Tips On Reading During This Class

One of the things I learned when I took my first online class was that my style of reading, the traditional paradigm I had always faithfully applied when studying for a class, had to change in the online environment. Traditional models of instruction are structured around

1. assigned reading;
2. thorough reading of assigned texts;
3. linear reading-starting at the front of the book and moving toward the back.

While these three aspects of reading will not be totally erased in the online environment, this class will help you to expand your repertoire of reading strategies. This may seem a little uncomfortable at first, but once you get the hang of it, you won't want to go back.

Check Your Guilt Bag At The Door

We have all heard about "information overload." Well, as you are probably aware, the WWW is the ultimate information "mother load." On any given topic, a Web search will provide you with far more information than you will ever be able to read or even skim. For that reason, you need to choose carefully what you read and how you read it.

1. Assigned Readings
   There will be some required reading for this workshop, but much of what you read, you will select to read. For each module, you will encounter links within links. Some you will skip and others you will read carefully-but it will be your choice.
   
   
2. Reading Style
   You will want to read thoroughly the basic module materials and Administrivia messages. But you will find many links to Web sources that you will skip, skim or read a portion of. (These readings will always be available to you to browse after you finish the course.)
   
   
3. Linear Reading
   The WWW by definition is non-linear. As a web, it links sources back and forth, allows you to move freely from one location to another and combines online resources in unique and interesting ways. While a firm underlying structure for this workshop progressively moves you through the modules, you will make many choices regarding the reading you do and the projects you complete.

Ted Nellen, high school English teacher, describes how his students handle hypertext "they approach the reading in a way that allows them to explore tangents and layer their understanding with personal meaning and cultural context."

"We, in life, are hypertext people," he says. "In conversation, an idea or a word pops up, and we check out the tangent, then we go back to where we were. It's reminiscent of Robert Frost's poem, 'The Road Not Taken.' With hypertext, we can hit a button and take a different road, return from where we started, and then take another path."
Excerpt from The Electronic School, Hyper-Lit: Welcome to English for the 21st Century