Skimming and PlungingSeptember 20th, 2009 View Comments |
Tweet |
“Skim-and-plunge” changed my life (for the better).
Skimming Through, Berlin, Germany
Steven Berlin Johnson, Skim and Plunge, referencing Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”:
I think many of us who feel, unlike Carr, that Google has actually made us smarter operate in what I call “skim-and-plunge” mode. We skim through pages of search results or hyperlinked articles, getting a sense of the waters, and then, when we find something interesting, we dive in and read in a slower, more engaged mode. Yes, it is probably a bit harder to become immersed in deep contemplation today than it was sitting in library in 1985, But that kind of rapid-fire skimming and discovery would have been, for all intents and purposes, impossible before the web came along.
September 21st, 2009 at 2:29
Hi!
Congratulations! Your readers have submitted and voted for your blog at The Daily Reviewer. We compiled an exclusive list of the Top 100 Photography Blogs, and we are glad to let you know that your blog was included! You can see it at http://thedailyreviewer.com/top/photography
You can claim your Top 100 Blogs Award here : http://thedailyreviewer.com/pages/badges/photog...
P.S. This is a one-time notice to let you know your blog was included in one of our Top 100 Blog categories. You might get notices if you are listed in two or more categories.
P.P.S. If for some reason you want your blog removed from our list, just send an email to angelina@thedailyreviewer.com with the subject line “REMOVE” and the link to your blog in the body of the message.
Cheers!
Angelina Mizaki
Selection Committee President
The Daily Reviewer
http://thedailyreviewer.com
September 21st, 2009 at 4:56
Amen. This is why the education system is so screwed right now. They still teach based on a culture of memory – there just wasn't the access to the volumes of information there is today. Tomorrow's education system needs to focus more on skills (searching, filtering, processing & life skills) more than content.
All the information is right at our fingertips – the real challenge is making sense of it.
September 21st, 2009 at 5:05
Agreed: context, not content :)
(you'll get that joke more than most…)
And I'll pass on two recent related thoughts:
- A comment to Grant McCracken on “Is the university next? (disintermediating higher education)”: http://bit.ly/3HnA4
- The difficulty in translating and valuing knowledge. http://www.taylordavidson.com/writing/2009/08/2...
September 21st, 2009 at 17:02
Actually, I'm not sure that I agree with Ryan that education has completely missed the boat here (admittedly my sample size is limited to the number of small Schlegels running about). I've seen quite a bit of reduced emphasis on memorization, almost to the point of worry. While skimming seems to have picked up steam, the deep dive, the all in plunge is what seems to be missing. While some kids naturally want to explore and become expert, I'm afraid it is not the majority.
September 21st, 2009 at 17:26
I painted with a pretty broad brush, I'm sure there are pockets of progress being made in the education system but I don't think they've achieved the next evolution that needs to happen yet.
“While skimming seems to have picked up steam, the deep dive, the all in plunge is what seems to be missing. While some kids naturally want to explore and become expert, I'm afraid it is not the majority.”
I'm not so sure the deep dive should be mandated in education – if you give students the tools to be able to find and process the information they need they should also be able to to self select the deep dives that interest them. The kids who don't have the interest will never truly be experts and what they do learn would gradually become obsolete if they don't subscribe to the notion of life-long learning.
September 21st, 2009 at 17:51
Thanks for clarifying a bit Ryan; I don't have kids, and my own nomadic education wasn't really the normal experience (private, public, religious, self-taught, home-schooled, all of the above at different times), so I'm not really the best “sample of one”.
But to me, focusing on memorization is a misallocation of resources, a failure to adapt to the environments we face today (or any environment, for that matter). But again, that's a very broad brush, and the word of the day is “balance”.
I honestly don't think the deep dive is gone. If it's valuable, and if society rewards it, then people will do it.
September 22nd, 2009 at 5:03
I agree completely that integrating the life-long learning desire should be a primary goal of education as Ryan says, however, I have no idea how that gets instilled institutionally. I've seen kid with it and without it over the years but haven't cracked the code. One of the dangers of not mandating occasional 'deep dives' into subjects that may or may not be of initial interest to a youth is that they never learn the joy of the plunge. One thing I have seen often is reluctance turn into enthusiasm as a child goes from newbie to competent in a skill. Without a bit of pushing they don't get far enough along to make the transition.
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:03
I agree completely that integrating the life-long learning desire should be a primary goal of education as Ryan says, however, I have no idea how that gets instilled institutionally. I’ve seen kid with it and without it over the years but haven’t cracked the code. One of the dangers of not mandating occasional ‘deep dives’ into subjects that may or may not be of initial interest to a youth is that they never learn the joy of the plunge. One thing I have seen often is reluctance turn into enthusiasm as a child goes from newbie to competent in a skill. Without a bit of pushing they don’t get far enough along to make the transition.