Technology. Oh how it has changed the face of training and education over the past decade. Today, everything in training is going virtual – from classrooms, to instructors and even to when you want it – live or on demand.
It would be natural, therefore, to assume that along with all of the virtual aspects of training and education, course materials will follow suit. Not so fast. There may just be a chink in the armor of all this movement toward virtualization that may surprise you.
Skimming through the plethora of non-business emails that I get on a daily basis, I was intrigued by the subject in one email that stated: “Printed or online training materials?” Interesting, I thought to myself. So before clicking the delete button, and to satisfy my intrigue, I double-clicked on this particular email and started following the hyperlinks contained therein. To say the least, I was somewhat surprised by what I found.
Access to Information
Let me first preface why I’m surprised.
In a world that has become increasingly digitized, we can all attest to the fact that how people access information today is nothing like it was a generation ago. Back in the day, if you wanted to learn what was going on in the world around you, you would usually pick up a newspaper or magazine at the newsstand and peruse through the print pages.
Today, we also can attest to the fact that laptops, tablets and smartphones have supplanted many forms of gathering information from printed media to the point of oblivion.
For a person such as myself, who over the past three decades has spent a lot of time in airports, the evidence for this assertion is quite stark. Twenty or even 10 years ago, if you stopped to notice what travelers were doing to pass the time in the waiting area of airports, you knew what people were reading because you could see them engrossed in a USA Today, a book or maybe a People magazine.
Fast forward to today. Unless you’re doing a little shoulder surfing on the plane or train, or in the waiting area, there is really no way to tell what people are reading. Why? Because instead of printed papers, books and magazines, people are now engrossed in their smartphones, tablets and laptops.
In the past few years, I have found myself using eBook apps like Kindle more and more to the point that I cannot remember the last time I cracked open a printed book, unless I did not have a copy of it on my iPhone or iPad.
Preferences
Given this evolution in information gathering, it would be a likely assumption that in the world of educational and learning materials the time has come to pitch the printers and binding equipment. Right? However, according to some recent studies conducted by universities and private research firms, the answer to that question may be: “not so fast.”
A University of Washington pilot study of digital textbooks found that a quarter of students still bought print versions of e-textbooks that they were given for free. Why?
Noted expert on language and technology, Naomi Baron, says students liked reading in print over digital formats because, as one student stated: “It takes me longer because I read more carefully.”
Baron goes on to explain: “The science of why dead-tree versions are often superior to digital is because readers tend to skim on screens, distraction is inevitable and comprehension suffers.”
Print or Digital
For a new generation of e-Centric individuals, such as millennials who have grown up on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, this is quite astounding. As Baron quipped: “These are people who aren’t supposed to remember what it’s like to even smell books.”
As a lifelong educator and learner myself, I tend to agree, however, with a bit of trepidation. There are other factors involved that may be presenting a conflict of intent when it comes to printed versus digitized learning materials.
One such factor is the business aspect of printed versus digitized materials. Training organizations and learning institutions are proponents of digitized resources, citing such short-term benefits as cost savings and the ability to update materials more expediently.
However, as the aforementioned studies have stated, the long-term drawbacks to using digital resources – like lower comprehension, retention and overall learner experiences – are issues that may be overlooked in lieu of the short-term benefits.
Another factor is in the inherent technology of digitized materials. One of the preeminent advantages that digitized content has over print is in the access of supplemental and supporting materials.
For example, I recently completed reading a very scholarly book of theology by Dr. Tom Wright that contained many words and references that I was not familiar with. As I mentioned earlier, all of my recent reads have been using Kindle.
This app was very resourceful when I came across words such as exogenesis and apikorsim. With a simple click, these words or references produced instant access to materials that would define or explain their meaning. Alas, I could not have done that so easily with a printed copy of the book.
So as the old adage goes, there is a time and a place for everything. However, in regard to learning materials, take a moment to consider that the old printer may still have a bit of usefulness before it’s pitched in favor of that new app.
Paul Ulasien is president and senior partner of Business Training Consultants (www.biztrainingconsult.com). The company provides innovative and effective training strategies based on Social Learning Theory that strives to stimulate individual learning retention and then share what has been learned to individuals throughout the social fabric of the organization. Ulasien has more than 30 years of experience in training consulting and education. He serves on the Advisory Panel of Faulkner Information Services, a provider of IT and communications information services; has been an Adjunct Professor of Graduate Business Studies; and holds dual Masters Degrees in Business Administration and Industrial-Organizational Psychology.
