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New narrative forms could change the way we learn.
RAPID ADVANCEMENTS IN TECHNOLOGY AREN'T LIKELY TO SPELL DOOM FOR WRITTEN LANGUAGES. BUT RESEARCHERS CONTEND THAT THE INTERNET AGE IS BOUND TO CHANGE THE WAY WE READ THEM.
Of course, that's nothing new. Reading and technology have been fundamentally related for as long as words have existed-some eight millennia. And every new medium, from stone tablets to paper, has led to considerable changes. Centuries ago, reading a paperback novel would have seemed as strange as following Wall Street stock gyrations on handheld computers seems today.
So if each new technological age brings with it different ways of reading-and, subsequently, learning-what innovations may become widely available in the near future?
Picture this: Instead of following type across a page, your eyes remain motionless while words flash before them. Instead of reading the morning paper, you listen to a device that reads it aloud for you. Or imagine this one: A book as big as a tabletop with pages that turn when it tilts.
Prototypes for these and other innovations are part of an exhibit called "Experiments in the Future of Reading," created by the Research in Experimental Documents group at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in Silicon...