1. Origin source
for this article
This
is the age of electronics and internet. Whether to use textbook only, online
only or both is a question that everyone involved in the teaching-learning
process must face and find a solution that can ensure fruitful learning.
I
decided to share with you sources and thoughts contained therein. The idea came
to me as I was perusing through my copy-pasted collection of threads from ELT
Resources at Linkedin. In ELT Resources, Nick Edwards raised this issue of
position of textbook in the classroom in a thread with this blog post: So is the
ELT textbook dead, or not?bebcblog.wordpress.com/ http://t.co/fYZLoTQCH3.
Using
Pearson as a sample, John H Walsh, Managing Director of The Bournemouth English
Book Centre Ltd (BEBC), hints at the emerging attitude of all concerned towards
the death of books and arrival of the tablet, invites visitors to the blog to
share their thoughts and views on how ready teachers are for the tablet
and whether teachers and their institutions have the necessary skills, broadband
speed, budget and inclination to go wholly or partly digital.
Here
is the summary of the responses:
1.
Interesting
2. As far as
books being dead is concerned, I think they’re safe until a way is found for
apps
to get the student interaction element right.
3. There are certainly
challenges to be overcome with regard to training and costs when
using tablets. While textbook may continue in the classroom, it cannot be said
learning is
difficult using tablets.
4. The use of one does
not rule out the use of the other, the trick being to use tablets to
supplement and consolidate
the more “traditional” methodologies.
5. Using a tablet instead of a
course book is an interesting thought. But how far it’ll be a
viable substitution or
addition is a question, especially in a country like India where
majority of learners even
in cities come from very poor financial background. This
situation is not going to
change any time soon, which might be the case in most
developing countries.
The other
conditions like educating learners and teachers in the employment of
the tablet as a learning
and teaching tool come into the picture only later. (mine)
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2.
Websites
I
took a look at several websites related to this topic. I provide below thought
essence as expressed in these sources.
In a
workshop on Reconsidering the Textbook in 2006 attended by faculty,
publishing
houses
including Google and Microsoft decided to include resources from the
internet.
B. a UNESCO report
The report recommends a comprehensive
programme in every country to improve the
quality of textbook writing:
a. The
establishment of national clearing houses of information for the improvement of
textbooks
b. The establishment of national clearing
houses of information for the improvement of
textbook; for instance Bibliographies
of the textbooks used in each country, with an
indication of the grades and age levels
for which each textbook is intended.
c. The
preparation of source books
d. The
preparation of new materials
e. Projects
in textbook analysis
f.
The distribution oj the results of efforts to improve textbooks and teaching
material
g. Actions by individual teachers,
institutions, authors and publishers, educational
organisations, scholars, governments
C. A study in
Africa by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) recommends
a research that looks at the correlation
between textbook use and student performance.
D. A blog:
Literacy, families and learning, on published January 5, 2009 posted “Online
reading is different” posted by Trevor
Cairny
Cairny warns teachers and parents that
reading only via the internet may result in the
disappearance of ‘close’ reading, reading
literature, critical reading which are essential in
developing ‘discerning’ readers, and thus
‘scholarship’ is likely to be lost to humanity.
For those of you who may be interested to
read further, he provides other links; you can
read them by opening Cairny’s post and
clicking on the links.
Reading a book versus a screen: Different
reading devices, different modes of reading?
Date: October 21, 2011 Source: Universität Mainz
The study analyzed the differences in reading from
various kinds of media (e-book, tablet PC, paper) in two sample groups, young
and elderly adults. Each participant read various texts with different levels
of complexity on an e-book reader (Kindle 3), on a tablet PC (iPad), and on
paper. The reading behavior and the participants' corresponding neural
processes were assessed by means of concurrent measures of eye movements (eye
tracking) and electrophysiological brain activity (EEG). The criteria that were
taken into account and analyzed were changes in the theta frequency band power,
reading behavior, text comprehension, and information recall as well as the
participants' preferences for the respective medium.
Though almost all participants stated that reading
from paper was more comfortable than from an e-ink reader the study actually
showed that there was no difference in terms of reading performance between
reading from paper and from an e-ink reader. "We have thus demonstrated
that the subjective preference for the printed book is not an indicator of how
fast and how well the information is processed," concludes Professor
Schlesewsky.
For Many
Students, Print Is Still King
By
Jennifer Howard JANUARY 27, 2013
Despite the hype about e-books, the classic textbook hasn't gone away.
