The Future of Reading: Text 2.0

Had to share this.  This article simply astonished me -- half in giddy delight, the other half in an anxious, scared-of-Big Brother way that I usually feel when technology makes significant advances.  Considering the concern that folks had about e-commerce back in 1999, I realized my anxiety was normal and would eventually subside to the inner child that loves to play with new gadgets.

Imagine if you are doing a report for a school paper and simply skimming through an online document fairly quickly to search for keywords, when all of a sudden the computer does the work for you, fading away unimportant filler and bolding the key terms that you need.  Or imagine that you are learning a different language and that as you read your assignment that is posted in Spanish, you become stuck at trying to decipher a certain word.  The computer notices this and, in a little popup window, offers a quick translated word for you to see before you move on to the rest of the sentence.  This is just the beginning.  This is Text 2.0.

Illustrations, definitions, sounds: this brings it all to the table.  Elementary school and learning to read may never be the same.  Special education could be helped tremendously with this aid.  College Literature and Herman Melville's allegories will be missed no more with automatic footnotes that it provides as you cross over a difficult pronoun or location.  As it follows your eyes with the computer's camera, it even knows when you look away and welcomes you back with a bookmark of where you were.

This is in its early stages still, but apparently, according to the article large companies such as Apple are showing interest in the technology.  That type of funding could make this concept become a household name in the next ten years.

The video in the article is rather interesting, showing a few instances of Text 2.0 in action.  Be sure to take a view and begin imagining how this could help you with your classroom!