It is necessary to go through an activation process, but a hotmail password can be used to sign in. The on-screen instructions for installation are easy to follow and downloading should take two to three minutes, but it's not as easy as getting the Adobe software. You can, however, store your titles online, thus saving space. There is no delivery charge and, if you're downloading them on to your computer, the software is free.
Plans to bring the cost down even further are being considered. Non-fiction works have the most potential in terms of extra text, hyperlinks and footnotes. For example, Your Face Here: British Cult Movies Since the Sixties by Ali Catterall and Simon Wells provides hyperlinks to filmographies, additional text setting the featured films in context and added links to other films.
Some publishers are also beginning to add extras to their fiction titles, rather in the manner of DVDs compared to videos. The ebook version of Toby Litt's latest novel, deadkidsongs, includes a section that did not appear in the print version, an authorial afterword and an extra essay. Joyce Carol Oates's new novel, Middle Age: A Romance, has an extra commentary by Oates. A newly launched ebook section on this British site mainly offers ebooks in Microsoft Reader. There is a good collection of titles on offer, from current fiction to classics, and a free sample of Oz Clarke's wine book to get you started.
This American bookstore doesn't just sell ebooks, it publishes them as well. The new digital imprint revives previously out-of-print books alongside contemporary fiction and classics. This link takes you to a useful comparison of ebook readers. The much-vaunted free titles, however "for a limited time", that is , are out-of-copyright classics you could pick up from Project Gutenberg. Using Adobe Acrobat, Amazon provides a number of free downloads as well as a large range of ebooks, from the classics, to recent fiction and reference books.
It's clearly explained which books are compatible with which format. From the 'hottest downloads' section, it's evident that customers are into business success, spirituality and Lara Croft. HarperCollins , Penguin and Random House all have ebook sections on their websites and these are worth exploring for newer fiction titles. Ebooks are divided into subject area and available in Microsoft and Adobe format; added extras are clearly signposted an exclusive afterword from King to Black House, a generous spattering of sample chapters.
A regular ebook newsletter will keep you up to date with the latest releases. Penguin offers a wide range of ebooks, including Penguin Classics and Rough Guides. You can download an ebook sampler with Microsoft Reader. So if you force yourself to read faster then it wil help you to improve your concentration.
In addition you will benefit from practicing special concentration exercises. For example you could peform following drills: Take a book and open it on any page. Count words in every paragraph. Count words only with your eyes, do not use your fingers or pencil for that purpose. If you reach the next paragraph, start counting from zero again.
Duration of the exercise is minutes. Draw a geometrical shape on the paper for example circle, square, triangle. Then draw a similar but a bit smaller shape inside the previously drawn shape. Draw it in a way that the smaller shape fits in the bigger shape, but does not touch it. Next draw another shape inside the previous one exactly as you did before. Continue until you reach the shape with minimal possible size.
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Reading a boring text. Find a book or journal, which content offers you absolutely no interest. Find minutes for the exercise. Read this text as it was the most interesting thing in the world. Avoid any distracting thoughts or making pauses whilst reading. Hey Tim, Thanks for the great article. I have been waiting for you to blog on this subject. Now I just have to wait to see a blog on Capoeira. I guess I was too subtle. Either that, or there are lots of believers in this thread and very few skeptics. As was covered in the links from my previous post, there is a non-trivial trade off of comprehension when reading speed is increased.
Speed readers and skimmers tend to have the same level of understanding of text that is processed at the same speed, and comprehension is greatest when reading without either technique. Facts before assertions, please. If not, limits and trade offs should be noted. Very informative and interesting post as usual! However, I have seen videos of people demonstrating Photoreading on live radio, etc. There was mention of a student at USC that read 85, wpm. He was tested on a micro-fiche machine, as page turning was the limiting factor. But I can assure you it works, if you keep with the drills.
I hope other people get this and get it to work. How well does this work for non-native languages? Any research on whether this is of use in language acquisition?
Scientific Speed Reading: How to Read 300% Faster in 20 Minutes
It is true that we can force ourselves to speed up by fewer fixations, and larger groups of words for each fixation. BUT, for good readers, this is only a minimal gain. Well, we learn to read by reading aloud to parents, at school. The habit never leaves us without special training. We read at roughly the same speed at which we speak, somewhere give or take around WPM. Well, how fast can we think?? As your posters pointed out, there are deaf people and other rare individuals that have learned how to stop talking to themselves as they read.
