This amazing E Reader has been developed by a team in South Korea. It may mitigate some of the issues people have with reading online.
Reflection 3: Find, read and analyse a peer reviewed journal article
Theme: Emerging Technologies
The issue of whether to invest in the
technology of online reading has been a vexing one for libraries. Most have
chosen to go down this path but there is still the question of whether online
reading is the same as reading on paper. Particularly when it comes to serious
reading. Is online reading as effective as regular reading? Should libraries be
using precious resources to establish virtual library collections? It is
important to me as a librarian to have some knowledge of recent research around
this topic so as to understand whether to continue to use my budget to provide
e-books and whether to concentrate effort on encouraging my library patrons to
use this technology.
It would seem that online reading is the
logical step for our digital society but reaction to online reading is mixed.
In particular it seems that overwhelmingly, students prefer paper books. This
has been demonstrated in numerous studies including the latest to be published
in an upcoming book by American linguist Naomi Baron, which revealed that of
the students she surveyed, 92% said they concentrated better when reading hard
copy. (Baron 2015) I have also surveyed my students and despite their almost
devotional attitude to computers they are not overly enthusiastic about
e-reading which they are able to do on their own devices.
I have been interested to try and
understand how online reading differs from reading on paper. In his article The
Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens (Jabr
2013), Ferris Jabr attempts to summarise the current scientific research on
this topic and answers those questions. Overall he concludes that reading
online is different for 2 main reasons.
Firstly on-line reading is more difficult
to navigate. Online text is presented as a seamless stream of words. We can’t
easily flip from page to page and can’t control the reading experience as
easily as when reading a book. We are unable to form a coherent mental map of
the text as we do when reading a book. Some
research suggests that we actually remember where information is in a text by
recalling where it is located in relation to the layout of the books and its
pages. What’s possible is that when we lose that mental map we absorb less and
can recall less compared to reading on paper. These difficulties with navigation
make reading online more tiring that reading a book which further affect our
comprehension
Secondly there is some evidence that people
tend to be less serious about reading online and people make less mental effort
when using computers. According to Jabr people reading on screens take a lot of
shortcuts, preferring to hunt for keywords rather to read sequentially from
page to page. Other researchers have pointed out the distractions that online
reading presents compared to books. More
self-control is required to stay on track and avoid multitasking whilst online.
Horizontal clicking on links can be almost irrestible. (Konnikova 2014) This is
particularly true in younger children and possibly e-readers should not be used
with younger readers, who, in, my experience tend not to like them anyway.
Online reading is here to stay but I would
argue that it might have less of a place in the school library than others. Given
the problems with keeping on task and issues around comprehension and
remembering information, it may be better for younger children to keep using
books. I will continue to look out for related research on this topic.
Read the article here
Read the article here
References
Baron, N. (2015). Words Onscreen: The Fate of Reading in a Digital World. Oxford: OUP.
Jabr, F. (2013). The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens. Scientific American. Retrieved from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/reading-paper-screens/
Konnikova, M. (2014). Being a Better Online Reader. The New Yorker. Retrieved from http://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/being-a-better-online-reader
Wolf, M., & Stoodley, C. (2008). Proust and the squid. New York: Harper Perennial.
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| The Florida Polytechnic Library - a bookless library Taken from www.theguardian.com/books |
This is such an interesting topic!
ReplyDeleteBerg, Hoffmann and Dawson (2010) notice that e-resources have become an integral part of library collections. E-books and e-journals offer “point of need accessibility” that print resources just cannot match. While e-journals have been widely and enthusiastically embraced, the reviews on the usability of e-books are conflicting and not quite as positive. E-books are searchable and accessible yet sometimes difficult to navigate and can often cause eyestrain and fatigue (pp.518-519).
The Shallows (2010) by Nicholas Carr goes into great detail about how differently people learn and retain information while reading on the internet versus reading from a physical book. He thinks the internet is actually rewiring our brains, altering the ways in which humans think! After reading this book shortly after it was released, I decided to NOT invest in a Kindle for myself, even though I had wanted one so badly for ages. I have since gotten over my fear of e-readers but I do approach e-reading differently now. I try be aware of when I slip into more mindless skimming and less focused reading.
Berg, S. Hoffmann, K., and Dawson, D. (2010). Not on the same page: Undergraduates' information retrieval in electronic and print books. The Journal of Academic Librarianship. 36(6). pp.518-525.
Carr, N. (2010). The shallows: how the Internet is changing the way we think, read and remember. London: Atlantic Books.
Hi Katherine,
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting on such an interesting, and important, topic! The use of e-reading and e-reading technology remains a controversial and opinionated issue mainly because, it seems, people are adverse to change and the physical book retains an elitist or intellectual appearance. It is refreshing to see a scientific examination of the issue that uses appropriate evidence and methods.
The use of e-readers in libraries is difficult, however. Given the evidence, it is shown that e-readers and e-reading technology are not appropriate or sufficient methods of learning. Conversely, while it is important not to purchase technology just because it is new or popular, libraries need to remain relevant community resources.