they need...?
"So why I had found it easier to read from my iPhone? First, an ordinary page of text is split into about four pages. The spacing seems generous and because of this I don't get lost on the page. Second, the handset's brightness makes it easier to take in words. 'Many dyslexics have problems with 'crowding', where they're distracted by the words surrounding the word they're trying to read,' says John Stein, Professor of Neuroscience at Oxford University and chair of the Dyslexia Research Trust. 'When reading text on a small phone, you're reducing the crowding effect.'"
So, when kids crank up the font size on a Kindle, maybe they are just creating less text and more white space on the page that they need...?
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
NYU Tries Digital Textbooks -- Campus Technology
NYU Tries Digital Textbooks -- Campus Technology:
"'We expect digital textbook use to grow as fast as the title inventories can,' said Phil Christopher, director of the bookstores. 'The technology is in place, the books are highly interactive, and students own powerful portable devices. Moreover, traditional textbook costs are rising, and students are quite comfortable with searching, shopping, and learning online. Our students are excited to have the option of purchasing CafeScribe digital textbooks.'"
"'We expect digital textbook use to grow as fast as the title inventories can,' said Phil Christopher, director of the bookstores. 'The technology is in place, the books are highly interactive, and students own powerful portable devices. Moreover, traditional textbook costs are rising, and students are quite comfortable with searching, shopping, and learning online. Our students are excited to have the option of purchasing CafeScribe digital textbooks.'"
Monday, April 12, 2010
4oh4 - words not found: An Email Interview With Merlin Donald
4oh4 - words not found: An Email Interview With Merlin Donald:
"The ebook may be best suited for fiction, or biography. But for anything that requires a lot of reflective thought, a printed book is so portable, handy, easy to notate, and flexible in its format, when compared with current electronic readers, that I would not see the latter as serious competitors yet. That may change as they improve. In particular, electronic readers are not friendly for page flipping, or for parallel processing, where you lay out many books and papers at once, some with pages held open, others annotated, and scan them collectively. What you are doing in that case is moving through several parallel information fields in three-dimensional space, something you cannot do in an ebook."
"The ebook may be best suited for fiction, or biography. But for anything that requires a lot of reflective thought, a printed book is so portable, handy, easy to notate, and flexible in its format, when compared with current electronic readers, that I would not see the latter as serious competitors yet. That may change as they improve. In particular, electronic readers are not friendly for page flipping, or for parallel processing, where you lay out many books and papers at once, some with pages held open, others annotated, and scan them collectively. What you are doing in that case is moving through several parallel information fields in three-dimensional space, something you cannot do in an ebook."
How the iPhone Could Reboot Education | Gadget Lab | Wired.com
How the iPhone Could Reboot Education | Gadget Lab | Wired.com:
"The traditional classroom, where an instructor assigns a textbook, is heading toward obsolescence. Why listen to a single source talk about a printed textbook that will inevitably be outdated in a few years? That setting seems stale and hopelessly limited when pitted against the internet, which opens a portal to a live stream of information provided by billions of minds. “About five years ago my students stopped taking notes,” Rankin said. “I asked, ‘Why are you not taking notes?’ And they said, ‘Why would we take notes on that?…. I can go to Wikipedia or go to Google, and I can get all the information I need.”
Conversely, the problem with the internet is there’s too much information, and it’s difficult to determine which data is valuable.
These are the specific educational problems Abilene is targeting with the iPhone. Instead of standing in front of a classroom and talking for an hour, Rankin instructs his students to use their iPhones to look up relevant information on the fly. Then, the students can discuss the information they’ve found, and Rankin leads the dialogue by helping assess which sources are accurate and useful.
It’s like a mashup of a 1960s teach-in with smartphone technology from the 2000s."
"The traditional classroom, where an instructor assigns a textbook, is heading toward obsolescence. Why listen to a single source talk about a printed textbook that will inevitably be outdated in a few years? That setting seems stale and hopelessly limited when pitted against the internet, which opens a portal to a live stream of information provided by billions of minds. “About five years ago my students stopped taking notes,” Rankin said. “I asked, ‘Why are you not taking notes?’ And they said, ‘Why would we take notes on that?…. I can go to Wikipedia or go to Google, and I can get all the information I need.”
Conversely, the problem with the internet is there’s too much information, and it’s difficult to determine which data is valuable.
These are the specific educational problems Abilene is targeting with the iPhone. Instead of standing in front of a classroom and talking for an hour, Rankin instructs his students to use their iPhones to look up relevant information on the fly. Then, the students can discuss the information they’ve found, and Rankin leads the dialogue by helping assess which sources are accurate and useful.
It’s like a mashup of a 1960s teach-in with smartphone technology from the 2000s."
Colleges Dream of Paperless, iPad-centric Education | Gadget Lab | Wired.com
Colleges Dream of Paperless, iPad-centric Education | Gadget Lab | Wired.com:
"Bill Rankin, a professor of medieval studies at Abilene Christian, called the iPhone program the “TiVoing of education,” because the iPhone was giving students the information they need, when they want it and wherever they want it. After the success of the pilot program, the iPhone has now become a regular part of Abilene Christian’s course structure. Rankin views the iPad as the potential sequel to Abilene Christian’s iPhone program. The university has ordered 50 iPads to kick off an iPad pilot program, which Rankin believes will focus on the future of publishing.
“This is really about people re-imagining what books look like — re-imagining something that hasn’t really been re-imagined in about 550 years,” Rankin said."
"Bill Rankin, a professor of medieval studies at Abilene Christian, called the iPhone program the “TiVoing of education,” because the iPhone was giving students the information they need, when they want it and wherever they want it. After the success of the pilot program, the iPhone has now become a regular part of Abilene Christian’s course structure. Rankin views the iPad as the potential sequel to Abilene Christian’s iPhone program. The university has ordered 50 iPads to kick off an iPad pilot program, which Rankin believes will focus on the future of publishing.
“This is really about people re-imagining what books look like — re-imagining something that hasn’t really been re-imagined in about 550 years,” Rankin said."
Friday, April 2, 2010
ASEE PRISM - MARCH 2010 - TEACHING
ASEE PRISM - MARCH 2010 - TEACHING:
"Amira Choueiki, a Georgia Tech junior, admits that while she still finds some print textbooks useful, “digital books are definitely better for me because I can read them wherever I am.” But books are portable devices, too, it’s pointed out to her. “Yeah,” she says, “but you can’t carry them all at one time, like a laptop.”"
"Amira Choueiki, a Georgia Tech junior, admits that while she still finds some print textbooks useful, “digital books are definitely better for me because I can read them wherever I am.” But books are portable devices, too, it’s pointed out to her. “Yeah,” she says, “but you can’t carry them all at one time, like a laptop.”"
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