Scanning and skimming for the message (as published in The Light Magazine)

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In the olden days of the newspaper business, not so long ago, newspapers sold advertising and the reporters wrote to fill the spaces left over. Because it was difficult to determine the exact size of the hole the story would fill, writers were required to write so that the piece could be chopped at any point and still convey the most important points. Phototypesetting machines turned out long strips of paper called galleys. These paper strips were waxed and pasted-up on a large sheet of paper the size of the newspaper page with a grid printed on it. This grid sheet caused the galley of text to flow around the advertising. When the space was filled, the galley was chopped with a razor blade. Many readers actually read the entire paper in those days.

While advertising still drives the space for content, the way newspapers are read has somewhat changed, thanks to the Internet. Most people today are immersed in an overwhelming sea of various types of information from numerous sources. It is not humanly possible to keep up. E-mail alone can occupy a large portion of reading time. The result of this information overload is that we have become a society of scanners and skimmers. Worried that we might miss something important, we scan the newspaper, or any other information source, for what might be important. When we think we have found something, we skim it.

Scanning and skimming is not new; however it has become an essential skill. If we cultivate this skill, we can learn to spot important information, such as medically-related, and gain necessary time to be able to read it properly. An important aspect of life in the information age is the amount of noise. Noise is considered the not important information that vies for our attention. Remove it and what is left is considered the signal, or main message that is important to you.

Today, instead of in-depth content, we find space-constricted print and click-driven eContent. As printing becomes more expensive and an environmental concern, more content is migrating to the Internet, combined with other media. Take a look around at online content. Much of it is spread among many pages. Advertising costs in print are based on the portion of a page consumed and the position in the publication. In the online world, advertisers pay for clicks. A page with shorter content costs the same as a long page of content. Splitting the content up can generate more clicks and thus more revenue for the publication. While a long page is harder to read, the extra click can mean the loss of the reader, if they decide they have read enough.

We are an attention-split society. This ball we call Earth is becoming like a giant brain with expanding networks of neurones. It overwhelms us with information as our attention span keep shrinking. Young people find they must do several things at once in a desperate attempt to keep up. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the millennial generation is spending 18 cumulative hours a day on media.

My kids gave up on E-mail years ago. We were told to use texting if we wanted to communicate with them. Text is an on-going short conversation that slips away. There is a sense among many youth that nothing is important or has value. Having to deal with an E-mail inbox that keeps filling up requires too much time.

What does all this mean for Christians? According to the Barna Group, a Christian research organization, ‘…while the Church is often accused of being several steps behind the culture at large, Barna’s research shows practicing Christians want to keep up with culture and trends just as much as anyone else…’ They continue with ‘…people want to be culturally informed, but they are becoming accustomed to skimming content.’ Yet in today’s 24-hour news cycle, “keeping up” can be hard work. The socialization of news has created an international, ongoing conversation that never sleeps.’

We need to become the editor for our lives. Armed with our virtual razor blade, we need to chop the galleys of endless text and other media that we don’t need to read—think noise. I admit that I have to develop my skills. Like any skill, it takes a concerted effort to develop. I encourage you to join me in focusing on skimming media carefully and then scanning contents for the message. Say no to noise and yes to the Message.

Editors Note: Is there something you want to say? Send in your Viewpoint (500 – 750 words) to editor@lightmagazine.ca. Please note we cannot gaurantee publication of all the pieces we recieve.

September 2014 (2014-08-26)

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With change, you have some choices that can make a difference in your life

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adapt, adopt, appropriate, banking, broadcast, cell phone, change, communicate, communications, convenience, critical decisions, culture, e-mail, email, facebook, history, humanity, humans, internet, learning, lifestyle, news, newspaper, online, people, radio, research, satisfied, tablet, technological, television, time, travel, twentieth century

Change is inevitable, we can’t stop it. I’m sure we can all agree that the rate of change has been increasing over recent history, particularly technological change. The past century, the twentieth century, saw probably more change that impacted our culture and humanity than any other century. One might argue that it began picking up steam in the middle of the previous century. During other periods of history, there were certainly some major changes, however, the speed of travel and communications brought the changes to more people faster than ever before during the twentieth century.

