Sidler, Michelle. "Web Research and Genres in Online Databases: When the Glossy Page Disappears." Computers in the Composition Classroom. Eds. Michelle Sidler, Richard Morris, and Elixabeth Overman Smith. Boston: Bedford / St. Martin’s, 2008: 350-365. Print.
In this article, Sidler discusses the spatial orientation and cognitive mapping of the web in order to help students do research. She uses the metaphor of the neighborhoods in a city to explain the navigation and types of sources out there. She argues that the physical space of research has changed. Many of the cues and clues of print text don't exist database texts, and students will also come across flashy websites with no content. Therefore, we need to teach them now to navigate this new physical area of research.
I liked that Sidler brought up issues of physicality and specifically focused on the magazine. I've had students think that just become an article is in a database that it comes from a peer reviewed journal. They associate straight text without "flair" with academia.
I'm not trying to sell these, but it made me wonder how it has/will change the physicality of research because it is certainly fluid (as Sidler says).
I think you are dead-on in terms of thinking about what/how/why eReaders will impact research processes. I've been thinking about them in terms of citation; however, in my own research reading I find I still like the physicality of reading pages and taking notes. I wonder if that is connected to Brain Rules? The physicality is another sense input that helps the learning from research reading "stick" (versus fiction/fluff reading that I don't care as much about)? What do you think?
ReplyDeleteWhat's interesting is that I also prefer the physicality of the page when doing research and I find that I process what I'm reading with more ease. Something I have been thinking about is whether or not a transition (for example, having pages that turn, etc.) in the eReader might make my digital research easier and more fruitful. I do think there is some connection to Brain Rules, but I was thinking more along the lines of attention. When I go to read a PDF, I have all 36 pages of an article in one long seemingly continuous page. The book breaks it up. There might not be anything to this, but it was something that I was thinking as I started reading a 36 page article the other day. :)
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