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hi everyone my name is Aaron free blent
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and it's a pleasure to be here with you
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and share a brief history of reading
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with you
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you know if someone who learned to read
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a little later in life I didn't think
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I'd be giving a talk on the history of
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reading but I'm pretty excited to do so
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as a student with dyslexia I struggled
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learning to read and some of my early
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teachers suggested that I should read a
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book and listen at the same time it's
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called reading while listening and it
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turns out that this process works really
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well so well that despite my early
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teachers telling my parents that I
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likely wouldn't go to university and now
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doing a PhD in economics looking at the
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impact of reading while listening and
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during my studies I wanted to understand
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if this same approach of reading while
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listening could actually be applied in
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other countries I'd spent time in Uganda
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I'd spent time in India and I'd seen
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classrooms like this one students
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studying under mango trees or studying
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in quite rural conditions and when it
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would rain they would run for shelter
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and they did not have the same
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educational social safety net that I had
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growing up and I wanted to understand if
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the same approach that taught me to read
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could be applied more globally for these
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rural communities and could be applied
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for the refugees in UNHCR refugee
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settlements so what we did was during my
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Master's we developed a really basic
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technology called Simbi and the way that
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it works is that students would read
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books out loud into symbian and it would
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take their voice and take their texts
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and bring them together to create what
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we call an audio-visual book and these
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would then be used to teach people
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around the world as they read while
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listening to the content and what was
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really incredible to see his classrooms
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like this one in rural Uganda students
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literacy rates were vastly improving and
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as little as three months and was quite
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validating to understand that the same
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approach that had worked for me could be
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applied and scaled more globally and the
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more that it the more time I spent
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looking at this issue of illiteracy
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the more I came to
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understand that illiteracy was not just
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a lower-income country problem in fact
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it's a global crisis with over 1.2
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billion people illiterate worldwide and
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investigating this further put me on a
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really interesting journey to understand
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the history and future of reading and
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this is what I'll be sharing with you
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today but in order for us to understand
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the history of reading it's imperative
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that we understand the evolution and how
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we actually came about to be a species
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where our brains were capable of reading
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and so 300,000 years ago sapiens early
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humans tamed fire and in doing so we
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developed the ability to cook at our
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will all of a sudden were able to cook
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food and were able to eat cooked food
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very quickly burning far fewer calories
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than we previously had and this meant
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that our bodies had extra calories to
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spend and these were demanded by our
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brains so over the last 300 thousand
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years our brains have increased in size
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from 600 to 1200 cubic centimeters and
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80 thousand years ago this increase in
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brain size led to what we call the
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cognitive revolution and the cognitive
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revolution enabled humans to start to do
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increasingly complex activities with our
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brains one such activity is called
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decoding and decoding is the process of
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being able to extrapolate meaning from a
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text so from type typography text or
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from pict ography an image and what
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we're able to do when we decode is if
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you think about the word fire for
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example that would just be text and if
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we didn't know how to read it wouldn't
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mean anything but through this process
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of decoding were able to actually
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understand this is fire I have actually
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been camping I can start to relate
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different ideas to what I'm reading I
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can picture a big fire that I had
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previously seen and so this process of
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decoding put humanity on a remarkable
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path
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fifteen thousand years ago the first
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reading revolution takes place humans
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start to decode their natural
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surroundings we start to decode the
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Stars by using them for navigation and
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we start to decode tracks animal tracks
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that we see to understand is this animal
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good to eat or is this thing really
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large and is it going to eat me and this
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process of decoding does something
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remarkable to our brains it begins to
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rewire them and what it does is it takes
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our these previously disparate lobes our
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occipital and our temporal lobes and it
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actually starts sending neural pathways
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and they start to connect and speak with
