READING DIGITAL TEXTS

[Mathew Moothasseril]

A new study shows that students learn way more effectively from print
textbooks than screens

Patricia A. Alexander and Lauren M. Singer, The Conversation
Oct. 15, 2017, 9:31 PM 146,749

Today's students see themselves as digital natives, the first
generation to grow up surrounded by technology like smartphones,
tablets and e-readers.

Teachers, parents and policymakers certainly acknowledge the growing
influence of technology and have responded in kind. We've seen more
investment in classroom technologies, with students now equipped with
school-issued iPads and access to e-textbooks.

In 2009, California passed a law requiring that all college textbooks
be available in electronic form by 2020; in 2011, Florida lawmakers
passed legislation requiring public schools to convert their textbooks
to digital versions.

Given this trend, teachers, students, parents and policymakers might
assume that students' familiarity and preference for technology
translates into better learning outcomes. But we've found that's not
necessarily true.

As researchers in learning and text comprehension, our recent work has
focused on the differences between reading print and digital media.
While new forms of classroom technology like digital textbooks are
more accessible and portable, it would be wrong to assume that
students will automatically be better served by digital reading simply
because they prefer it.

Speed – at a cost
Our work has revealed a significant discrepancy. Students said they
preferred and performed better when reading on screens. But their
actual performance tended to suffer.

For example, from our review of research done since 1992, we found
that students were able to better comprehend information in print for
texts that were more than a page in length. This appears to be related
to the disruptive effect that scrolling has on comprehension. We were
also surprised to learn that few researchers tested different levels
of comprehension or documented reading time in their studies of
printed and digital texts.

To explore these patterns further, we conducted three studies that
explored college students' ability to comprehend information on paper
and from screens.

Students first rated their medium preferences. After reading two
passages, one online and one in print, these students then completed
three tasks: Describe the main idea of the texts, list key points
covered in the readings and provide any other relevant content they
could recall. When they were done, we asked them to judge their
comprehension performance.

Across the studies, the texts differed in length, and we collected
varying data (e.g., reading time). Nonetheless, some key findings
emerged that shed new light on the differences between reading printed
and digital content:

Students overwhelming preferred to read digitally.

Reading was significantly faster online than in print.

Students judged their comprehension as better online than in print.

Paradoxically, overall comprehension was better for print versus
digital reading.

The medium didn't matter for general questions (like understanding the
main idea of the text).

But when it came to specific questions, comprehension was
significantly better when participants read printed texts.

Getty Images/Sean Gallup
Placing print in perspective
From these findings, there are some lessons that can be conveyed to
policymakers, teachers, parents and students about print's place in an
increasingly digital world.

1. Consider the purpose
We all read for many reasons. Sometimes we're looking for an answer to
a very specific question. Other times, we want to browse a newspaper
for today's headlines.

As we're about to pick up an article or text in a printed or digital
format, we should keep in mind why we're reading. There's likely to be
a difference in which medium works best for which purpose.

In other words, there's no "one medium fits all" approach.

2. Analyze the task
One of the most consistent findings from our research is that, for
some tasks, medium doesn't seem to matter. If all students are being
asked to do is to understand and remember the big idea or gist of what
they're reading, there's no benefit in selecting one medium over
another.

But when the reading assignment demands more engagement or deeper
comprehension, students may be better off reading print. Teachers
could make students aware that their ability to comprehend the
assignment may be influenced by the medium they choose. This awareness
could lessen the discrepancy we witnessed in students' judgments of
their performance vis-à-vis how they actually performed.


Elementary school children use electronic tablets on the first day of
class in the new school year in Nice, September 3, 2013. REUTERS/Eric
Gaillard
3. Slow it down
In our third experiment, we were able to create meaningful profiles of
college students based on the way they read and comprehended from
printed and digital texts.

Among those profiles, we found a select group of undergraduates who
actually comprehended better when they moved from print to digital.
What distinguished this atypical group was that they actually read
slower when the text was on the computer than when it was in a book.
In other words, they didn't take the ease of engaging with the digital
text for granted. Using this select group as a model, students could
possibly be taught or directed to fight the tendency to glide through
online texts.

4. Something that can't be measured
There may be economic and environmental reasons to go paperless. But
there's clearly something important that would be lost with print's
demise.

In our academic lives, we have books and articles that we regularly
return to. The dog-eared pages of these treasured readings contain
lines of text etched with questions or reflections. It's difficult to
imagine a similar level of engagement with a digital text. There
should probably always be a place for print in students' academic
lives – no matter how technologically savvy they become.

Of course, we realize that the march toward online reading will
continue unabated. And we don't want to downplay the many conveniences
of online texts, which include breadth and speed of access.

Rather, our goal is simply to remind today's digital natives – and
those who shape their educational experiences – that there are
significant costs and consequences to discounting the printed word's
value for learning and academic development.

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*GATHER THE SCATTERED*

Fr Mathew Moothasseril
Sant Thoma Bhavan
Post Box 306
RAMAN MALA
Kolhapur,416 003
Maharashtra
INDIA