Share the Wealth, with Christine Padberg: Reading in the Digital Age

In spring 2013, Christine Padberg was granted a sabbatical to explore the intersection of reading and technology, and how colleges can and should support students as they read and study in digital environments.  When asked by her colleagues, friends, and family about her research, she’s found that people have an immediate connection to this topic.  They’ve been eager to discuss their own experiences and challenges with reading online, and invariably these discussions have led to further interesting questions about the present state and future of reading. Here are some angles on this topic we might consider for this Share the Wealth:

• Maryanne Wolf (psychologist & author of Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain) says, “We are not only what we read; we are how we read.”  Do you agree?
• What’s the difference between reading paper-based text and reading digital text?
• Do you read on/with an electronic device (e.g. Kindle, iPad)?  Why or why not?
• Does the mediating of role of technology in reading bode well or bode ill for the future of reading?
• When you’re reading something online and want to annotate or take notes, what’s your method?
• Is reading a social act or a solitary act?

Two more items for our consideration:

• If you desire, please see Christine’s ScoopIt page for articles pertinent to this topic:
• During her sabbatical she discovered this thought-provoking piece of web art that comments on digital text and never fails to both delight and frustrate her… Enjoy!  (Requires Flash.)