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each other and that process lays the
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foundation and the groundwork for what
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would later become typographic reading
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and it's interesting people think we've
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only been reading for five thousand
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years but in reality this process and
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the processes that have enabled us to
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read started roughly 15,000 years before
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and so the second major reading
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revolution takes place 5,000 years ago
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and what ends up happening is some
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clever farmer living in ancient
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Mesopotamia which is modern-day Iraq
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realizes that if he's able to actually
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make a couple of scratches on a clay
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tablet then what he will be able to do
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is he will be able to track how much
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grain he's using and he'll be able to
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track how much grain he has lent and how
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much he has borrowed and that process of
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writing down and that permanence of the
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written word is the invention of writing
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which enabled us to read and what this
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farmer ends up doing is that small idea
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to just start scratching on a clay
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tablet is what we call kunia form the
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first writing ever discovered and this
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being an initially and agricultural
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based writing system laid the foundation
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for writing that we know today and today
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the entire world uses writing the third
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major reading revolution takes place
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when two kings living in Egypt in the
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first century are battling over papyrus
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and it is the unintended consequence of
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their battles so in the first century
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you have told me and you memes and they
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understood that whoever controls papyrus
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controls scrolls and whoever controls
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Scrolls while they control information
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because at this point what we had
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realized was that a Kunia form was too
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heavy if we were scratching it up in
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clay so it made more sense to shift over
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to papyrus so King told me understands
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that if he controls all the papyrus then
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he's going to control information and
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what he does is he places a trade
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embargo on King Yu memes and King Yu
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memes runs out of papyrus and isn't able
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to actually make scrolls and isn't able
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to share information and so what we
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understand is in these kind of dire
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times when we're running out of when
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we're running out of resources that can
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fuel innovation what Indians will call
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Dugard innovation or frugal innovation
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and in this case what innovation emerges
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well in this case the innovation that
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emerges is you memes understands that he
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can actually take animal hide known as
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vellum and rather than rolling that up
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into Scrolls he can actually attach it
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as pages into what we call a codex and
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so the modern-day book is created and
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what's so interesting about this book
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well it's the first time in history that
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you're able to take ideas from different
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authors from different periods of time
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from different places and bring them all
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together in one unified book that can be
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easily carried and when we think about
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it the same way that the internet
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changed the way that we consume
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information today so too did the book
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format for the Codex format changed the
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way that information was consumed in the
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first century and this book format was
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so successful that
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reading actually doesn't change too much
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after that book format so between the
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fourth and the sixteenth century
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the book format dominates reading
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doesn't change much text doesn't change
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too much while books will range in size
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and shape
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they are mostly handwritten and that is
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simply what is common and the next major
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reading breakthrough takes place after
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Johannes Gutenberg develops the printing
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press and when he does all of a sudden
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text is standardized previously text was
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not standardized it was handwritten by
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different people but now we have this
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text based or typographic
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standardization and when this emerges
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all of a sudden books can be widely
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distributed because they can be printed
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quickly and shipped out and this leads
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to a reading revolution as books are
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made widely available and reading begins
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to enter the mainstream and so reading
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enters of the mainstream and following
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the standardization of texts the next
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really large breakthrough comes about in
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1839 when photography is developed
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photography meaning writing with lights
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and this creates an absolute
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breakthrough in reading as it involves
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reading pages and viewing images and
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photography also leads to the
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popularization of picture books which
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helps to increase student literacy and
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helps to motivate children to read more
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books and reading continued to grow in
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popularity and the future of reading was
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looking really good until the
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introduction and mainstream views of
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television and screens in the 1960s so
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television changes reading in many ways
