I have never been one of those readers who savors every word and punctuation mark of books I read. Instead, I devour novels voraciously, gobble the ideas, and then reach for more. I attribute this type of reading to a Masters Degree in English Literature, where I was required to read an unrealistic amount of novels in a short amount of time. [Insert Apology to Ezra Pound Here].
I digress.
Lately I find myself slipping even further into that bleary-eyed, sloppy processing of the written word. I blame this, in part, on my Google Reader! I am reading, on average, 25 blogs per day. I skim and scan like the information vulture I am, for neat ideas to use in the classroom, new software to try, and various interesting things about the world (thanks Deputy Dog).
But I am here to tell you that sloppy reading can be dangerous!
Picture this. I am reading this blog post about Google Educator tools which immediately peeks my interest. So I click on the site where I discover that Google is promoting something called Google Lunar X Prize. My eyes skim over the first sentence or two….I process the following:
robotic rover
reality for your students
prize
stimulate interest in space and exploration
This looks sweet! Immediately, I copy the link and send it to the Technology teacher at one of our middle schools and note to him the nice prize. He has an interest in Mars Rover project with Lego that he does with his kids. I thought this would be perfect for him.
He sends me back a cute reply: “ after reading the “FINE PRINT” the only way we could pull this off is if NASA were teaching the Tech program and we had a launch tower by the shop door!”
So I immediately revisit the site….hehe….and read more carefully only to discover that the X Prize is for privately funded independent teams to send a robotic rover to the moon! The prize is 30 million dollars! Gee Mr. T, who says we can’t build a Rover and launch it in Oromocto! Sheesh! I do have to admit a touch of embarrassment.
So, in the light of all this, I have made a new “New Year’s Resolution”:
I am slowing down; I am becoming one with the blog post. I will make a concerted effort to abstain from devouring everything my greedy little eyes see.
Otherwise, I am going to be eating crow!
