Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Do you have the cognitive patience to read this?

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

I just skimmed this but maybe you'll have the time to give it a closer look. This article is an interview with Maryanne Wolf, the author of Reader Come Home, which suggests that we are no longer able to read deeply because of digital text. She uses the right words, mostly, but it's hard to decide whether she misunderstands them or whether she's stretching to make the ideas comprehensible to readers. The idea of 'circuits', for example, is just misguided. A phrase like 'have a role in that function' just makes me shake my head. But yes, the networks are plastic, and yes, when new skills are learned, they are the result of new connections in existing networks. The idea of 'slower processes' maybe makes sense or maybe is an attempt to graft cognitive load theory onto this assemblage. Or maybe a blog post of an interview about a book is just the wrong way to address this whole subject.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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Last Updated: Apr 26, 2024 1:36 p.m.

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