Blogging changes: simplicity desired

I will stop updating this blog and continue writing on life long learning at Steve's 2 Cents. The full reasoning and explanation behind this change can be found here. I thank you for your readership and conversations. I hope you'll continue the conversation at Steve's 2 Cents. Subscribe to Steve's 2 Cents here for RSS or here Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz Life long learning doesn't end. It just evolves and adapts to the world!

reading declines, amazon introduces new device

On the day when the Boston Globe article digests a report on how reading is declining amongst the nation's youth, Amazon introduces a new reading device. The report incorporates national studies that have been carried out since the NEA's 2004 report, "Reading at Risk," found that literary reading - fiction, poetry, and plays - had crashed over 20 years among adult Americans. The new report, titled "To Read or Not to Read: A Question of National Consequence," focuses on reading in general, and it reaches down to younger age levels. While not all studies are exactly comparable in some details (such as time spans), overall they trend in the same direction. To obtain the full report or executive summary, go here. I won't rehash the basic features of Kindle, but I will try to compare it with the Sony Reader--now in its second generation and Kindle's primary competition. I will also talk about what I see as the strong and weak points of the Kindle design. Disclaimer: This is all based on what I've seen and read. I haven't seen a Kindle in person. Yet. Read CNet's review by Peter Glaskowsky comparing the Kindle and the Sony Reader here. Will Amazon's device help increase readership? How can we help increase reading? Updated: Forbes has a good article here Seth Godin has his reasons

Free Rice

Via a Reuters item on InformationWeek's IWDaily, I heard of this cool fund raiser. Free Rice You build your vocabulary and generate grains of rice to be donated to some one. I must caution you that I found this to be an addicting game for wordsmiths!

Self-conscious

When we are self-conscious, we cannot be wholly aware; we must throw ourselves out first. This throwing ourselves away is the first act of creativity. So, when we wholly concentrate, like a child in play, or an artist at work, then we share in the act of creating. We not only escape time, we also escape our self-conscious selves. From Madeleine L'Engle in A Circle of Quiet.

Bronwen Clune on Heutagogy

Heutagogy is the process of allowing learners to decide what they want to learn, how they want to learn it and when they want to learn it. It enables the students to become responsible for their own learning. The project aims to use Web 2.0 technologies to engage and motivate the students and then mentor and support them while they complete a project based outcome. The word for today is heutagogy. Read more about this from Bronwen Clune!