Mastodawn

One of my greatest pleasures in life is spending some time on Sunday afternoon reading widely, and deeply. A protean sampling - of Mastodon, of ArXiV, of many Signal groups and Discord channels.

The best thing I've read this week is via Carlo Iacono, University Librarian at #CharlesSturtUni - an institute renowned for training Australia's Librarians.

In this piece for Aeon Media Group Ltd, he takes aim at declining attention spans for reading, and argues instead for broader literacies of multi-modal synthesis, fit for a 21st century where data is presented to us in algorithmically-controlled feeds rather than the bound and bordered books of yesteryear.

Moreover, he makes the case for built environments that support those literacies - libraries that recognise and nurture diverse neurologies and multiple ways of "reading".

A decline in literacy is not a moral panic. It is a design problem.

Bravo, Carlo.

https://aeon.co/essays/what-we-think-is-a-decline-in-literacy-is-a-design-problem

#libraries #GLAM #HigherEd

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txerren 🇵🇸Mar 15

@KathyReid this was an excellent read, thank you both! @bixerdo

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bixerdo Mar 15

@txerren We shouldn't over-dramatize and act as if literature students should take lessons on reading novels, should we?
https://archive.is/20251004123939/https://www.thetimes.com/uk/education/article/universities-teaching-literature-students-how-to-cope-with-long-novels-8bwgscp7k

@KathyReid

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txerren 🇵🇸Mar 15

@bixerdo @KathyReid i personally believe that the current situation is not only dramatic but tragic, yes. The attention deficit is real.

My students routinely refuse or declare the inability to read written text or engage in careful examination of "long" or "difficult" media texts. The attention span has clearly shifted.

That being said, i liked the article's call for a multimedia and digital humanistic ambition and it was well formulated. I also believe in the fight ;)

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bixerdo

@txerren Shall the algorithm bless you! :) . By the way, thank you, @KathyReid for your time spent through RSS readers and bringing us information pieces like this.