Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ What does switching from paper to screens mean for how we read?

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

As someone who spends a lot of time summarizing text I've read on a screen, with a desire to do so accurately, the question of whether it's harder to read screen text than print is close to home. There are differences, to be sure. But it's not clear that beyond such obvious factors of font size and clarity that the difference lies in the medium rather than in the reader. Many of us (if not most, still) learned to read using print media. So reading on the screen is something new, and our print-reading habits might not translate well. This article explores a number of explanations for the 'screen inferiority effect' but nothing is really known for certain. "It may already be worthwhile to try to deliberately adjust reading strategies based on your reading goals," write the authors. I totally agree. Pro tip: read the article paragraph by paragraph from the bottom up. 

Today: 2 Total: 932 [Direct link] [Share]


Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

Copyright 2024
Last Updated: Dec 09, 2024 2:25 p.m.

Canadian Flag Creative Commons License.

Force:yes