One is that students read at a slower pace when reading from a printed textbook rather than an online version. Reading slowly gives the material more time to sink in. Studies have also shown it’s less disruptive to turn a page than to scroll down on a tablet or a screen, so your concentration level is higher with text.
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One is that students read at a slower pace when reading from a printed textbook rather than an online version. Reading slowly gives the material more time to sink in. Studies have also shown it’s less disruptive to turn a page than to scroll down on a tablet or a screen, so your concentration level is higher with text.
I see no difference between online/electronic reading and in-print reading, and in fact, you can find reference quicker online reading. There is maybe too much reference/information for you to think about. So critically thinking is even more important/required online reading. You can equally pause to think critically/deeply and making notes.
When book-sharing with an adult, conversations during eBook reading are often about the platform while print book conversations are more often about the book content.
For the past few years, districts and the federal government have been pressuring textbook publishers to invest in open education resources and digital content rather than print textbooks that are often more costly and out-of-date.
Wolf, in her The New Zealand Listener 2018 interview, noted that print reading allows us to slow down and give time to sophisticated deep reading processes, letting us discern truth, apply critical analysis, gauge inference, develop empathy, appreciate beauty to reach the knowledge and wisdom necessary to sustain a good society.
Students in Scholastics' 2012 Kids & Family Reading Report say that eBooks are better than print books when they do not want their friends to know what they are reading, and when they are out and about travelling. Print is better for sharing with friends and reading at bedtime.
A recent literature review (2021) of 14 studies on the effect of ebooks on children’s reading by López-Escribano, Montesino, and García-Ortega, notes that 'when e-books are properly selected and used, children develop literacy skills equally well and sometimes better than with print books'. The authors also noted that:
Print reading allows us to slow down and give time to sophisticated deep reading processes, letting us discern truth, apply critical analysis, gauge inference, develop empathy, appreciate beauty to reach the knowledge and wisdom necessary to sustain a good society ( How reading in a digital world affects your brain ).
Skim reading is the new normal — Maryanne Wolf (2018) in the Guardian.
The study of those faculty members' findings, published this month by the School Effectiveness and Inequality Initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, suggests that male students and students with high grade point averages at the beginning of their college careers are most susceptible to their grades suffering from device-induced distraction.
I see no difference between online/electronic reading and in-print reading, and in fact, you can find reference quicker online reading. There is maybe too much reference/information for you to think about. So critically thinking is even more important/required online reading. You can equally pause to think critically/deeply and making notes. Device distraction is mainly caused by the variety of marking/icons/images/pictures... so on. What if these are made less and where necessary and only those that are needed to read appear on the screen? The Office software developed in fact has made life a lot easier to do online reading and writing. Is it not so?
Studying from a digital textbook requires you to stare at a screen for hours, which is harmful to a person’s eyesight; looking at a screen causes people to blink less than if they’re looking at a printed page, which can cause dry and sore eyes.
Digital textbooks will mitigate this issue, and students will always have access to the most up-to-date content. Not only do digital textbooks solve some of the many problems print copies have , but digital versions have some extra features as well. For example, digital textbooks have the added advantage of a search function, ...
Additionally, it is easier, cheaper and faster to update digital textbooks with discoveries, new information or edits. Whereas previously, most textbook publishers released new editions of print textbooks every few years, which forced many students to either buy expensive new textbooks or keep outdated ones. Digital textbooks will mitigate this issue, and students will always have access to the most up-to-date content.
Firstly, digital textbooks have no resale value, which is one of the benefits of buying a print textbook. For some textbooks, the net cost of a digital version might end up being more than the cost of the print textbook when the resale price is taken into account. And even if the digital textbook does end up being cheaper in the long run, ...
In contrast, digital textbooks don’t have this problem, since multiple textbooks can be accessed from a single, much lighter device. Along the same lines, digital textbooks cannot be lost or damaged in the same way that print textbooks can; even if a student’s device is lost or damaged, assuming that the proper precautions were taken beforehand, ...
Recently, Pearson, a major textbook publishing company, announced that they will go “digital-first,” meaning that they will primarily focus on producing digital textbooks instead of print versions. Whether or not this is a beneficial decision has yet to be seen; there might be many advantages to digital textbooks, but they are not without drawbacks.
Last, but certainly not least, digital textbooks are less expensive than print textbooks — they can be up to 60% cheaper since digital textbooks don’t require printing and shipping, and publishers can provide them at a much lower price. This is sorely needed, since the cost of a few textbooks can add up incredibly fast.
Many students, and people in general, choose paper books instead of e-readers because printed text is not so hard on the eyes. Reading a back-lit screen is tiring for the eyes and can strain them. This is called visual fatigue and refers to the physical discomfort that results from prolonged exposure to a digital screen. The symptoms include dry or watery eyes, blurred vision, difficulty focusing, sore neck and/or shoulders and light sensitivity.
