Regular Fractus contributor and passionate rhizomatic educator, Keith Hamon, recently wrote a fascinating piece on his personal blog titled, Print, Stupidity, and #rhizo14. Exploring the reading and research habits of one extremely successful student, Keith draws some very interesting parallels with the how modern students use print in a very similar fashion to digital:
As I listened to the student talk about how he approaches information, I realized that he basically treats books as Web documents: he links to what he needs, when he needs it. He says that he never reads a book straight through from start to finish, but locates the book on Google Books, finds the relevant bit, and reads just that. Needless to say, he doesn’t buy books, either.
Not only is this a more cost effective method for students to access the vast library of online information, it is also an infinitely customisable one:
I think it is quite possible—in fact, I think it is inevitable—to view even printed texts rhizomatically, as a function of complex, multi-scale networks. The Rhodes Scholar in Tapscott’s lecture is viewing print that way: he enters the text from the arc of his own trajectory, his own interests and needs, not necessarily from the beginning, and he takes from the text what he needs, and he at last reconnects and recombines what he’s taken with any variety of other sources and types of information.
How have you seen students of today interact with and use print differently to digital students? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Read the full article here.
Feature image Book icon designed by Madebyelvis for The Noun Project.