13.0238 physiology of reading

Humanist Discussion Group (humanist@kcl.ac.uk)
Tue, 19 Oct 1999 06:11:51 +0100 (BST)

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 13, No. 238.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
<http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
<http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>

Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1999 06:05:01 +0100
From: Mark Horney <mhorney@OREGON.UOREGON.EDU>
Subject: Re: 13.0232 physiology of reading

In our work in creating and investigating the utility of electronic
textbooks we have come to believe that the trade off between the better
"readablilty" of printed text and the flexibility of digital text comes
when readers shift from just reading the text, to studying it. Studying
often requires the juxtaposition of multiple texts and intra-textual
references, and search tasks. In assisting these operations, the computer
comes to the fore.
--Mark Horney

> Date: Thu, 14 Oct 1999 21:18:36 +0100
> From: Hope Greenberg <hope.greenberg@uvm.edu>
> >
>Two topics that usually rear their heads during any conversation about
>reading electronic texts are the difficulties of reading from a screen
>and the general "un-cuddle-bleness" of the electronic grey box. While in
>such discussions I usually find myself spouting the by-now standard
>phrases like "yes, but on the screen you can adjust font and font size"
>or "reading is a learned behavior. Ask your children or anyone who reads
>more online than off what their experience is." Meanwhile, it has been
>interesting to follow two developments in this area. The first is that
>of hand-held electronic books. Some companies in this arena,
>particularly those that are marketing to the popular reading sector, are
>experiencing difficulties--the time does not seem quite right. Others,
>particularly those that are marketing to specialized areas like medicine
>seem to be faring better.
>
>Another technology that seems to be doing well, particularly in light of
>this week's news of an alliance between Lucent and E Ink, is that of
>electronic paper. Similar work is being done by Xerox and 3M. Below are
>excerpts from a 12 Oct 1999 article in Wired that you may find of
>interest. I've excerpted a few bits:
>
>

Mark Horney, Ph.D.
Center forAdvanced Technology in Education
University of Oregon
1244 Walnut St
Eugene, Oregon 97403
(o) 541/346-2679 FAX: 541/346-2565
mhorney@oregon.uoregon.edu
Web de Anza: http://anza.uoregon.edu
Project INTERSECT: http://intersect.uoregon.edu

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