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> Digital textbooks can offer so much more than print textbooks. Yes, digital textbooks can offer so much more, and yet maybe the "so much more" is their bigge
by tpkj 9y ago
> Digital textbooks can offer so much more than print textbooks.
Yes, digital textbooks can offer so much more, and yet maybe the "so much more" is their biggest pitfall: they (and/or the device serving as their platform) offer near limitless opportunities for distraction. While our attention span - or our lack thereof, trained as we are by the 3 second rule TV commercials push on us - might be able to get a major workout that leaves us exhausted and feeling like we have accomplished something (though in reality, hardly anything) - the digital format and form of delivery can rob us of our ability to freely focus. Let's face it, even with a good old-fashioned hard cover we can encounter distractions, and when we use digital, we're opening ourselves up to overwhelming levels of "opportunities for distraction" in which environment the human mind/body/condition is incapable of flourishing. Ironically, the very limitations of the physical textbook may be one of its liberating features.
- ktta 9y agoI think that argument is often made because it is easy to make. Just because one reads from a paper textbook means one is avoiding distractions? What about phones and their incessant alerts? One way you can avoid distractions is to limit the features of the device. Pull internet access. The problem here is with the student more than the device. I tend to get distracted a lot when reading a digital textbook too. It takes effort, but also does not looking at your phone when you are reading a textbook.
- afarrell 9y agoOne has the option of leaving the phone in a dorm room and going to the library. > the problem here is with the student. In all such things, we need to think about the combined student-device system, no? Especially since it is orders of magnitude cheaper and more straightforward to change the device than to change the student.
- d0lph 9y agoStill, I think it's easier to ignore a distraction on a phone, which you can easily put on silent vs. a computer where you're a click away from facebook. The less effort that's required to focus, the better.
- tpkj 9y agohttps://hbr.org/2017/10/in-a-distracted-world-solitude-is-a-competitive-advantage https://hbr.org/2017/10/in-a-distracted-world-solitude-is-a-...
- novalis78 9y agoThat's a great point. The other day in a teacher parent conference a 30 year veteran elementary teacher told me that the "attention a pan" of kids was down to 5 minutes. After five minutes on a subject the kids would completely shut down. Every five minutes she has to completely switch gears - within the same subject and same topic - just to keep them entertained enough to not lose their focus. "Digital media have shredded their ability to focus."
- posterboy 9y agoI bet the kind of attention matters, ie. what matter is payed attention to. Keen observation anyhow.
- speleding 9y ago> they offer near limitless opportunities My daughter is in a book-free school where all textbooks are provided on an iPad and I can tell you that the vast majority are glorified PDF readers with an occasional video. They only just started to exploit any of the advantages the new medium offers.