The Enduring Power of Print for Learning in A Digital World

Today’s students see themselves as digital natives, the first generation to grow up surrounded by technology like smartphones, tablets and e-readers. We’ve seen students now equipped with school-issued iPads and access to e-textbooks. Given this trend, it might be assumed that students’ familiarity and preference for technology translates into better learning outcomes. But more and more studies show that it’s not always the case. So, there are some lessons that can be conveyed to us about print’s place in an increasingly digital world.

We all read for many reasons. Sometimes we’re looking for an answer to a very specific question. Other times, we want to browse a newspaper for today’s headlines. As we’re about to pick up an article or text in a printed or digital format, we should keep in mind why we’re reading. There’s likely to be a difference in which medium works best for which purpose.

One of the most consistent findings of the studies is that, for some tasks, medium doesn’t seem to matter. If all students are being asked to do is to understand and remember the big idea of what they’re reading, there’s no benefit in selecting one medium over another. But when the reading assignment demands more engagement or deeper comprehension, students may be better off reading print. Teachers could make students aware that their ability to comprehend the assignment may be influenced by the medium they choose.

In another experiment, researchers were able to create meaningful records of college students based on the way they read and comprehended from printed and digital texts. Among those records, it was found that a select group of undergraduates who actually comprehended better when they moved from print to digital. But they actually read slower when the text was on the computer than when it was in a book. Using this select group as a model, students could possibly be taught or directed to fight the tendency to glide through online texts.

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9 . It's hard to imagine a person today who would not be able to recognize at least one of Charles Schulz's beloved cartoon characters.

For the older generation, the beloved Peanuts strip continues to run in newspapers worldwide today. For the younger generation, Snoopy merchandise was part and parcel of growing up. For even younger fans the 2015 Peanuts movie will make sure that the memory of Charlie Brown, Lucy and Snoopy will not fade with time, like its pencil counterpart.

Peanuts is memorialized especially in Sonoma County California. The county is home to the Charles M. Schulz Museum, the well-known guardian angel of Schulz's memory. Schulz moved there in 1958 eight years after Peanuts made its debut in newspapers.

Although Schulz decided to put down lasting rots in the warm and sunny southwest, he often thought of his hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota. He remembered that in his childhood, every sidewalk in front of every school had a sheet of ice at least ten feet long, worn smooth from the kids sliding on it. Just over ten years later, Schulz purchased an old ice rink and opened Snoop's Home Ice, the Redwood Empire Ice Arena, which bordered the property housing his studio. Whenever the snowy days of his childhood crossed his mind, Schulz was eager to allow his children to enjoy the hobbies he pursued in his youth, and encouraged them to pick up ice hockey and figure skating. That's why the cold winters in his drawings always remind people of the Midwest.

Schulz spent the last thirty years of his life on this property. He wrote in his studio, ate in the Warm Puppy Café at the ice rink and enjoyed, as he described it "hanging out." The artist passed away in his sleep on February 12, 2002, one day before his final original Sunday strip appeared in newspapers around the world.

The Peanuts strip follows the lives of children but they were by no means Schulz's target audience. Instead, Schulz holds the camera at a child's level and observes the truths of adult life from their perspective. Themes of love, loss and failure were throughout his work, all of which were inspired by events in his own life. It is Schulz's gentle, humorous explanation of the world's hash realities that ensures Peanuts will be preserved in years to come.

10 . The red phone box in Britain is a perfect example of the British traditional culture. However, with the fast development of mobile phones, it has lost its place in people’s everyday life. In order to save their loved red phone boxes, people have come up with many ideas, for example, to turn them into toilets or art houses.

In a village in Somerset, a place in South West England, villagers have found a new way to save their red phone box.     1    . The idea was given by a local villager, Janet Fisher, who lives opposite the phone box. Villagers rallied together to set up the book box after their mobile library service was cancelled. Over 100 books and a variety of movies and music CDs are available at this tiny library.     2    .

People can put the books that they have read inside the phone box, and take away the books that they’d like to read.     3    . There is a regular check on the books to keep the phone box collection fresh.

    4    . The phone box library is open every day around the clock and is lit at night. “ It’s very pleasing that the red phone box has been saved. More importantly, it can continue providing a service for us,” said the villagers.