Their reading rates are amazing, over WPM. This amazing speed can only be achieved by a completely different approach. Please let me know if you come across any useful methods for eliminating sub vocalization. Also another way to increase your speed is to increase your vocabulary. When you come across a word you do not know. You will stop and reread the words around it to understand the context it is being used.
This is another way to increase your speed when reading. Bigup for the nice summary! Ever used speedreading softwares like Acereader? I read this title on twitter: In order to do that, you need to stop reading and think. Most of the material I read these days is digital. Any specifics as to how to apply these techniques to reading on a vertically oriented screen?
Just gave it a go. Googled online stop watches and found http: I use software to speed up online lectures, videos, etc: Enounce is an example of this type of software, and I use it to watch opencourseware lectures, for example. Anyway, my question for Tim and everybody: I appreciate that you bring us practical and useful information. Are we really in that much of a hurry. I appriciate the skill for sure, but it seems like it would be just adding stress to my already stressful life. By doing this it allows you to comprehend multiple words at a time where as when you sound them out you can only move as quick as you speak.
Thanks for this post! I just posted a week or so ago asking about speed reading in some other post of yours. The pacing method works well, but when I start using your method of fixation looking at every 3rd word in I become unsure where I should start and end the pacing of my pen.
Should I start from the third word in and end at the third word out as well? Since I am only looking at 2 words, why am I pacing across the entire line when it defeats the purpose of moving your eyes as little as possible? The pacing calls attention and your eyes move along with the pen rather than just jumping to the two words they are supposed to be perceiving. This reaaally confuses me because the two suggestions seem to be contradictory.
Is this normal or am I going waaay to crazy with the pacing? Lastly, can you recommend any drills that can help me improve my horizontal eye span? Or is this something that cannot be improved? Thanks so much for this post, speed reading is something I really want to learn to do properly and this is very helpful! Problem cured — hopefully. I still have to give these tactics a go.
Out of curiosity, how do these techniques and the protocol overall apply to non-English texts? Have you been successful at replicating the results in other languages? First test, I was at Second test was at Would love to get over I will try to keep track of progress on my blog. The important question is how can I combine the speed of the reading and the speed of understanding? Increasing reading speed is a process of controlling fine motor movement—period. I have never seen the method fail. First, several definitions and distinctions specific to the reading process: The Protocol You will 1 learn technique, 2 learn to apply techniques with speed through conditioning, then 3 learn to test yourself with reading for comprehension.
We will cover two main techniques in this introduction: Second — Trackers and Pacers Regression, back-skipping, and the duration of fixations can be minimized by using a tracker and pacer. Third — Perceptual Expansion If you focus on the center of your computer screen focus relating to the focal area of the fovea in within the eye , you can still perceive and register the sides of the screen.
Happy trails, page blazers. Related and Recommended Posts: Facebook Twitter Email Reddit Print. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Email required Address never made public. I look forward to testing this out! For some reason i stayed at wpm Like Liked by 1 person. I guess I still have some work to do but at least I can understand a book much faster!
Thanks for the guide! Thx Mark Like Liked by 1 person. Thanks for the tips Like Like. Now I must ask you, have you ever heard of photoreading? This is all interesting information. Photoreading never heard of that I shall investigate, thanks.. This is essentially how I made it through highschool without paying attention. Avelin Wood is said to have pioneered the science if you will of speed reading.
Thanks for pointing out Zap Reader. I just tried it with an article and it works great. Dude you look like my doctor, his name is Jerry Byrum Like Like. Thanks for the tip. Keep cool Tim, Julio Like Like. Dear Julio, Thanks very much for the kind words. Boss, People are asking whether given target speed of wpm, one must practice for 2, wpm i. Do you still speed read and at what speed? Hi Vale, Where has it been disproven?
Cheers, Tim Like Liked by 1 person. Thanks for this reply, Tim. It made things much clearer. Daniel Like Liked by 1 person. Could you please provide a picture of how the pen should be held? Cheers, Alex Like Like. Best, Rahul Like Like. Best, Tim Like Like. Hi Tim, time has passed since you wrote that post.
Have things changed for you? Regards from Germany, Jakob Like Like. In university I studied several speed reading programs and they do work, to a degree. How does Kim Peak do it? Now if only the rest of the information on the internet was this useful. I can get up to WPM with this method. Hey Tim, Great post…as always. Hi Chris, how did you implement the 4HWW principles in university? Firstly, I love your stuff.