There are good reasons, some supported by science, why it’s better to read a printed textbook rather than an e-book.
Fact is, most college students still prefer to hold a real book in their hands instead of staring at a device. In surveys student report how they love the smell of a book, turning the pages and scribbling notes in the margins, none of which is possible with a digital book.
Reading comprehension is better with textbooks. For study purposes, when you need to comprehend and remember what you’ve read, print beats digital. For most people, digital books are hard to remember. One study divided participants into two groups. One group read printed text, the other group read on a device. The two groups read the same text.
In spite of the convenience of e-books, at this point in time, textbooks are still the preferred medium for study, and scientific evidence tells us that students learn better when they study using real books rather than screens.
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.
The dog-eared pages of these treasured readings contain lines of text etched with questions or reflections.
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.
Reading was significantly faster online than in print.
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.
One of the most consistent findings from our research is that, for some tasks, medium doesn't seem to matter.
The medium didn't matter for general questions (like understanding the main idea of the text).
Research findings have manifested that the biggest advantage of e-book over printed resources is easy access (68%) . The second important advantage of e-book is ease of archive (58%) . The ratio of students who claim to have detected no advantage has been as low as 7%. With respect to faculties, students from Faculty of Education (68%), Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences(63%), Faculty of Engineering and Architecture (77%) have stated the biggest advantage of
Reading habits, accessing resources, and material preferences change rapidly in a digital world. University students, as digital natives, are accessing countless resources, from lecture notes to research papers electronically. The change of reading habits with a great scale has led to differentiation on accessibility of resources, archiving them and usage of related technologies. The purpose of this study is to examine the e-book usage preferences versus printed material along with reading habits in a context of different variables. Additionally, different uses of e-books in a variety of faculties have been the focus of this study. The participants comprised of 222 students, studying in 36 different universities across Turkey. A questionnaire was developed specifically for the study. The questionnaire consisted of three parts: Printed book reading habits, e-book reading habits (methods of reaching e-books, aim of usage etc.), and technological knowledge (e-book related tools and file formats etc.). According to the results of study, approximately 68% of university students stated that they read one book in a week and 62% indicated that they are e-book readers. Moreover, there was a significant relationship between social environment and reading habits of students. University students put forward accessibility advantage (68%) of e-book and stated that they mostly read e-book for research (81%). E-book format which is most commonly preferred among students is Portable Document Format (pdf) (73%), while the computer is the most commonly used e-book medium (60%).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
There may be economic and environmental reasons to go paperless. But there's clearly something important that would be lost with print's demise.
One reason for a print preference may be that students are used to using digital devices for recreational use but don’t yet feel comfortable reading on their devices, Hicks notes. “As a space for social networking, playing games, taking pictures, and the like, phones and tablets feel quite natural for our students,” he said. “Yet, when asked to switch to a more mindful and sustained practice of reading a longer article or a book, scrolling or tapping on the screen doesn’t feel right.”
Digital content is often cheaper, can be more easily updated to reflect the newest research, and is more environmentally friendly. But, surprisingly, students and children seem to overwhelmingly prefer print over digital books.
Baron identified two main reasons for this preference for print over digital. “The first was [young people] say they get distracted, pulled away to other things,” she said in an interview with the New Republic. “The second had to do with eye strain and headaches and physical discomfort.”
Meanwhile, the push to digitize textbooks doesn’t seem to be slowing down. Houston, the nation’s seventh-largest school district, is in the process of moving away from traditional textbooks and taking advantage of online educational resources. Other districts are pursuing similar plans. Also, federal officials recently announced that 13 states are joining the U.S. Department of Education’s open education resource initiative, #GoOpen, which launched last October.
Over the next few years, as digital textbooks continue to grow, print will still likely remain a primary educational tool for teachers.
Many students approach reading textbooks by opening up the book and starting with the first sentence in the chapter. They then typically fall into one of two categories: those who painstakingly read each word and copy pages of notes for hours, or those who casually skim over the words and flip the pages. Though very different, both approaches are passive in that they don’t involve active, critical thought—the first approach turns the reader into a copying machine, and the second is much less time-consuming but doesn’t include any active engagement with the text. Neither approach leads to a high level of comprehension or retention of what you just read.
Ideally, start from memory and create all you can without looking at your textbook to better get a grasp of what you know well and what you need to study; then use your textbook for reference in filling out what you didn’t know well. This technique will aid your retention much more than over-relying on the textbook.
How textbooks are unique. Textbooks contain numerous features that you don’t always encounter in novels, articles, or other types of texts. These features provide a wealth of information and clues about the text.
Instead, research shows that active reading strategie s lead to comprehension and retention and help students perform better in classes. Active reading strategies are ones in which you force your brain to actually do something (something effective and research-backed) while reading your textbook.