In fact, the hold-it-in-your-hands book remains the first choice for many
instructors and students.
The
writer quotes teachers of several knowledge disciplines who indicate that
students still prefer printed books though digital versions are available.
Here’s
a summary of the responses from readers of this post:
1. With a paper text, it’s easier to flip back
and forth any number of times
2.
With a paper text it’s easier to annotate, write notes.
3. You
don't need margins (which is, I take it, what you mean by "open
space" in ebooks to take notes. You just highlight the text on which you
want to comment and then start typing your note. You get an entirely new screen
in which to type your note.
4. When
reading from a computer screen we tend to "skim" and constantly have
to go back to reread parts for comprehension or depth.
5.
kongzi the_truth_ferret I'm also interested in finding
studies (if there are any) that don't necessarily conclude that electronic is
inferior. My own personal experience suggests that reading electronic
texts often has disadvantages relative to printed text.
6. Students will select a digital
format if it's free, BECAUSE it's free, not because they really prefer it.
7. Unlike
digital sources, several paper texts can be used at a time and cross-referring
is smoother. They are always available. Digital ‘data bases’ can disappear ;
however, digital is good for portability.
8.
Kindle for light reading and paper text for serious reading
9.
print for anything with graphs, sidebars, images
with captions, etc., because ebooks and ebook readers don't display those
things very well yet in my experience.
10.
New paper on user's ability to
remember and comprehend online text vs. printed text: http://link.springer.com/artic...
In the first two experiments, participants’ memory for
Facebook posts was found to be strikingly stronger than their memory for human
faces or sentences from books …
Reading Printed versus Online Texts. A Study of EFL Learners' Strategic
Reading Behavior
Uso-Juan, Esther; Ruiz-Madrid, Ma. Noelia
International Journal of English Studies, v9 n2 p59-79 2009
Fifty university students from the discipline of Tourism read a research
article in English taken from an online journal. Half the students read it in a
printed format and the other half read
it in its online version. The results of an English academic reading test revealed
that the hypertextual medium 1) did not affect learners' overall reading
comprehension, and 2) promoted the use of reading strategies, including both
top-down and bottom-up strategies. These results are discussed and suggestions
for further research are given.
The
writer lists advantages of ebooks:
1) less expensive than regular books, 2) take up no
space, 3) far more convenient in that I can carry almost my entire library with
me everywhere, 4) searchable (a tremendous boon to my research), and 5) much
easier to read in bed 6) instant availability of ebooks accelerates the speed
of my research activity.
The
blog quotes conclusion from Slate’s article: No More Pencils, No More Books: Artificially intelligent software is
replacing the textbook—and reshaping American education: while
technology is not a panacea as yet, proponents of paper text have to explain
why the status quo is good enough.
14. Factors that
influence online Reading: An Investigation into EFL Students’ Perceptions
By Min-chen Tseng, National Taiwan University of Arts
published in The Reading Matrix, Volume 10, Number 1, April 2010
This
study investigated how online reading affected EFL students’ reading comprehension
and reported the difficulties eighty-eight first year Taiwanese EFL students. The
major difficulties included eyestrain, inability to take notes or underline
text, and skipping lines when reading hypertext on computer screens.
Possible
solution are also offered: 1. Teachers should choose appropriate web sites so
students do not waste time and can focus on reading. 2. Adjusting the setting
of computer screens and of web pages is equally important. Results obtained in
this study clearly suggest that students experienced eye strain, felt visibly
tired and this affected their reading performance. There are several tips for
reducing eyestrain (Natural Eye Care, 2009; Poynton, 1997; Ankrum, n.d.). 3. Schools
could provide custom-made courses to train students how to look for and mine
information on the Internet and how to read through its many hyperlinks.
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3. my
observations
Here there are two groups of people: one personal thoughts
based on their classroom experience, and the other results from studies. We
need to take the ‘thoughts’ with a pinch of salt. In these studies where
students have been involved in investigations or studies indicate preference to
one or the other or both.
How far do we give credence to the results? The
samples have not been huge, the right questions may not have been asked, the
day they were tested may or may not have the best day for them, if these tests
were conducted in another batch of students of the same institution, in another
institution, in another district, in another country, the results could be very
different.
The other aspect is the question in the title. This is appropriate only
in those environments where electronic facilities are within the reach of students
and institutions. The debate can go on and based on their local philosophies,
the decision can be one way or the other. But the question doesn’t apply to
those environments where electronic facilities are not within the reach of
students and institutions.
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