With some change, we have more options than with other sorts. Perhaps, that is not exactly accurate. Suppose you experience a flood. You could see it as the end of everything, or you could see it as opportunity to help other people. What about something like E-mail? Some of the newer technologies start out and seem to be optional, but as they become ubiquitous, it is expected from other people that you are reachable by E-mail. The cell phone is one change that has taken the world by storm. Small business owners will tell you that customers expect to be able to reach you anytime and that it often seems like an invasion into their life.

I would like to suggest three options you have when faced with and in dealing with change. They are pretty simple and you should be able to remember them so you can shape your decisions and actions. Let’s use the example of the daily news. You might be accustomed to getting your news from a combination of newspaper, television and radio. All of a sudden you can get all your news, anytime and immediately from the Internet. What do you do?

First, you may choose to adopt to the change. That means, however the change is attempting to influence your life, you accept it and make the changes to your life accordingly. In our case of the news, you think, you might as well give up on the other sources and get all your news through the Internet. In other words you adopt it completely.

Second, you may find it better to adapt to the change. This might mean that you change what you do somewhat in order to utilize the change. Back to the news, you decide that you will continue with your current sources, but add the Internet services as you have time. You have then chosen to adapt the change into your lifestyle.

Third, you make some critical decisions as to what your actions will be with the goal to appropriate the change into your lifestyle. This takes more time and thought, but can pay off with you being more satisfied. It takes research and testing to critique the change you are considering as to how it might be best suited to you. You want to make an informed decision. You want to ask how your options will impact your life and whether it makes you more or less human. Then you determine how you could best appropriate the change. In a way it is turning the other options from above around. You are not adapting to it, you are adapting it to you. In some way, you might be able to have it adopt your lifestyle. Either way, you are in control and the power remains with you.

It is about learning how your life can be changed and taking charge of what you do. You don’t want other people telling you that you need to do your banking online because that is the way things are going. You want to make your own decision after careful consideration. I have heard people say to someone that they need to be on Facebook. The truth is, no they don’t. You don’t have to do your banking online if you don’t want to. Look at the pros and cons of the possible choices. If you begin to communicate using Facebook, you may decrease the amount of time you spend face-to-face with people.

I will add that time seems to have a way of convincing us that we need the convenience of what the change is offering. You may not have time to catch the news when it is available on a broadcast and you may have an aversion to the recycling a newspaper requires. If you are on the go, as most of us are nowadays, a tablet might seem like a great option. But remember, sitting in a comfortable chair with a cup of tea or coffee is a relaxing time you might be losing. The choice is yours and you should be the one that make a difference in your life.

Education or learning

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I’ll let you in on a bit of my past. School for me was, well not for me, right from the start. School and I simply did not get along. It is not that I didn’t have interests that were covered in school curriculum. Something about the classroom experience and the delivery of information really didn’t suit me. I guess I had some difficulties settling in to the routine and understanding what was happening and what was being taught.

This is the story of how I came to learn about education and became educated about learning. Most important, it is about how I came to learn how to learn. If that sounds strange to you. Keep reading. You might be interested in why learning is more important to me than education.

As I scraped through the grades, made to repeat a grade when we moved from the U.S. to Canada, I began to live for the weekends. In later grades, I needed to forget the week and find some way to enjoy the weekend. I hated Sunday night and Monday mornings. Parties and drinking became weekend norms. By grade twelve, with just passing grades, I vowed to never set foot in an academic environment again.

Today, I still struggle with plenty of life, yet, I have managed to avoid alcohol for over 30 years and have earned an M.Ed. among other certificates and diplomas. How did this happen? What do I know now that has made the difference?