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for starters we moved from active
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readers who are bent over their books
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reading to very passive viewers who are
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falling asleep in front of the TV and
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this really perfectly depicts how TV and
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television
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changed us as readers from active
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readers to passive viewers and I should
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mention the TV and screens do present a
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remarkable opportunity to improve
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literacy rates but for the most part
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they have distracted us from reading and
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have left humanity in a slightly
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precarious reading situation so this
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chart shows how over the last 50 years
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as TV has risen in popularity books have
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really been pushed aside what we see is
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in the 1950s TV is significantly less
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popular than books but what we have
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happened in 1963 is something called the
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crossing and the crossing emerges when
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TV overtakes books in terms of time
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spent watching TV versus time spent
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reading and that trend really continued
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and it reached a pinnacle in 2010 when
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the average American would watch 5 hours
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of TV a day and on average they would
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read for maximum 26 minutes per day and
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I know what you're thinking you're
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looking and you're saying hey it's
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looking good it's on the decline the
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trend is getting better and that is not
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the case this graph does not account for
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facebook Instagram Netflix and YouTube
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and if it did we would need to have a
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very different we need to have a larger
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screen to show the new graph now the
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problem is that this trend has left
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humanity in a really strange situation
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with a very concerning phenomenon for
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the first time in human history literacy
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rates in higher income countries are on
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the decline so for example 1/4 of
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students in North America in grade 4 are
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not reading at grade level and over 68
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million students in Europe are on track
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to functionally literacy and we're
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losing this reading habit which not only
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impacts the literacy rates it has a
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massive
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economic consequence illiteracy costs
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the United States over 338 billion
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dollars in 2017 now what's interesting
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is that while literacy rates in higher
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income countries are on the decline due
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to our obsession with screens and
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instant gratification in many
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lower-income countries they're not
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they're not speeding up fast enough and
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why is literacy in a lower-income
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country so important
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well for starters literacy is the number
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one predictor of academic success and
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it's also closely correlated with health
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according to the United Nations a mother
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who is literate in a lower-income
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country is 50% more likely to raise her
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child past the age of five than a mother
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who is not but not everyone has access
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to quality educational resources such as
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good books or good teachers and so in
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order to ensure that we remain
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illiterate reading species it's
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imperative that we perpetuate this
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behavior of reading but how do we solve
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for this two side of prop this two-sided
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problem where literacy rates in higher
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income countries need to be improved and
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at the same time they also need a rise
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in lower income countries and so this is
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the question that I've been working
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closely with the national with National
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Geographic the United Nations and the
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University of British Columbia to solve
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for and the results are pretty exciting
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I'm excited to share with you so today's
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theme is cognizance and this means
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knowledge or awareness and it's very
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fitting because in order to understand
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that you have a problem and in order to
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realize that an issue exists we have to
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have the awareness to see that the
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problem that we're looking to address is
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humanity's growing tendency towards
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illiteracy
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now the good news is that solutions do
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exist and that through my PhD research
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and research of other passionate
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scientists who I'm very lucky to work
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with three important realizations have
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been discovered which are going to help
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us ensure and work to ensure that we
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remain a literate speed
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she's and these are all pretty exciting
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the first is that reading while
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listening is the most effective way to
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read and it's a great way to encourage
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of the behavior of reading the second
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reading out loud dubbed the production
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effect is a great way to motivate
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reading and the third is that motivating
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reading through reading for good or
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through motivation is one of the best
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ways to be motivating the habit of
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reading so when we think about reading
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while listening
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why would reading while listening be a
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good way to improve literacy well first
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of all as we say it's the best way to
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read but why is that it's because when
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you read and listen you have more neural
