Most U.S. College Students Now Prefer Digital Reading

Tue Mar 20 14:56:14 EDT 2012

Colleagues/

Speaking of distractions

"Finding Your Book Interrupted ... By the Tablet You Read It On"

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/05/business/media/e-books-on-tablets-fight-digital-distractions.html

/Gerry

________________________________
From: Web technologies in libraries [WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU] on behalf of Sandford, Mark [SANDFORDM1 at WPUNJ.EDU]
Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2012 8:30 AM
To: WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [WEB4LIB] Most U.S. College Students Now Prefer Digital Reading

Cindy, it’s the availability of distractions that I meant.  You can swap to another app without moving (well, just a finger has to move, I guess).  There’s anecdotal evidence to suggest that the lure of email and Facebook lurking just a swipe away is difficult for some to ignore.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/05/business/media/e-books-on-tablets-fight-digital-distractions.html?pagewanted=all

And don’t some tablets have notifications when emails/IMs/tweets/etc come in?  Plenty of people I know can’t resist that new email notification from Outlook when they’re on their computer.

Regarding Sharon’s comments, I would argue that the cost of switching between tasks is not intuitively obvious to many people.  People pride themselves on their ability to multitask.  I see students insisting nearly every day that they can text, check Facebook, have one earbud stuck in an ear, and still pay attention in class.  They say they work best that way.  Which might be true, in the sense that my old van worked best when I put it in neutral at red lights and revved the engine so it didn’t stall.

Mark Sandford
Special Formats Cataloger
Cheng Library
William Paterson University
(973) 720-2437

From: Web technologies in libraries [mailto:WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Cindy
Sent: Monday, March 19, 2012 4:27 PM
To: WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [WEB4LIB] Most U.S. College Students Now Prefer Digital Reading

What kind of interruption are you talking about with a tablet? In my experience, once you start reading on a tablet, it's the same as if you were reading a book. Sure you could close the book and start playing a game if your tablet has that ability, but you could get the same distraction from a regular book and a nearby gaming console. The studies on multi-tasking don't apply here.

Cindy

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Cynthia Greenan, MLS
Submissions Coordinator
Portal of Geriatric Online Education (POGOe.org)

On Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 11:01 AM, Sharon Foster <fostersm1 at gmail.com<mailto:fostersm1 at gmail.com>> wrote:
Not entirely on point, but there has been a study of the effect of interruptions on tasks like writing software that require a stretch of uninterrupted thinking time. The "cost" of the interruption is considerably more than the length of the interruption itself, as the person who is being interrupted has to context switch from one task to another and then back again. This is intuitively obvious to most of us.

I don't have the resources at my fingertips, but the article I'm thinking of would have been in an ACM or IEEE publication, probably on software standards and practices, approximately 10 years ago.

Sharon
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Sharon M. Foster
Information Wrangler

“Are women citizens? Are we human? Does the Constitution not apply to us?”
~Rebecca in Harlem, 3/14/2012

On Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 9:11 AM, Sandford, Mark <SANDFORDM1 at wpunj.edu<mailto:SANDFORDM1 at wpunj.edu>> wrote:
Among our students, the most popular format is, by a good margin, whatever is cheapest.  Our bookstore rents textbooks for a semester and that is the most popular option.

I’m curious what, if any, effect the format has on comprehension and retention of subject material.  Using a tablet as a reader introduces any number of instantly-available distractions, which is very dangerous to a generation that generally believes their brains are capable of efficient multitasking.  Is anyone aware of any studies that have looked into that?

Mark Sandford
Special Formats Cataloger
Cheng Library
William Paterson University
(973) 720-2437<tel:%28973%29%20720-2437>

From: Web technologies in libraries [mailto:WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU<mailto:WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU>] On Behalf Of McKiernan, Gerard [LIB]
Sent: Saturday, March 17, 2012 10:35 AM
To: WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU<mailto:WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU>
Subject: [WEB4LIB] Most U.S. College Students Now Prefer Digital Reading

*** Apologies for Receipt of Duplicate Postings ***

Colleagues

IMHO > Transformative !

/Gerry

The majority of U.S. college students now prefer digital formats whether they’re reading textbooks or “fun” books, according to a new survey from the Pearson Foundation.

“Survey on Students and Tablets 2012” polled 1,206 U.S. college students and 204 college-bound high school seniors. Some findings:

—College students prefer digital over print for “fun” reading (57 percent) and textbook reading (58 percent), “a reversal from last year, when more students preferred print over digital.” Pearson says the trend is also apparent among high-school seniors (though it doesn’t break out which format the majority prefer), “and is mostly driven by an increase in the preference to use tablets for reading.” The study doesn’t ask whether students are using tablets or e-ink e-readers for reading.

—A quarter of college students now own a tablet, compared to just 7 percent last year. Seventeen percent of college-bound high school seniors own a tablet, compared to four percent last year.

—Thirty-five percent of college students who own a tablet also own “an e-book reader or small tablet device.” (Not sure what a “small tablet device” is! Asking Pearson.)

—Among college students who own tablets, the iPad is the most popular (63 percent), followed by the Kindle Fire (26 percent) and Samsung Galaxy Tab (15 percent).

Source and Links Available Via

[ http://bit.ly/yGtqh5 ]

Gerry McKiernan

Associate Professor

and

Science and Technology Librarian

Iowa State University

152 Parks Library

Ame IA 50011

http://digital-textbooks.blogspot.com/

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