October 9th, 2008 by Robin Green
These days, American children spend an average of 40 hours a week consuming media outside of school. Most of those hours are spent listening to the radio, watching television or using a computer, constantly absorbing learning content–some of which they may not be very conscious. The majority of children spend this time without adult supervision–most children over the age of 8 have a TV in their rooms. Many advertisers see children as a highly profitable market, as buyers themselves, influencers of their parents’ purchases, and future adult consumers.
As children gain learning content and are entertained by the media, they are also receiving messages from advertising–both subtle and obvious–about who they are, what life is like, and who they should be and what life should look like. This learning content helps to shape children’s lives in many ways–including some unhealthy ones.
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October 9th, 2008 by Robin Green
Many people create websites with the goal of earning money. One of the most obvious ways to fund your website is through advertising. But when implementing advertisements to your website, make sure the ads don’t compromise the credibility of your site and its learning content. For example, say your website offers parenting advice for young and expecting mothers. Ads for alcohol wouldn’t be appropriate here. Or maybe your website provides information on invest banking. Banners encouraging your readers to ‘Rate the Hottest Star’ are going to make it hard to take you and your learning content seriously.
So choose wisely, and when possible, implement ads that complement the learning content in your website. Flashy, dizzying banners, pop-ups, and ads that take up too much space are also best avoided.
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October 8th, 2008 by Robin Green
Is speed-reading an actual skill worth learning? Aren’t serious students supposed to pick through learning content with a fine-toothed comb?
Speed-reading is a skill that if taught and practiced well, would benefit all students. Most students simply lack the time (not to mention desire) to digest the volume of learning content material assigned to them. Moreover, the availability of websites like Sparknotes.com and others that summarize books makes picking up the authentic work at home more and more unlikely. A student who doesn’t love reading might reason, why even touch my copy of Discourse on Inequality when I can have it summarized and even contextualized for me?
Skimming should be taught in schools to empower students to get through learning content on their own. Their opinions, after all, are at least as valuable as the random strangers’ textual interpretations available online.
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October 8th, 2008 by Robin Green
How does one recognize filler in reading material and separate it from the important learning content? Filler takes many forms–especially in historical learning content. There are author’s asides, which are little extras that the author wanted to add to the main idea in the form of a side note, often the result of extensive research. Then there’s the background story that serves to illuminate some idea. If you already understand that idea, this becomes skimming material.
Another kind of filler is the insertion of extra details and unnecessary evidence to support an idea in the learning content. Sometimes authors get carried away, and you should feel free to skim the excessive information. And finally, there are exceptions. Historians want to make sure they are giving accurate information, so they often mention exceptions to whatever point they’re making.
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October 8th, 2008 by Robin Green
Most students, from high school to college, know the difference between reading and skimming learning content material. Skimming, or speed-reading, is when your eyes sail along the lines dragging a fishnet for the important information in the learning content. When you come across something your brain registers as worth noting, your eyes slow down momentarily. At this point, the act ceases to be skimming and becomes actual reading. Your brain gathers the fish from the net and stores it in a bucket for future use.
Particularly in college, students are given exorbitant amounts of reading material and are expected to swallow big bites of learning content. Using speed-reading techniques, readers can tackle larger reading assignments and process the essential information while skimming over filler.
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October 7th, 2008 by Robin Green
Will blogging applications replace the traditional newspaper column? Some argue that blogs are the democratization of world news learning content. More newspapers are hiring bloggers in an effort to diversify the perspectives expressed in their columns. But some people claim that blogs are too casual, written by ad hoc reporters who don’t need to adhere to the same ethical standards that paid reporters do. Blogs may contain misinformation and misguiding learning content.
On the other hand, the sheer variety of opinions and insight blogs provide makes them an interesting source of learning content that many people have come to trust. And given the fact that “objective” news sources are elusive, many people would just as soon hear from a collection of openly opinionated voices, rather than one biased–albeit professional–voice.
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October 6th, 2008 by Robin Green
The difficulty in finding objective news coverage, and the suspicion that truly bias-free learning content about current events doesn’t exist, has an alienating effect on the public. One trend, however, that reaches out to readers and invites feedback and discussion is the launching of blogs on online newspapers. When done right, blogs are written with the same journalistic integrity as traditional new items, rather than engaging in casual chatter of little substance. Blogs interactively provide and create current event learning content.
Blogs serve as a space for community conversation, like a town hall large enough to accommodate an unlimited number of people. Despite some criticisms blogging faces, including a tendency to hire rookie journalists for blog-writing, they are an emerging trend in delivering news learning content to the world.
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October 6th, 2008 by Robin Green
Have you ever seen a remarkably unflattering picture of a politician or other figure in a paper? Did you wonder whether or not this was the best one shot for the news item? Newspapers and TV programs tend to choose photos and captions for news items to suit their own views about a topic. Visual information heavily affects readers’ and viewers’ ability to take in objective learning content about current events.
Another way in which the media inserts its own bias into its learning content is through statistics and crowd counts, which are both very slippery kinds of numbers. One way in which you can help filter quality learning content in papers is to consider where the information comes from. Is it supplied by an official, an eyewitness, or a reporter? Each might have a certain bias of his or her own.
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