Let’s pick up the trail after grade twelve and race through a few years. After working in a dairy, I decided to go to college to learn about printing. I didn’t consider this academic and thus not breaking my vow, even when I studied some journalism. The number of educators who have strongly influenced me during my life have been few. One was an associate music teacher in high school. Yes, there were a few positive experiences. This teacher asked me if I would like to do an entertainment review for the local newspaper. My response, ‘But I’m barely squeaking through in English.” His, “You know what you like and don’t like, so just write what you think.” So began a small career as a part-time entertainment reviewer that lead me to take some journalism so I could get more free press passes to shows.

After working in the printing industry for a few years, I managed to get my hands on a Mac Plus computer to teach myself the new prepress method then known as desktop publishing. Soon, I found myself doing some training. One other piece of the puzzle developed when I was contracted by an educational institution to help develop a new distance education project using an online groupware product I was a representative for. I ended up writing the first course and delivering it to the group of instructors who developed the courses and programs at the institution. I had little understanding of what I was doing. I remember the project manager saying “To ensure your long-term participation in this project, you might what to get some training in developing training courses.” We traded some work for the Instructional Skills workshop, part of the Provincial Instructor Diploma.

During that workshop, the reality of the world of education and learning began to be revealed to me. Wait, was this academic, could I actually learn something and enjoy it? Even more surprising, this shy guy actually ended up standing in front of people to teach a short lesson. I enrolled in another course and got to really grapple with my own learning. It was a tough slog. I had to find my learning legs. I had to apply the little I had already learned about learning to my own learning. Finally, I learned a few things about how to learn, how I learn.

In the following years, I completed the Provincial Instructor Diploma, the Advanced Diploma in Adult Education, a Leadership Coaching Certificate and an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction. Perhaps one day I’ll continue my story about learning. For now, let me talk a bit about education and learning.

What comes to the forefront of your mind when you think of school, education, or learning? What is the difference? What do they look like to you?

Would it surprise you if I stated that education, to me is a production machine? It is an attempt to bring about the result of learning to the masses of society and to indoctrinate them into the norms of society; to make citizens who can function within the framework of society, meet the employment needs of corporations and to behave in an acceptable manner. That may sound like a strong accusation of a major societal institution, yet, this is what school is about.

The institution of education is so massive that it actually has a number of difficulties. When you think of school you probably think of a classroom of tables and chairs and the teacher at the front of the room teaching. The sage on the stage as we came to call it. Educators now know so much more about how people learn than when I went to school. With this research, one might think that the school experience would be quite different. Perhaps it is, slightly, but in truth the machine keeps churning as usual. Even with the ability to deal with the students who struggle or have other differences or challenges, the system can’t help in ways that could make a huge difference.

In the past, less was known about what the problems really were, or how to provide assistance. Those who did not fit in, might be labelled as troublesome or lazy. Today, research has revealed much about how people learn, yet, notions such as mainstreaming all students or financial cutbacks have limited improvements to education. In addition, the educational machine is very slow to change and seems to be entrapped by the expectations of what school and education should look like—people expect it should look the way it looked when they went to school. Teachers teach the way they were taught.

Here’s the point. So much more is known about how we learn. From varying the delivery of instruction and teaching to meet learning styles to brain research, the educational experience should be so different from what it is. In addition, we now know that creative, innovative thinking needs to be developed in learners to meet the complex needs of society today. Employers are constantly changing what they are looking for in potential employees.

Since education seems inadequate, at least to me, I tend to focus on learning. Now, you should understand why education to me is a formal ridged, inflexible processing machine. What I seek are creative learning solutions. I’ll probably write more about creative learning solutions. Perhaps a series. Watch for it.

War and Remembrance

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The other day was Remembrance Day, a day originally set to commemorate and honor those who served in the ‘war to end all wars,’ The Great War and later called World War I. This was the first war of the century, a century that saw a huge evolution in the way war was fought. I suggest also, that it must continue to ask us to re-question war and killing.

