A new study shows that students learn way more effectively from print textbooks than screensPatricia A. Alexander and Lauren M. Singer, The Conversation | 12h
http://www.businessinsider.com/students-learning-education-print-textbooks-screens-study-2017-10?IR=TToday's students see themselves as digital natives, the first generation to grow up surrounded by technology like smartphones, tablets and e-readers.
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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.
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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.
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. . . 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.
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Excerpt. Read more at link.
