Why Analog in the Classroom Still Matters in One Important Area

Without a doubt, the use of technology in the classroom has positively impacted education. The inclusion of convertible laptops, interactive whiteboards and robotics have unlocked new ways and opportunities to learn. Students now have anytime access to course content and collaboration tools, making curricula more flexible and personalized to individual learning needs.

However, in light of recent scientific research, it is clear technology still needs to be supplemented by analog materials in one fundamental part of students’ academic development – reading.

Long Live the Textbook

Screens are everywhere. Through screens we learn, we consume and we socialize. A Nielsen Company audience report found that adults in the United States devote “about 10 hours and 39 minutes” each day to using a screen.

The ubiquity of screened devices has prompted a new field of scientific inquiry investigating our relationship with on-screen text. This relationship has been examined in several contexts, including our enjoyment of novels. But some of the most important findings are in the realm of education, where a growing weight of evidence is indicating an academic benefit to using printed materials, such as paperbound textbooks, over devices like laptops and tablets.

Across academic studies, the central observation is students comprehend longer-form texts better when they read it from a printed page. For example, a recent study from the University of Maryland found students were better at “comprehending information in print for texts that were more than a page in length”. Following subsequent studies, which further probed their initial observation, co-authors Professor Patricia Alexander and Lauren Singer concluded that “overall comprehension was better for print versus digital reading”.

Interestingly, Alexander and Singer associated their findings with those made by Christoph Sanchez and Jennifer Whiley on the effects of scrolling. In an experiment which monitored the comprehension of two texts – one which was navigated through scrolling and the other through more restricted digital page-turning – the researchers found the freedom to scroll “negatively affects learning from text”.

Alexander and Singer’s study is supported by another from a team at West Chester University, who found students comprehend material in traditional books at a much higher level than the same material when read on an iPad.

It should be noted Alexander and Singer’s study found students preferred to read on a device rather than a book. This preference is meaningful. As educators and parents appreciate, a students’ willingness to engage with a text plays a key role in their assimilation and comprehension of it.

And tellingly, students have themselves identified the benefits of printed media. In a student survey, administered by linguistics professor Naomi Baron, 92% of respondents said they concentrated best on printed texts. Meanwhile, 86% of students said they preferred to read printed versions of long, academic readings. Summarizing her findings, Baron stated “Print stood out as the medium for doing serious work.”

The Science of Print 

While further studies considering a text’s host media and its impact on comprehension are on the horizon, we should reflect on why the printed page would possibly improve students’ comprehension.

Suggestions on this topic are speculative and very interesting.

Some academics have indicated it might be because we have been conditioned to approach different media in different ways.

A portal to numerous other applications and competing content, screens naturally encourage us to explore and to multi-task. Conversely, paperbound books conjure associations of more involved, concentrated style of reading, usually in places void of distraction – the beach, the library, the fireside. We are taught the idea that physical texts deserve concentration, while longer, digital texts are to be scanned or skimmed.

This is just one of many equally valid hypotheses.

Another, for instance, proposes the sensation of turning a page helps the mind map the text, allowing it to better organize and absorb information.

Whatever the exact mechanisms underpinning the value of print, this cutting-edge research demonstrates that the argument of print versus digital in the classroom is far from over. And while digital media and technological devices and tools offer a variety of benefits to students, the printed page continues to hold its own.

Of course, as all educators understand, every student and classroom is different. As teachers are the ones that best understand their pupils, they should be empowered to choose the medium and material which most suits their class.

About the Author

Christoph Ruef is VP and GM of HP’s Americas printing business. He has spent nearly 30 years working on HP’s print operations, managing global product strategy, marketing, go-to-market strategy and sales. He has worked for HP in Europe, Asia and the U.S. In these markets, he has overseen tectonic changes to the printing market, navigating the transition from black-and-white to color printers and from single function to All-in-One products. Christoph speaks English and German and resides in San Diego.