I think you are right, we are in an evolutionary time for the mediums by which we read. My only concern in the field of education are teachers who choose one medium over another on the basis that they may want to “save” the medium from oblivion.

I’m waiting for the next step, quite honestly. The Kindle, that Karen mentions enjoying, isn’t it for me. If you had the opportunity to go to the Virginia Innovate conference last year in Richmond, the lady from Xerox PARC shared some of their technology for reading.

Basically, it projects one word at a time in a central location so your head/eyes don’t have to travel back and forth. This increases reading speed. I think I could go up to something like 600 words per minute or something crazy, using the device they put into an old arcade shell.

So, I think we’re advancing. I don’t think reading is dead. But sooner than later, I hope other innovations make reading more productive than it is now.

For now, I’ll remind teachers it’s okay to read “off the screen” for your students; for the most part, they CAN read it okay without their glasses.