There must be a reason why new surveys keeping
finding that students prefer physical textbooks to digital formats. It could be
that paper is just a better way for human beings to learn, according to
technology writer Brandon Keim in an article in Wired.
A 2013 study showed that a group of Norwegian teens comprehended content better from books than
from electronic devices. Other studies have suggested that’s because the feel
of paper is important to learning, according to Keim.
“Reading experts say that sense of position
is important,” he wrote. “It provides a sort of conceptual scaffold on which
information and memory is automatically arranged, and the scaffold is strongest
when built from both visual and tactile clues.”
An Israeli study showed that learning on screens was less effective than on paper and led to
overconfidence in students. However, the same report also found that when
students preferred using an electronic device, they learned less when required
to read from paper, suggesting there’s room for both formats.
“Maybe it’s time to start thinking of paper
and screens another way: not as an old technology and its inevitable
replacement, but as different and complementary interfaces, each stimulating
particular modes of thinking,” Keim wrote. “Maybe paper is a technology
uniquely suited for imbibing novels and essays and complex narratives, just as
screens are for browsing and scanning.”
