Multimedia, hyperlinks, interactivity, and sharing are absolutely a huge part in how we use texts today. Hayles says, “But with the shift, serious incompatibilities arise between the expectations of educators, who are trained in deep attention and saturated with assumptions about its inherent superiority, and the preferred cognitive mode of young people, who squirm in the procrustean beds outfitted for them by their elders.” In the past curriculum was taught as though you were only going to be fixated on one piece of information at a time. In current times, that’s just not how the world works. It would be interesting to see the statistics now on how many students do their homework without listening to music or watching YouTube/Twitch. I think that these things are for sure distractions, however the book will always be there for people who want to read.
I’ve noticed my attention span is lower, especially for digital reading. I have access to anything I want no matter what time of day it is. I do love to read physical books, but that feels like a completely different thing than reading them on the web or mobile devices.
The DTC book is mostly what I want to see in a digital textbook. It has just the right amount of information that is subsidized with interesting hands-on videos and activities. The book also has a great table of contents that lets you easily find anything you want.