Sunday 4 July 2010

How will new technologies change how we access and enjoy text?



I really enjoyed this article by Marcus de Sautoy in yesterday's Guardian. The article is well worth a read - not just because it is interesting and thought provoking, but also because the writer conveys his excitement and interest in exploring new technologies:

"With the advent of new technology – devices such as the iPhone or iPad, the Sony Reader or the Kindle – authors and publishers are being offered a huge challenge: to reconceive their content to provide a visual and interactive experience that the printed book cannot provide. Art books with huge numbers of accessible images; architecture books with 3D plans of buildings; travel books with videos and interactive maps; children's books with games and characters who introduce themselves; and so on and on. The potential is vast. This is not a case of simply trying to cram written content on to an e-reader; this is about taking that content and completely reinventing it."

The article also ties in with Clay Shirkey's idea of cognitive surplus (see the film Mr. Nicholls posted), and the ways in which a whole generation of devices and learners could support the active creation of meaning and the sharing of content rather than passive consumption. Well worth taking a look.

Soren

1 comment:

Jon said...

I've had a play with the Alice in Wonderland iPad app and it's such a lot of fun. Magazines like Wired are also appearing with interactive content and I had a tweet from a primary school colleague last night who told me that his school had just invested in a class set of ipads. I sincerely hope that our eLearning strategy going forward will embrace the use of more mobile, handheld devices containing all this interactive content, not least those devices already owned by young people.