A study by a doctoral student at the University of
Maryland, College Park, surveyed undergraduates about their use of print and digital
formats. They were asked to read both the print and digital forms of a
newspaper and a book to evaluate their comprehension skills.
The results showed that while 76% of the respondents
preferred reading digital formats, 60% retained more information from the
printed material. The survey also found that every student incorrectly
predicted which format helped them retain information better.
“Students not only picked that they performed better in
digital, but they did so with such conviction,” Lauren Singer, the graduate
student conducting the survey, told the university’s student newspaper.
“That, to me, has bigger educational implications. If we think we do better [in
one medium] and we are studying that way, but that’s not really the most
productive or useful to us personally, imagine how that’s affecting our
classroom success.”
At the same time, Singer found that there is a place
for consuming digital information.
“If I’m just browsing the morning news to see what the
big stories are, it’s OK, because all you need is the main idea,” Singer said.
“But if I’m reading an article for class later and I want to thoroughly
understand this article, I’m going to remember more and be able to connect
those ideas better when I read it in print. As classrooms change so rapidly, we
need to look more at these tasks deliberately, and then pick [our medium] based
on that.”