A bit of history

The first world war seems to me to be aptly named due to the number of nations involved and the massive numbers of casualties. A war that, for the first time, involved all of the worlds great powers. War is an atrocious business in any case. Traditionally, it was fought by men who engaged in attacks out in the countryside using, what now are considered, rudimentary weapons. The twentieth century saw greater technological innovation than any other century in history. War certainly benefitted from these advances. From airplanes with bombs to tanks, the ability to kill more people than any hand to hand combat boosted the casualty rates and the destruction. The fighting also moved into cities as well as the countryside.

Today, it seems unimaginable that another world war could erupt in less than two decades. A war even more devastating than the first, particularly in the numbers of civilian casualties, including the holocaust, where millions of a single race of humans were systematically murdered. One can hardly imagine the death and devastation caused by the atomic bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

May we never have another world war.

The twentieth century continued to see an evolution of war, however, certainly in North America, people really began to question the nation’s involvement in the conflict. Here, I believe, it has been communications technology that has informed the people of what war is really like. I can remember watching the Vietnam War on TV every night at dinner.

During the first half of the twentieth century, media consisting of mostly newspapers, radio and newsreel movies showed society what the government wanted them to see. It was controlled and often full of propaganda. Television and satellites began a nearly instant and uncontrolled look at war. While this technology was eventually used to control the message society received, it also began the mass protest of war. Bringing war into the living rooms of the people changed them forever. Even newer technologies in the twenty-first century, spawned through the Internet, are breeding uprisings in many parts of the world simultaneously, in traditionally hot beds of war, such as the Middle East. Modern wars are often fought against terrorist organizations or they see rebellions against dictators.

Modern technological warfare can deliver a massive lethal blow with, so called, surgical precision. Today, we see technology being used to even replace humans with the use of drone aircraft. The range of weapon types is ever increasing, yet, much of the fighting must still be done on the ground, on foot with guns, land mines and other dirty weapons. No matter how much technology might clean up warfare, it still involves the pain of injury and death, even to civilians.

The bottom line is that war remains a dirty, messy activity of death and destruction.

Now some points of focus

Some of you might remember the Star Trek episode where war was fought entirely by computer. The computers would locate a person, register a kill and inform the enemy computer. The targeted person would then report to a disintegration chamber to be eliminated. Even in such a painless approach to war, it still involved death.

I want to focus in here on two aspects of war. First, any person behind a weapon must be able to kill another human being, a human being who they might, in another setting, actually be friends with, able to share common interests. In hand to hand combat, it might mean staring the other person in the eye before causing serious injury or ending their life. I know I could ever do that. Yet, if it came to kill or get killed, I wonder what I might end up doing. The two enemies usually have no quarrel between them, but have been ordered by others to kill. Here, the fault of another person means others must kill and die. This is killing of probably innocent people for reasons that originate from a higher purpose. Usually, over land, religion or for political reasons.

How do you kill another person who is not guilty of any crime and who has done nothing to you? This sounds exactly like insanity.

My second point of focus is to ponder how those who are in charge of ordering others into battle, or are in charge of initiating a weapon that can kill many people at one time. I can hardly imagine killing one person. What must it take to cause the injury or death of many people? Perhaps, since they are usually removed from the actual point impact, it might be easier. How can one become a commander that orders troops into battle know the calculated risks. I guess it once again comes down to the kill some or have many more killed, perhaps even the innocent.

We should also always keep in mind that the impacts of war extend far beyond those involved and long past the time of actual war. Lives are changed forever.

Conclusion

I suppose that, as long as there are those who have quarrel and aggression against another human being, there will be those who are sent to kill or die. We must regularly be reminded of this and to remember those who have suffered or died.