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pathways being connected and this helps
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to ensure that you can comprehend and
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retain a lot more information but it
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also means that you can read faster and
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it doesn't actually become such a
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struggle to read you can enjoy the
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process and so we're seeing a lot more
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people who loving reading when they read
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well listen the other reason that
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reading while listening is a lot more is
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a lot more impactful than simply reading
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deals with human evolution if you think
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about it we've been speaking and
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listening for over a hundred thousand
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years but we've only actually been
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reading from text for five thousand and
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so our brains are not quite optimized
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for this process and the way that that
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manifests is through a process known as
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a saccadic a movement and what you see
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here is a saccadic movement it is our
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eyes twitching and bouncing all over the
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show because they don't actually read
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all too well and so when we are reading
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we think we're reading linearly we think
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we're following a line but in reality
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we're actually bouncing all over the
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show and this distracts so when we read
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why listen it helps to ensure that we're
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reading and if you get distracted you
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can still hear the voice and so once you
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look back at the text and once you look
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at back at the highlighter moving across
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you can continue to focus on where you
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were the second reason that were the
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second discovery that we have is that
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reading out loud is a very effective
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technique
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technique and through a process known as
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the production effect it really
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increases literacy rates and that's
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because when you read out loud you
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actually hear the sounds that you're
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producing and when you hear those sounds
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that helps to ensure and really cement
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them in your mind and so it's another
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process that we're working to encourage
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the third is motivation we're looking to
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motivate people simply because when
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you're motivated to read you read better
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so we took all of these insights and in
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collaboration with National Geographic
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and the United Nations we built a really
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interesting reading program which I'm
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excited to share with you it's called
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the Simbi Global reading program these
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insights look at reading out loud
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reading while listening and reading for
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good and we've put them all together and
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so how does this reading program work
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well when I read a book out loud it
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takes my voice and text and brings it
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together to create this audio-visual
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book that people around the world can
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read while listened to and when someone
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with an Indian accent reads out loud it
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tags the book as an Indian accent so
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that a child let's say in Maharashtra
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can actually listen read and listen to
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an accent that they're familiar with and
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that they're passionate about and
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through this we are scaling our ability
00:19:08
to improve literacy rates not only
00:19:10
globally not only across Russia Germany
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the US Canada but also in rural
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communities such as United Nations
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refugee settlements and we need your
00:19:21
voice and so I would encourage everyone
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when you have a moment to select a book
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on Simbi and read it out loud and help
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us to empower literacy and ensure that
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we remain a literate reading species now
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we're not that there are quite a few
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innovations taking place in the
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intersection of Technology and reading
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and I just want to leave you with four
00:19:46
of them we're reading intersects with
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augmented and virtual reality we have a
00:19:53
lot to look forward to and this is going
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to help ensure that we are able to
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remain this literature reading species
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speed-reading and its ability to
00:20:01
motivate the behavior of reading is
00:20:03
quite expand finally reading while
00:20:05
listening as a way to read more and and
00:20:08
to read better is quite an exciting
00:20:11
field of reading and as we've learned
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reading hasn't changed much since the
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fourth century but for reading to secure
00:20:19
its future and for Humanity to secure
00:20:21
its future as a reading species it is
00:20:24
imperative that these technological
00:20:25
advances do take place in the field of
00:20:28
reading and so to leave you with one
00:20:33
final thought
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we're overly optimistic about humanity's
00:20:37
future and it's important that we are I
00:20:39
know that I am but if we're passionate
00:20:42
about reading and we want to secure its
00:20:44
future then it's imperative that we
00:20:46
don't forget what Aldous Huxley had to
00:20:48
say in his Huxley and warning
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what Orwell feared were those who would
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ban books
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what Huxley feared was that there would
00:20:56
be no reason to ban a book for there'd
00:20:58
be no one who wanted to read one or both
00:21:01
feared those who would deprive us of
00:21:03
information Huxley feared those who
00:21:05
would give us so much that we would be
00:21:07
reduced to passivity and egoism Orwell
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feared that the truth would be concealed
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from us Huxley feared that the truth
00:21:18
would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance
00:21:21
friends next time you're scrolling
00:21:24
Facebook or Instagram and you're just
00:21:27
you have a moment to think I have a
00:21:29
favor to ask you
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think to yourself am i passively
00:21:33
scrolling am i involved in what I'm
00:21:36
doing or am I really engaged in what's
00:21:38
happening and if you decide actually I'm
00:21:41
passively scrolling and I'm not
00:21:42
particularly interested what I'd really
00:21:45
like you to do is think about a book
00:21:46
you've been meaning to read if you own
00:21:49
that book pick it up then and there and
00:21:51
give it a read for five minutes if you
00:21:53
don't own it go to Amazon and buy it or
00:21:56
go to Simbi and read one outloud but it
00:21:59
really is these behavioral changes that
00:22:01
humanity requires if we're going to
00:22:04
remain a literate reading species thank
00:22:06
you very much everyone
00:22:08
you
