Submitted by Cathy Davidson on Dec 01, 2009, 07:45 AM

I've spent the morning rereading some of Howard Rheingold's ideas on 21st century literacies, the skills required to navigate the digital age.  Attention, participation, collaboration, network awareness, and critical consumption of information are the key skills he discusses.  Where do we teach those skills?  How do we learn them?  

 

Submitted by Cathy Davidson on Aug 25, 2009, 10:53 AM

Are multitaskers really worse at multitasking than those who don't multitask? If you read the popular media accounts of the new study out in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Eyal Ophir, Clifford Nass, and Anthony D. Wagner, "Cognitive Controi in Media Multitaskers," you would believe this to be the case. Now, go back and read the scientific study itself. The results are far less clear than the headlines. Multitasking may make you worse at taking attentional tests. But, hey! I'm a blogger. I know you multitasking, media-stacking, netsurfing, always-on readers lose attention quickly. Does that make you worse at multitasking--or better?

Submitted by Cathy Davidson on Jul 19, 2009, 04:24 PM

After spending four days in a self-created "writer's retreat," off the grid, I am now blogging from high above Bryce Canyon, on GoGo courtesy of American Airlines. Too bad the seats aren't wide enough to accommodate the in-air typist's elbow room!

Submitted by Cathy Davidson on Jul 12, 2009, 10:48 AM

Linda Stone is one of the most interesting and serious researchers on the human side of HCI (human-computer interaction). If I can sum up her work, it is in being concerned with the way (to quote Mike Wesch) the computer uses us. That is, as we spend so much of our time online, what cognitive and physiological changes might be happening to us? Those are key questions.

Submitted by Cathy Davidson on Jun 05, 2007, 07:32 AM
Inadvertently, someone just attributed some text co-written by David (my HASTAC partner-in-crime) and myself as just by me. Even had my little smily proud picture up there. It felt so uncomfortable. Collaboration is a delicate balance of generosity and credit.