[nabs-l] skimming

[Greg Aikens]

Yes, at least on the graduate level, most classes give you enough reading that it isn't practical for most students to read all the material.  Skimming becomes a skill that is vital.  

Antonio, I have been trying to figure this out as well lately.  I too am frustrated by the fact that Daisy supports the kind of indexing that would be extremely helpful for skimming, but the amount of work necessary to put books in that format has apparently kept providers from doing so.  I have RFB and D books that don't even index every page.  That said, it is still way better than when we used taped materials.  

If you are using RFBD books on a Victor Stream, you could use the time jump feature and jump forward or backward in set increments.  I suspect other digital players have this functionality as well.  This isn't quite as good as skimming but it can be helpful.  

I would look on bookshare if you have not already.  Being able to search for key phrases or headings can speed up the process.  

I don't know what field you are in, but much of my reading is journal articles which follow a predictable format.  These are easier to skim through once you know the format of the literature.  You can search for the method or results section etc.  

If others have found strategies to wade through ridiculous amounts of reading without reading every word, please share.  

-Greg

On Mar 15, 2011, at 7:07 PM, Jennifer Aberdeen wrote:

> "I know that the successful student does not read material from cover to cover"
> 
> 
> They don't?
> 
> Maybe that's why I don't have a degree yet
> 
> Maybe I'll try any suggestions that might be discussed here too.
> 
> Jen
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> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Antonio M. Guimaraes Jr." <freethaught at gmail.com>
> To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2011 7:58 PM
> Subject: [nabs-l] skimming
> 
> 
>> Hello all,
>> 
>> I am stuck catching up on missed work with hundreds of pages to be read quickly. Like, yesterday.
>> 
>> I read mostly from RFBD recorded materials, and most if not all books fail to take full advantage of DAISY features to make books really most useful to all.
>> 
>> I have no idea how to skim and browse through a poorly marked RFBD book. There is no physical structure like paragraph indentations, chapter and section headings, boxes, charts, italics, and other text booky features to ease the study process.
>> 
>> Kurzweil may make this easier to accomplish with their browse features, but I haven't tried getting materials from bookshare since RFBD tends to have my texts in their collection.
>> 
>> 
>> The study process is so much easier if I have a human reader, but I can't carry one in my pocket :D
>> 
>> I know that the successful student does not read material from cover to cover, and there is yet no full navigation solution  for a complete ability to navigate all of a book by exploring its parts, skimming, and extracting the author's thoughts.
>> 
>> RFBD could make more scholars if their books would more closely comply with DAISY standards.
>> 
>> i would be really interested to hear how you get this done.
>> 
>> Looking for a better way to read,
>> 
>> Antonio Guimaraes
>> 
>> 
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