In one study, workers switched tasks about every three minutes and took over 23 minutes on average to return to a task. Frequent task switching costs time and interferes with the concentration needed to think deeply about what you read.

After many years of research on how the human brain learns to read, I came to an unsettlingly simple conclusion: We humans were never born to read. We learn to do so by an extraordinarily ingenuous ability to rearrange our “original parts” — like language and vision, both of which have genetic programs that unfold in fairly orderly fashion within any nurturant environment. Reading isn’t like that.

And that, of course, is the problem at hand. No one really knows the ultimate effects of an immersion in a digital medium on the young developing brain. We do know a great deal, however, about the formation of what we know as the expert reading brain that most of us possess to this point in history

Hypertext offers loads of advantages. If while reading online you come across the name “Antaeus” and forget your Greek mythology, a hyperlink will take you directly to an online source where you are reminded that he was the Libyan giant who fought Hercules. And if you’re prone to distraction, you can follow another link to find out his lineage, and on and on. That is the duality of hyperlinks. A hyperlink brings you to information faster but is also more of a distraction.

floor. I once counted my books among my most prized possesions, now I wish I could somehow convert them all to digital files.

My book shelves are full, and books are stacked on the

Textbooks also require big double pages with margins for notes. Writing and reading are communication between writer and reader, the audience and genre (and thus expectations) are important, and the format and technology can be used for bad or good. One is not better than the other, they are different, and the more we know of the needs of writers and readers the better technology will become.

All of the commentators and responses miss a crucial question here: reading for what purpose?

To further complicate this, most of what I read for pleasure is about art or photography, and the kind of history that comes with cool pictures. If paper suddenly disappeared I'd be lost. Most of what I read for work has to be verified, cross referenced, fact-checked, etc. on a tight deadline. If the Internet suddenly disappeared, I'd be more than lost--I'd be paralyzed.

I also completely disagree that the web has killed editing. It has just changed the process to include the reader. It would be more accurate to say that it is killing the sanctity of Editors. 'Bout time, that.

The missing component in E-Reading seems to be the ability to critically grasp and evaluate the material. Learning is transmitted, but it is more linear than holistic. Now in my 70's, I find that reading from a monitor is a distancing experience. There is an intimacy to reading from a traditional book that is missing in the digital format.

Try to use less than 5 minutes.  Screenr gives you 5 minutes.  That doesn’t mean that you have to take all 5 minutes for the screencast.  An ideal screencast is 2-3 minutes.  If you find that the screencast is long, just break it into chunks.  

Sometimes I’ll change the resolution of my computer and do a full screen capture at a lower resolution.  When I bring it back up, it looks great and I was able to leverage a full screen for the capturing.  Play around with some techniques that work for you.

It’s easy enough to follow the mouse, but make sure to point out what they should be looking at when you change screens or focus on a new area.  This is especially true if you’re doing things they can’t see like using a keyboard shortcut.

If you have to do full screen videos where you show your desktop, try a product like Stardock’s Fences.  It’s free and can quickly hide your icons while you do your recording.  Here’s a tutorial to show how to use Fences to hide your desktop icons.

When you do screencasts from this account you don’t need to worry about hiding personal information like folders or toolbars in your browser.  I’d also make your desktop image a solid color rather than a distracting background image.  You can also try a virtual desktop.  Set one up just for screencast videos.  Here’s a demo of how to use a virtual desktop.   

One trick is to start with the final output.  Tell the viewer that this is what you’ll create and then jump to the tutorial and a different screen.

Screenr does come with some default settings that work well in your rapid elearning courses.  For example, 720×540 is the aspect ratio for a PowerPoint slide.  980×560 is perfect for videos in the no sidebar view mode in Articulate Presenter. 

If you find that you have to click on buttons and open other screens during your demos, then you want to use Alt+D to pause your recording between mouse clicks. 

Is Social Media Comparable To The Industrial Revolution?

Is Social Media Comparable To The Industrial Revolution?

Biggest shift since industrial revolution. The author makes a case for this and does so with enough detail that giving the notion some consideration seems feasible. Is this claim true? That would really have to depend on what you consider to be a revolution. In many industries, social media won’t leave much of a mark. For those folks, the phenomenon will be more of an idle curiosity. Think a bit more though and, in the U.S. at least social network functionality is everywhere.

Biggest shift since industrial revolution. The author makes a case for this and does so with enough detail that giving the notion some consideration seems feasible. Is this claim true? That would really have to depend on what you consider to be a revolution. In many industries, social media won’t leave much of a mark. For those folks, the phenomenon will be more of an idle curiosity. Think a bit more though and, in the U.S. at least social network functionality is everywhere.

Biggest shift since industrial revolution. The author makes a case for this and does so with enough detail that giving the notion some consideration seems feasible. Is this claim true? That would really have to depend on what you consider to be a revolution. In many industries, social media won’t leave much of a mark. For those folks, the phenomenon will be more of an idle curiosity. Think a bit more though and, in the U.S. at least social network functionality is everywhere.

Biggest shift since industrial revolution. The author makes a case for this and does so with enough detail that giving the notion some consideration seems feasible. Is this claim true? That would really have to depend on what you consider to be a revolution. In many industries, social media won’t leave much of a mark. For those folks, the phenomenon will be more of an idle curiosity. Think a bit more though and, in the U.S. at least social network functionality is ever

Biggest shift since industrial revolution. The author makes a case for this and does so with enough detail that giving the notion some consideration seems feasible. Is this claim true? That would really have to depend on what you consider to be a revolution. In many industries, social media won’t leave much of a mark. For those folks, the phenomenon will be more of an idle curiosity. Think a bit more though and, in the U.S. at least social network functionality is everywhere.

Biggest shift since industrial revolution. The author makes a case for this and does so with enough detail that giving the notion some consideration seems feasible. Is this claim true? That would really have to depend on what you consider to be a revolution. In many industries, social media won’t leave much of a mark. For those folks, the phenomenon will be more of an idle curiosity. Think a bit more though and, in the U.S. at least social network functionality is everywhere.

Biggest shift since industrial revolution. The author makes a case for this and does so with enough detail that giving the notion some consideration seems feasible. Is this claim true? That would really have to depend on what you consider to be a revolution. In many industries, social media won’t leave much of a mark. For those folks, the phenomenon will be more of an idle curiosity. Think a bit more though and, in the U.S. at least social network functionality is everywhere.

Biggest shift since industrial revolution. The author makes a case for this and does so with enough detail that giving the notion some consideration seems feasible. Is this claim true? That would really have to depend on what you consider to be a revolution. In many industries, social media won’t leave much of a mark. For those folks, the phenomenon will be more of an idle curiosity. Think a bit more though and, in the U.S. at least social network functionality is everywhere.