NEIT2010-Content+Vs.+Container

Content v Container, content-container interplay

The big question is: //how is content working? Is the container important?//

Look at media studies: visual containers = form v content (just look at the clothes you wear and what statement they make about you – then change the outfit to more/less formal and what does that say?)

container affects understanding of content: how can we be surprised by it or control it? Even small changes = cognitive shifts/learning shifts

Think about the difference between immersive reading and reading for information (see SLJ Summit commentary on this)

transliteracy ([])! We need to be literate across multiple platforms at the SAME TIME. we used to be able to switch it on and off; now all at once-- how does that affect our comprehension, understanding, etc. It's not just about the container (or single container) any more.

Q: how do you read? Do you follow the links as they appear, or do you read through the text and then go back and link/explore?

Movie v. book/how we understand something can be shaped by different containers, even when the content is the same (although sometimes it's very diferent - eg, Wizard of Oz as text vs. movie version)

meta literacy/analyze the container as well as content; we used to just look at content. Q: How does the container influence the content? Does the container influence the content?

Think about layering: magazines in databases are limited to text; how does that affect understanding? Does it substantially change the message when the images are not there? What about the difference between People Online, People Magazine (print) and an article in a database? How does that inform our idea about the authority and content?


 * We need to start by looking at the source: what am I "reading" and where did it come from?

It's hard work – leads readers/students to questions they might otherwise not have about content.

How do the different containers affect different learners with different intelligences?

What about eBooks? Not as tactile, colder/less emotional experience reading – plus children need to physically engage with their environment (not as possible in eBooks). > > How do we make students aware of options and the content/container that adheres most closely to the experience the teacher/author prefers?
 * compartmentalization of different containers
 * reading to read v reading to study
 * studying a book might be easier on eformat/ability to navigate, search, dissect
 * does the specific eformat matter or just that it is in eformat?
 * are our students more facile at moving platform to platform, device to device? are we bad at being platform agnostic because we were raised in a world where platform wasn't an optional or mutable piece?

Other issues:

> > //**When does the conatiner make it into a different conetnt, and no longer the same**//? > >
 * Audiobooks? How does hearing the text alter the reading experience?
 * Picture book apps (eg Miss Spider's Tea Party - http://www.missspider.com/)-- allow multiple points of access in one app
 * Poetry, illustrations,font choices both within and surrounding the text: important decisions were made and translate differently in a digital format. For example, a gardening or DIY book in digital format needs to carefully consider where/how diagrams are placed.
 * We need to think about what the end goal is for us as educators. do we want them reading, or understanding who a chracter is? do we want them to come to a sense of the information or just have the facts (old book v movie question)
 * Primary v secondary sources. DOes this change when the container changes? (is a NYT artcile in a database still the same primary source document?)
 * Think about how works in translation fare when content (but not container) changes (eg, Proust) – now think about changing the container

**CONTEXT**. It's now 3 C's: container, content, context

Podcast Jerome heard: is the new media changing our brain? Yes and no: evolution doesn't happen this quickly BUT the container does affect how we process. so if we ignore containers as the issue and say it's just about the content, what affect is happening and are we ignoring at our own peril?

Digitally we read for answers, not for context and holistic approach (think about Google Books and “snippets”, taking content without context) > > > Interesting read: Maryann Wolf's Proust and the Squid
 * what are we asking students to decode? if we change the the container are we changing the decoding we are asking of our students?