Thanks so much for it. My instructor shared this with us: The deaf student then wrote this: All the best, Sean Like Liked by 4 people. May I borrow your thoughts here. I work with PWDs. This is a killer photo! Eric Smith Like Like. All the best, Tim Like Like. Tim, Keep it up.!!!! Thanks for sharing so much so far. From Dallas to Nicaragua….
Jose ; Like Like. Hi Joel and All, Thanks to all of you for the great comments and dialogue! Hi Tim, You said that the above post is a concise version of the actual course you taught at Princeton. It would be really helpful Like Like. Also, use this bookmarklet, which I modified from the site to handle apostrophes and bad Unicode characters: As Scanning does not involve the same level of comprehension that Rauding does, it was possible that students reading from tablets were comprehending less and therefore obtaining lower test scores.
This theory is further reinforced by a study conducted by Dyson and Haselgrove , in which comprehension after reading from a screen at both normal and fast reading speeds was measured. Paper-based versus digital text. McKnight , cited in Schcolnik, contends that, as displays nowadays present dark text on a white background positive polarity , the digital reading experience is of greater similarity to that of reading from paper, and the human eye is able to distinguish with greater ease between letters and words.
Are e-books effective tools for learning? Reading speed and comprehension: iPad® vs. paper
In terms of comprehension, Dillon's review of the literature revealed that comprehension is not negatively affected by a digital reading medium Cushman, , cited in Dillon, ; Kak, , cited in Dillon, ; Muter et al. Moreover, a recent study by Grace also determined that the comprehension of third grade students reading on an iPad was not positively or negatively affected by the digital reading medium.
Having examined the literature around this study's research questions, the following hypotheses were derived: Students reading from paper will comprehend the material better than those reading from iPads, which will be reflected in their test scores. Students reading from paper will read significantly faster than those reading from iPads, which will be reflected in their reading times. Reading speed and comprehension will be significantly and negatively correlated.
According to Pietersen and Maree , experimental designs are used to answer cause-and-effect questions in which the researcher makes a change in the input or independent variable, in order to observe the effect of that change on the output or dependent variable Cohen et al. In this study, a quasi-experimental design was followed, as the students were tested in their natural school setting and not in an artificial laboratory environment, where the input variable, i.
In this study, all students were exposed to both modes of delivery. According to Charness et al. In order to address these concerns and attain an independent assessment of each treatment Char-ness et al. This was done in order to counterbalance the order of the delivery of the medium Lane, n. The text content on Day 1 and Day 2 was different, to ensure that there was no familiarity with the text on Day 2, which would have confounded the results. In order to answer the first research question as to whether students are able to comprehend information read from the screen of an iPad as effectively as they are able from paper, a set of multiple choice questions for each comprehension text was given to the students after they had completed reading.
These answers were marked and each student's scores were then recorded for each mode of delivery and then compared. To answer the second research question as to whether students are able to read as quickly from an iPad screen as they are from paper, students were required to start their embedded mobile stopwatch as they started reading and to stop it when they had completed reading the comprehension text.
These times were then compared between the different modes of delivery. According to Lai and Chang , students comprise one of the largest reading groups, and often spend large amounts of money on expensive textbooks, which are both cumbersome, and promptly discarded once they have fulfilled their academie purpose. Furthermore, students generally embrace new technologies Simon, and therefore, serve as ideal indicators in the adoption of e-books.
Consequently the population selected for this study consisted of high school students from advantaged private secondary schools, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate university students. Both schools and the university are located in urban areas within the Gauteng Province of South Africa. Students within this population were between the ages of 15 and The sample for this study consisted of 16 students enrolled at a university, and 55 senior high school students from School A and School B.
The university, School A and School B were selected due to prior research contact, their willingness to participate, and relatively easy access to the students. Students from the University were ethnically and culturally diverse, and possessed varying levels of reading ability and technology exposure. University students were invited to participate through flyers posted and participation letters handed out to potential participants, around the university campus. This group consisted of 10 males and six females aged between 20 to 23 years, 10 of whom speak English as a first language.
While all respondents within this group owned a computer, only Exposure to e-readers was lower than computers and tablets, with Students from School A and School B were ethnically and culturally similar, as the ethos of both schools is in accordance within certain religious beliefs. In addition, students that attend these schools are generally from advantaged communities and have access to technology. Grade 10 students were sampled, as the data was collected during final exams, and Grade 11 and 12 students could not participate due to timing constraints.
