2015-04-13

Pupils Prefer Paper

You may have already seen this article on the work of Naomi S. Baron at American University: her studies show that for textbook-style reading and studying, young college students still prefer paper books over digital options. Why? Because of reading.
In years of surveys, Baron asked students what they liked least about reading in print. Her favorite response: “It takes me longer because I read more carefully.”...

Another significant problem, especially for college students, is distraction. The lives of millennials are increasingly lived on screens. In her surveys, Baron writes that she found “jaw-dropping” results to the question of whether students were more likely to multitask in hard copy (1 percent) vs. reading on-screen (90 percent).

Read the article at the Washington Post.


2 comments:

  1. I assume they were comparing paper to laptops. That's where the strength of Kindle comes in. The main point people multitask is that you can do so many things with the device. But when you can't do anything else besides reading, it's much easier to concentrate.

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    1. I would assume the opposite; the article mentions tablets several times. Here's the opening blurb about the book on Amazon:

      "People have been reading on computer screens for several decades now, predating popularization of personal computers and widespread use of the internet. But it was the rise of eReaders and tablets that caused digital reading to explode. In 2007, Amazon introduced its first Kindle. Three years later, Apple debuted the iPad..."

      http://www.amazon.com/Words-Onscreen-Reading-Digital-World/dp/0199315760

      So it sounds like tablets and the Kindle are the stepping-off point for these findings.

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