Poodle doodles

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As you can see my blogging efforts dropped off a bit. Is this due to the winter doldrums of no holiday break? After all, this is the longest stretch of the year without a holiday. There are efforts at hand to add a family day, but, that is met with resistance from the business community. I’m not going to let this blog entry get carried off on the topic of adding a new holiday. Daylight Savings Time started last weekend and this weekend holds the first day of Spring, thus, it seem the stretch is over. My sister, however, finds that she gets SAD in the winter, that is ‘seasonal affect disorder’ and any disorder deserves special attention in search for a cure. So it is, that we have not had Christmas together for a few years as they are always vacationing in Hawaii. In the old days, Christmas morning often included a long distance telephone call, these days, it is Skype. Now, I am getting closer to the topic of this blog entry.

It seems that Hawaii at Christmas is not enough, now they are looking for property in Palm Springs and with just over a week away on the search, I was offered the doggie sitting chore. I guess this passes through a few candidates and my turn came up. “You can stay at the house and I will stock the fridge.” My wife agreed for me to take the job, even though it would mean the longest time we have been apart in our nearly 20-year marriage.

Whew, I finally got through the preliminaries for this blog, the balance is taken from my responses to my sister’s message ‘…checking in…’:

Check out the toe nails – pretty Tessie

HI Bob,

Hope all is well and Gryphie and Tessie weren’t too much trouble this weekend Everything okay? Are you finding what you need?

Let me know if you have any mysteries or dilemmas to be solved, otherwise, hope you have fun and give them a hug for us!

Paula
🙂
PS – Very sunny here, half of Vancouver is here!

I ended up getting sick again, not as bad as before, but enough to slow me down a bit Saturday night and all of yesterday. I’m not sure yet about today. I watched curling and movies and Le Mis 25th.

The first couple of days were a bit confusing as I figured out where everything was. I had to get out to work, so I was in a rush. Tessie piddled a couple of times, once at her food dish and the next day in the upper hall. Now there is a stain, because I could not find what to use to clean it up, so I did the best I could with soap and water. If you have something, I could try to get more of the stain out. Often it is hard to get Tessie up from sleeping, so on that day, I was rushing to go to work and I woke her up, but, she just rolled around rubbing her face, so I went to get the food ready. When I went back a few minutes later, she was standing in the hall with her mess. I took them to daycare, because I was going to be gone all day. On Saturday, I watched about half an hour of one of Malcolm’s soccer games at Ambleside and then took the doggies to run in the park. Gryph got a bit muddy, so I used a towel in the garage to wipe his feet.

Patti and Malcolm came for dinner on Friday and Saturday nights, so I have been making it through quite a bit of the food you left, but, will have to buy a few things like veggies, etc. today.

Thus, things seem to be in some sort of order, or whatever. At least we are all carrying on.

B

Just out for a trot at Ambleside

Hi

Don’t worry too much about the carpet… I will get the cleaners in when I get home… (the pet stain remover is in the closet in John’s bathroom, on the floor, across from the sink)…

For future reference… Tessie needs to go out as soon as you are going to leave the room I always carry her from the bed to the front door and make sure she has a pee before she comes in for breakfast… (remember she is OLD….)

Give Gryph and Tessie lots of hugs…..

Glad you had fun with Patti and Malcolm

Made it to the dog park at Ambleside and are now back getting ready to start dinner. Tessie is snoring somewhere across the room and Gryph is sprawled out at the bottom of the stairs.

When we went out, all the neighborhood poop was collected and deposited on newspaper at the foot of the driveway. Surely I did not miss that much poop. I don’t know who it was, but, I hope they are not angry.

I guess it’s more pasta tonight, so, I should start thinking about getting that ready. A feast is a brewin’ in my mind, I think.

That is upsetting, particularly because all our immediate neighbours are away – so don’t know who it might have been, can you be extra vigilant and not let them out on their own…

Enjoy pasta! Thanks for the update….

Tessie likes the beach

Hi,

Hope everything is okay?

Just wanted to remind you to check out the contents of the Freezer in the garage and also the freezer compartment in the fridge (their are some individually wrapped cheesecakes!)

Hope the puppies are curled up next to you… don’t forget to pet and talk to them!!!