For School A, as there were only 19 students in the grade, all Grade 10 students were invited to participate. For School B, 36 students of mixed ability who had volunteered to participate, were randomly selected from Grade 10 students by the academic head of the school.
It is important to note that the students from School B had prior exposure to using iPads in an educational setting, as the school had introduced iPads to all Grade 10s in a pilot project. However, all students from both schools and the university were randomly selected to prevent bias within the sample. School A consisted of 11 males and eight females, all of whom speak English as a first language. Ninety-four point seven percent of the respondents within this group owned a computer, Exposure to e-readers was lower than to computers and tablets, with School B consisted of 19 males and 17 females all of whom speak English as a first language.
Ninety-seven point one percent of the respondents within this group owned a computer, Different comprehension tests were used to assess the different groups at their appropriate grade level, due to the differences in reading ability between the Grade 10 and university students. Although there were three experimental groups from which data was collected, all groups were dealt with in the same way. For the comprehension content, informational text was selected, as it is the type of text found in textbooks, and because its purpose is to "convey content or information to the reader" Elish-Piper, Both sets of comprehension assessments for the Grade 10 and university students were chosen for their interesting content in the hope that they would be appealing to students.
In answering the multiple choice questions, neither sets of students had the comprehension material to refer back to, so the results they achieved were likely to be affected by memory and their ability to guess the answers. Although all four of the comprehension texts differed slightly in word count, this did not affect the comparison of reading speed results, as the reading rate WPM was calculated and used for analysis using the stopwatch applications on mobile phones.
The only alterations made to the comprehension assessments included removing questions that required reference to the text, and changing spelling from American to South African English. As the experiment required students to read and comprehend on Paper and on the iPad at two different sessions, it was necessary to have two different texts to control for familiarity with the content on Day 2.
To eliminate further confounding variables, both the electronic and the paper-based comprehension texts were presented in identical ways, with the same fonts Arial and sizes 12 , and with 1. All comprehension texts were sourced from reliable and credible sources. This test is administered to students in Grades to measure their progress against the state's standards.
The texts were Death Valley Text 1: The FCAT comprehension tests are designed to assess comprehension at the literal, inferential, and evaluative levels v and a number of multiple choice questions were asked in order to assess these different levels. Two different comprehension tests were sourced from an Asset Test practice website and the English for everyone website. The Asset test is a college placement test that is administered across the United States, and is designed to measure a student's ability in basic academic skills, including reading.
The tests that were completed by the university students were Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills Text 1: The multiple-choice questions that were developed by the respective websites assess students at the three levels of comprehension. Following the experiment, students were asked to complete a paper-based questionnaire to assess the difficulty perceived between the different texts in order to ensure that the change from Text 1 to Text 2 did not influence their Reading Speed and Comprehension Score.
Ten iPads constituted the electronic medium from which the students read, using the iBooks application to display the comprehension text. Further to this, access to the electronic dictionary was disabled to prevent the distortion of reading speed times and comprehension scores. The experiment was conducted in a typical classroom setting for all three student groups. Timing of student reading times was measured through embedded stopwatch applications on a variety of mobile phones. Consent forms describing the conditions of the study in detail and highlighting the ethical considerations, were given to each participant.
Furthermore, participants from the university population, as well as the Grade 10 participants and their parents, signed consent forms in order to take part in this study. The experiment was conducted over two days for each sample group.
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On the first day, students in each sample group were randomly divided into two groups. Before commencing the experiment on the first day, it was made clear to the students that the study was intended to examine the differences between reading on paper and on an iPad, and was not in any way meant to judge their personal academic performance. Students were asked to read through the text at a pace that was comfortable for them, with the knowledge that would need to answer questions on what they had read. The same comprehension text, appropriate for their grade level, was given to each group with a different mode of delivery.
One group read from the iPad and the other group read from paper. Students who were given iPads were also given time to familiarise themselves with the devices and with the iBook' s application. On the second day of the experiment, the mode of delivery was switched for the groups and a different comprehension text at the appropriate grade level, to counter the carry over effect due to familiarity Charness et al.
