Reading: Paper vs Digital - an archive of resources

I recently entered into a Facebook conversation with a parent who had concerns about how reading comprehension may vary when readers read books and printed materials vs when readers read digital and online materials. I've done quite a bit of reading over the last three years on this subject, and I know what the vast majority of the research says: books beat digital. (Why "the last three years" you ask? The Shallows debuted in 2011. See below.) I have compiled a brief list of some the things that have been written on this topic over the years. To be fair, there is some research (but just a fraction of what exists to the contrary) that indicates books don't necessarily beat digital, but I have not included it here. Enjoy this list of sources supporting books and print over digital sources. If you read all of this and still remain unconvinced about the merits of print, well... perhaps it is because you have neither remembered nor comprehended what you read.

Reading: Paper vs Digital

'The Shallows': This Is Your Brain Online

Nicholas Carr: The Shallows - What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains (video)

Our Cluttered Minds

E-books may inhibit student comprehension: studies

QuickReport: Print Books vs. E-books

Can Students ‘Go Deep’ With Digital Reading?

Readers absorb less on Kindles than on paper, study finds

The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens

Students Reading E-Books Are Losing Out, Study Suggests

Do E-Books Make It Harder to Remember What You Just Read?

Researchers Voice Concern Over E-Books' Effect on Reading Comprehension

Paper vs digital reading is an exhausted debate

Do e-readers inhibit reading comprehension?

Why Books Are Better Than e-Books for Children

Back to school: Leave the iPad at home

Textbooks vs. technology in the classroom

Paper beats computer screens

New study suggests ebooks could negatively affect how we comprehend what we read

More Thoughts on Digital Textbooks

Earlier in the week I posted a quick thought about whether digital textbooks might be a mistake for today's students. The idea came to me after reading The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr. The data in the book that sparked this idea for me is that the Internet, as wonderful as it is, actually may be rewiring our brains. How? The Internet is full of links, videos and other distractions that cause or brains to lose focus. While reading pages from books, our brains become engrossed and engaged. While reading pages on the Internet, our brains fight against distractions constantly. For example, every time we read an article, a blog post, or some other text on the Internet with a hyperlink, our brains stop momentarily to decide whether or not to click on the link. It is not always a conscious decision, necessarily, but it is a decision and a distraction nonetheless. This stopping and restarting affects the brain's ability to absorb information. This effect has led to a change in the attention span and ability to concentrate in people who are plugged in constantly to the Internet. Their brains are being rewired.

If we take this research and apply it to textbooks, we may have a problem. Here is my line of thinking. I worry that a digital textbook with interactive elements, links, embedded videos and the like, may actually inhibit a student's ability to concentrate on the reading material and, therefore, inhibit a student's ability to commit the information in the text to memory.

My good friend and teacher-extraordinaire, Shawn, pointed out with a comment on the last post on this topic that a textbook for him would be more of a resource rather than a primary source of information (not primary source as in primary and secondary sources). This made me think even more. I totally see Shawn's point that a digital textbook used to support or reinforce concepts covered in class could be enhanced by all the digital bells and whistles and could then enhance a student's learning experience. I can see this happening especially in math and science, again if the digital textbook is used to support or reinforce concepts used in class. I can also see language courses benefiting from digital textbooks. In math, science and second languages, students rarely are required to read large chunks of the textbook and then commit the material to memory in one sitting.

Conversely, in courses like British Literature or AP European History, the assignments from the textbooks or novels often are read before the material is broken down and expanded upon in class. In these situations, I think a digital textbook (or novel) full of links and other interactive elements could be detrimental to a student's attempts to read for comprehension. Certainly media or interactive elements could be assigned to students later, even immediately following the reading, to enhance or illustrate the concepts from a reading assignment. Having irresistible links and other media embedded in the text, though, absolutely would lure students away from Beowulf or a chapter about the Agricultural Revolution.

There are huge advantages to digital textbooks in general. Some are totally customizable. Many are less expensive than traditional textbooks. Some are free. Digital textbooks certainly help reduce the amount of books students have to haul from place to place. I just think it would be wise to consider some of Carr's ideas before making the decision to replace all traditional textbooks with digital textbooks.

E-Texts and Free Texts: Are Open Textbooks the Next Great Things?

At my school we recently spent tens of thousands of dollars on textbooks for only a handful of our courses. With some books weighing in at a hefty $170 per unit, it isn’t hard to imagine how schools, districts, and in the case of many independent schools, families, spend exorbitant sums each year on textbooks for their students.

Perhaps, though, appearing just over the digital horizon, help is on the way. Perhaps the reign of ten-pound and hundred-dollar textbooks finally is drawing to an end. Perhaps textbooks soon will go the way of handwritten letters and 8-track tapes. Perhaps, textbooks will be replaced by e-texts and free texts known as Open Source textbooks or Open Textbooks. How? Let me explain.

For starters, a recent article in TIME magazine and a recent story on NPR tell of a company, Flat World Knowledge LLC, whose goal is to stage a coup in the textbook industry. Flat World will offer free, yes free, textbooks beginning in just a few short months. These texts will be available to anyone via their website. To be fair to all you cynics, Flat World remains an unknown entity so I’ll offer something else to you for free.

If Flat World isn’t good enough for you (yet), would you be interested in a chemistry textbook, Concept Development Studies in Chemistry, developed at Rice University? How about a calculus text, Calculus, from MIT? Did I mention these are free?

So, how are these organizations offering free textbooks when textbook publishers keep telling us how expensive textbooks are to produce? The answer is in Open Source. Open Source is a term that computer geeks recognize immediately. Open Source generally refers to software and/or source code that is available for public use, public manipulation and public collaboration. The Open Source philosophy has been adapted to the written word and electronic information and adopted by institutions and organizations like MIT and Connexions. (In fact, MIT has taken it a step farther and offers not only free texts but also Open Source model courses called OpenCourseWare.)

Open Source communities like Connexions tend to organize information in modules and then link the modules together to form collections, courses or texts. Authors who wish to contribute can contribute their ideas and allow others to use their ideas with Creative Commons open-content licenses. Connexions, just one example of an Open Source community, is a great site organized into a number of subjects and it’s fully searchable.

Am I ready to toss my traditional textbooks in lieu of e-texts available for free online? No, but I am intrigued. How great would it be to tell parents of Calculus students at your school that your department is supplementing the adopted Calculus text with a text from MIT! And, to sweeten the deal, the MIT text is on a flash drive that the students can take wherever they go! And, best of all, the MIT text didn’t cost families or taxpayers anything at all!

So, the elephant in the room… The most obvious weakness at this point in the world of Open Source texts, perhaps excluding texts from universities such as Rice, MIT, Texas A&M, etc., appears to be quality control and quality assurance. The same arguments used against Wikipedia could be applied to some Open Source texts, modules, etc. However, if a trained educator helps students discern which are trustworthy and which may not be as reliable, e-texts suddenly seem more appealing. To take this a step further, if a trained educator, an expert in one’s field, evaluates an Open Source text or module before presenting it to students, the e-text becomes a potentially valuable tool (worth every penny paid for it). Another obstacle or challenge you may face with Open Textbooks centers on textbook adoption policies and procedures. Judy Baker of Connexions offers advice on Open Textbook Adoption that may help you overcome such a challenge.

In light of this discussion, where do you see textbooks in five years? Ten years? Are Open Source texts a viable option for schools? Have you used Open Source texts and, if so, what has been your experience with them? Are you intrigued by Open Source texts and modules for your school? Should the next generation of educational leaders be willing to take risks on ideas like Open Textbooks?