These are lazy doggies! I have had Tessie out three time this morning and I think she has yet to do her morning little business. At least she can really eat, sometimes she goes for Gryph’s food when he is not interested. She eats all the soft food she can get. I guess it gives her energy for those occasional times she gets perky and darts off down the street. Yesterday, she stood in the the garden down the street, tilted her head a bit and looked at me as if to say, “come and get me, I dare ya,” or, “you can’t get me in here now, can ya?” I’m never really sure what is going on in her head.

We made it to Ambleside again the other day and to Lighthouse Park yesterday. Got back into the car just as the rain started. We were sure glad about that. When we were at Ambleside, we stopped to visit and the next thing I knew Tessie was high tailin’ it down the sea wall, back in the direction we had just come, trotting along side another fellow with exactly the same orange jacket as mine. What are the chances of that, only Tessie could find such an opportunity to get confused. I thought she would never stop and they were long gone so fast, I could hardly believe it! Gryphon goes to get muddy, Tessie just does her own thing, whatever that is and wherever she is. What a scallywag.

What time are you back on Saturday?

Oh well, it’s a dog’s life.

Gryphon likes the beach too!

Ha ha!
Sounds like you are learning all of Helen Keller’s tricks… She really can’t see or hear, but if she wanders off, try sending Gryphon to go get her you have to make it sound like a fun game)

Back late Friday night, I will email you the exact time

Thanks for update and have fun!

Tessie enjoys the scenery

I don’t completely buy what she is selling, I think she is more with it than she leads us to think. She just likes to be a rascal, a real handful at times. Sleeps all morning, won’t go out, makes me nervous that she might have another accident (see she sensitized me with fear by having two piddles already), gets out finally, then follows me around until we go out to the car for a walk, takes off down the street to poop in someone’s garden, gets back in the house, because I left the door open so I could get my stuff and set the alarm, won’t come back out, wants to play chase, I have to get the leash, finally we get to Ambleside and she runs everywhere, before pooping more and then deciding to settle down. Gryphon gets fed up with all the miss focused attention and decides to try an escape over the bank into the neighbor’s yard.

OLD, my foot, she still has lots of puppy in her and plenty of tricks up her paw sleeve.

Oh ya, I forgot, Gryphon is acting up too. On the way back to the car at Ambleside, I had them go by way of the beach, so that running on sand and gravel might clean some of the mud off his feet. He gets wrapped up with a gang of dogs on the beach, wades in the water (OK that helped wash his feet) and tried to drink the ocean. Then he saw a lady with one of those flinger thingies, throwing a ball for another dog, yup, Gryph stole the ball, found that it was squeaky, decided to keep it and take it back home in the car. The other dogs just looked wondering, ‘who is this snob stealing our ball?’ Everyone tried to get it from him and, of course, this was just more fun than he could think of by himself, then I got stern with him, he stopped, I grabbed him by the collar and another lady got the ball from him. Humf, no manners! The both of them!

Now give back that ball!

Ha ha ha Rodney Fangerfeild, you have to make them respect you!

 

 

 

A bit more…

 

 

Well! I decided that we really needed to get to the Capilano River Regional Park where I used to walk Kyla. I was able to park in the first small parking lot, where I always used to park. I hoped the doggies would be alright with the short walk along the path next to the road, there is a concrete barrier. Gryph seemed to know exactly where to go and jumped over the log into my favorite part of the park. I assisted Tessie and then we were there. What a place!! I sure have missed it. A few deep breaths and we were all invigorated.

So, we followed some paths on a slow stroll so as to let the pooches explore everything they could. So relaxing.

Then, it happened. I heard a voice asking me where the path leads. This lady had two black Irish-doodles (Irish Setter Poodle mix). Well, you never saw such fun. Gryphon ran and chased, and just played, jumping over logs and everything in the rainforest–a pretty rugged place. Tessie watched to make sure the games were safe, ref-ing as best she could. Gryph sure got tuckered. I promised we would go back tomorrow and both agreed it would be a great idea.