As the same group of students was assessed using both media, confounding variables such as general intelligence, reading ability, and technology ability were accounted for in analysis McMillan, Following each test on the two days, students were asked to record their reading times using the embedded stopwatch applications on their mobile phones, fill in the multiple choice questions on the text, and rate the difficulty of the comprehension text. The data obtained in this process was then statistically analysed to measure the differences in students' reading speed and comprehension between the two media.
In order to determine whether the Reading Speed and Comprehension Scores of all students differed due to medium, i. This allowed for a comparison to be made between students' mean reading speeds and comprehension scores Archambault, To provide a more complete description of the treatment and to determine whether the order in which the medium was presented, i. In total, 71 students 55 Grade 10 and 16 university students participated in this study.
As facilitators were present during the data collection process, any questions or misunderstandings relating to the instructions and questions were dealt with and thus no data entry errors or missing values were found.
Data was then screened for outliers on the basis of both reading rate and comprehension score. One participant from Grade 10 and two participants from the university were removed, as their scores distorted the means of both groups. As a result, the analysis was carried out on 54 Grade 10 students and 14 university students, a total sample of As the three experiments were conducted with the same procedures, it was decided to pool the data. No significant differences were found when comparing the results of males and females and therefore the results were not analysed according to gender.
In order to ensure that the change in text from Day 1 to Day 2 did not confound the findings, students were asked to rate the perceived difficulty of each text. The means of the perceived difficulty responses for Text 1 and Text 2 were compared using a Paired Samples t -test. Across all three experimental groups, students did not perceive either text to be at a greater level of difficulty, and therefore, it can be seen that the texts and their respective questions were well matched in terms of difficulty and can thus be used for the comparison of reading speed and comprehension scores.
To determine whether the medium was significant for reading speed, paired sample t -tests were conducted to determine the differences between all students' paper reading speed versus all students' iPad reading speed, regardless of the day on which the medium was administered. This was done for the full sample, and for each of the three experimental groups. Table 1 shows the results of these paired sample t -tests. Given that the texts on paper and iPad were administered to the students on different days as described above, it is necessary to determine whether the order of treatment was significant for reading speed.
Paired sample t -tests were conducted to determine the differences between all students' Day 1 reading speed versus the same students' Day 2 reading speed, regardless of the medium from which they were reading. This was done for the full sample and for each of the three experimental groups.
Table 2 shows that the reading speed for the full sample and for two of the three experimental groups was not significantly different from Day 1 to Day 2. Table 3 probes the effect of the treatment order further. The students who moved from paper on Day 1 to iPad on Day 2 read faster, and the students who moved from iPad on Day 1 to paper on Day 2 read slower; thus regardless of the day, the iPad reading speed was faster. For the other two experimental groups, the movement from paper to iPad, or iPad to paper had no effect.
These results suggest that students are able to comprehend material adequately from paper and the iPad at all three levels of comprehension. To determine whether the medium was significant for comprehension score, paired sample t -tests were conducted to determine the differences between all students on both days reading from paper, versus all students on both days reading from the iPad. Table 4 shows the results of the paired samples t -tests. Given that the texts on paper and iPad were administered to the students on different days as described above, it is necessary to determine whe- ther the order of treatment was significant for comprehension score.
Ebooks: a beginner's guide
Paired sample t -tests were conducted to determine the differences between all students' Day 1 comprehension score versus those same students' Day 2 comprehension score, regardless of the medium from which they were reading. Table 5 shows that comprehension score for the full sample and two of three experimental groups were not significantly different from Day 1 to Day 2.
Table 6 probes the effect of the treatment order further. Results reveal that the movement from paper to iPad, or iPad to paper had no effect on the full sample and all three experimental groups. Relationship between Comprehension and Reading Speed. The intention of this study was to determine whether students are able to read as effectively from the screen of an iPad as they are able to from paper, in terms of reading speed and comprehension.
Results from this study indicate that actual reading speed and comprehension are not hindered by the use of digital media. At the outset, it was hypothesised that students' reading times would be significantly faster when reading from paper as opposed to reading from an iPad H2. However, the results revealed that students from School B read significantly faster on the iPads, while students from School A and the university students did not read significantly faster on either medium. A possible reason for School B's students reading faster on iPads could be due to the school's introduction of iPads in a pilot project, resulting in their prior exposure to using iPads in an educational setting.
These results are in contrast to the findings of previous research in which reading on screens was found to be significantly slower than reading from paper Dillon, ; Grimshaw et al.