Online Reading - Reflection

Prior to reading the set of articles for class this week concerning online reading, I would have responded to the question ‘Is Google making us stupid?’ with an ‘absolutely not’ answer. I previously felt like Google, and the Internet in general, opens up a world of information to me that I probably would not have had access to several years ago. This information is much easier and faster to acquire than it would have been just a few years ago. In my mind, that does not equal stupid.

However, after reading the article, I began to think that I also would not say that having access to this information specifically makes me smarter either. For instance, I have done the same search multiple times to get the same answer to a question that I simply forgot since the last time I searched. The information I acquired the first time did not become a part of my memory therefore making me smarter. I had to reacquire that knowledge multiple times.

I can understand Nicholas Carr’s concern over society only wanting snippets of information instead of depth and the Internet making those snippets readily accessible. However, I also feel like if a person would like to know more information on a topic, the Internet, specifically Google, also provides the means to research this topic further. I personally feel like society’s rush and willingness or acceptance to over schedule themselves with too many requirements and little extra free time may be more to blame for making us stupid and ruining our attention span than Google or the Internet. These are simply tools society demands they need in order to accomplish their massive to-do lists. 

            Online reading brings many opportunities to teaching. As a teacher, I now have a large base of text to choose from instantly.  As mentioned in the article, Reading Online, the Internet has a wide variety of expository text which is important for students to become accustomed to, learn to read, and learn to evaluate. Online text can also be used to teach strategies of reading in a different way. Reading online still requires the same comprehension strategies and students can practice those strategies with online text. My students have grown up in front of a screen and I can use student interest in online text as an advantage to engage students who wouldn’t typically read a book or other forms of printed text.
            Nevertheless, online reading also brings challenges to teaching. Younger students, like my second graders, must be taught how to navigate the Internet before we can focus attention on online reading. This can be a difficult skill, especially for my students without Internet access at home, since the Internet has such vast amounts of texts. Many of my students are still learning how to turn on a computer, how to use icons, and what ‘that big long white box at the top’ means. Explicit instruction on Internet navigation must be combined with time to freely explore site links and other features to effectively guide my students. I also need to be careful in finding text that is at a low enough reading level that my beginning readers can successfully read and understand the material. While this is not impossible, it can be tricky!
            I think this information reminds me of the importance of using a large variety of text in my teaching, including online text. Although I will need to explicitly model Internet navigation and online reading with my students before giving them a reading task to complete on their own, I truly feel many of them would enjoy reading online and find it fun and interesting. My students need to be familiar with reading from a screen and using the same comprehension skills then as they are with reading printed text. This becomes even more important as more grade levels take the ISTEP tests online.