Comments on: Digitizing Knowledge http://www.educatednation.com/2009/03/09/digitizing-knowledge/ A higher education blog about news, humor, advice, and opinion on education, college degrees, university life and careers. Fri, 09 Dec 2011 00:03:32 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: admin http://www.educatednation.com/2009/03/09/digitizing-knowledge/comment-page-1/#comment-125092 admin Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:24:24 +0000 http://www.educatednation.com/2009/03/09/digitizing-knowledge/#comment-125092 Thanks, Lynn! You're right, that video is applicable to this. I have much sympathy for the teachers and the professors out there; technology is moving forward so fast and it must be overwhelming for anyone (I include myself, as I was in the fourth grade the first time I touched a computer) not born into an already computerized world. At the same time, I do think it's important for kids to have access to the technology and to learn to think as global citizens. And (and and and), I still maintain that understanding how to access non-digital information is still not obsolete. I know they don't have card catalogues at most libraries these days, but one should still understand how a repository of printed and bound material is organized, and how to go about finding the book you need in said repository. --Alexa Thanks, Lynn! You’re right, that video is applicable to this. I have much sympathy for the teachers and the professors out there; technology is moving forward so fast and it must be overwhelming for anyone (I include myself, as I was in the fourth grade the first time I touched a computer) not born into an already computerized world. At the same time, I do think it’s important for kids to have access to the technology and to learn to think as global citizens. And (and and and), I still maintain that understanding how to access non-digital information is still not obsolete. I know they don’t have card catalogues at most libraries these days, but one should still understand how a repository of printed and bound material is organized, and how to go about finding the book you need in said repository.

–Alexa

]]> By: Lynn M http://www.educatednation.com/2009/03/09/digitizing-knowledge/comment-page-1/#comment-125091 Lynn M Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:42:52 +0000 http://www.educatednation.com/2009/03/09/digitizing-knowledge/#comment-125091 Alexa, I think the video on your own blog post from back in February speaks to this issue exactly! http://www.educatednation.com/2009/02/13/21st-century-learners/ It is wrong, though probably unavoidable, that older teachers cling to older methods of teaching and shy away from utilizing new technology. You can't deny the direction things are going and it doesn't make sense to limit exposure to these technologies when today's children will have to use them in order to be competitive in the real world. Alexa, I think the video on your own blog post from back in February speaks to this issue exactly!
http://www.educatednation.com/2009/02/13/21st-century-learners/
It is wrong, though probably unavoidable, that older teachers cling to older methods of teaching and shy away from utilizing new technology. You can’t deny the direction things are going and it doesn’t make sense to limit exposure to these technologies when today’s children will have to use them in order to be competitive in the real world.

]]> By: admin http://www.educatednation.com/2009/03/09/digitizing-knowledge/comment-page-1/#comment-125087 admin Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:07:41 +0000 http://www.educatednation.com/2009/03/09/digitizing-knowledge/#comment-125087 @SCP--Oddly, I find your numbers with regard to the maturity of paper vs. digital knowledge to be quite comforting. If there is maturing to be done on the part of digitized knowledge and information, then I will have time to get used to the idea. And thanks, also, for the podcast tip. Take care, Alexa @SCP–Oddly, I find your numbers with regard to the maturity of paper vs. digital knowledge to be quite comforting. If there is maturing to be done on the part of digitized knowledge and information, then I will have time to get used to the idea. And thanks, also, for the podcast tip. Take care,

Alexa

]]> By: Simple Country Physicist http://www.educatednation.com/2009/03/09/digitizing-knowledge/comment-page-1/#comment-125086 Simple Country Physicist Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:13:23 +0000 http://www.educatednation.com/2009/03/09/digitizing-knowledge/#comment-125086 Confluence of timing. But this is not just a plug for my blog. I hear all sorts of prophesies of the demise of the book. The ones about electronic forms replacing are the least credible. Humans change biologically over periods of order hundreds of years but socially much faster. That is at root the argument for eBooks. I would offer however that the printed book is something of order 6 KY old and as such represents a considerable chain of mutation and change all driven to make it optimal (in some sense) for humans. How old is electronics? I believe the education apparat today divides learners into four (approximately independent) categories of which one is those who learn visually, and there is some further data to indicate that those who make change in society are disproportionately visual learners. There is also data that indicates that for visual learners, maybe for all or most, the higher resolution the image, the better it is stored in memory and the more it contributes to knowledge. The resolution of books is approximately 1200 dpi, and increasing as we go to older books (differences in printing technology). Current eBook technology does good to support 166 dpi (approximately) and text only, no pictures, no figures, no drawings or diagrams, no equations. There are lots of other factors and measures. There is a quite good Future Tense podcast on this, http://www.publicradio.org/columns/futuretense/2009/02/why-ebooks-have.html, that is the best list of problems: technological financial; and organizational; that I have heard/seen although it does miss almost all of the biological/physiological/physical. I am not ready to abandon the book for numerous reasons including the ones you cite. Nor do I damn the electronic revolution. But I do advance that it is something of order a century old and has a lot of growing up to rival the ergonomic maturity of the book. Confluence of timing. But this is not just a plug for my blog.

I hear all sorts of prophesies of the demise of the book. The ones about electronic forms replacing are the least credible. Humans change biologically over periods of order hundreds of years but socially much faster. That is at root the argument for eBooks.

I would offer however that the printed book is something of order 6 KY old and as such represents a considerable chain of mutation and change all driven to make it optimal (in some sense) for humans. How old is electronics?

I believe the education apparat today divides learners into four (approximately independent) categories of which one is those who learn visually, and there is some further data to indicate that those who make change in society are disproportionately visual learners. There is also data that indicates that for visual learners, maybe for all or most, the higher resolution the image, the better it is stored in memory and the more it contributes to knowledge.

The resolution of books is approximately 1200 dpi, and increasing as we go to older books (differences in printing technology). Current eBook technology does good to support 166 dpi (approximately) and text only, no pictures, no figures, no drawings or diagrams, no equations.

There are lots of other factors and measures. There is a quite good Future Tense podcast on this, http://www.publicradio.org/columns/futuretense/2009/02/why-ebooks-have.html, that is the best list of problems: technological financial; and organizational; that I have heard/seen although it does miss almost all of the biological/physiological/physical.

I am not ready to abandon the book for numerous reasons including the ones you cite. Nor do I damn the electronic revolution. But I do advance that it is something of order a century old and has a lot of growing up to rival the ergonomic maturity of the book.

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