On Sunday of Sole-24 ore last week, in a section dedicated to e-books, Roberto Casati apre un articolo: "Non mi risultano dati scientifici che comparino l'esperienza di leggere un e-book a quella di leggere un libro su carta" (a p. 22). I dati, però, ci sono e possono essere considerati ormai assestati.
Naturalmente, il modo in cui Casati parla della lettura è molto generico. Che cosa si intende per "comparino l'esperienza"? Per esempio, potremmo intendere una descrizione delle diversità di comportamento. E qui le cose cambiano molto da un tipo di testo all'altro. I romanzi - beh, si leggono su Kindle e iPad esattamente come su carta: una pagina alla volta, dall'inizio alla fine.
Diversa è la situazione per i libri di studio. Per esempio, Jenny Lau ha sintetizzato in questo modo la bibliografia recente in un articolo intitolato Students’ experience of using electronic textbooks in different levels of education ( Scroll , 1, 1, 2008):
Learning behaviour changes when one accesses text in electronic format. Students are accustomed to scan through the text to get an overview of the material. This, however, becomes difficult while using an electronic version (Waycott & Kukulska-Hulme, 2003). Instead of scanning through the text, students may skim it. When reading electronic text, students prefer to start from the table of contents to determine which chapters seem relevant (Hernoon, Hopper, Leach, Saunders, & Zhang, 2007). Highlighting, underlining, and taking notes, Activities That Are Considered to support active reading, are not Equally represented in digital form. For instance, medical students taking notes Found That Was not in electronic format as natural as with paper (Morton, Foreman, Goede, Bezzant, & Albertine, 2007) (p. 5).
Or, we may decide to answer Casati on this point not so much trying to figure out if the experiences are different, as if the rating is different. Lau found greater acceptance in the bibliography (obvious) of electronic texts by younger generations. If the preference goes to those absolute, however, things change, as shown by an original study by William Douglas Woody, David B. Daniel and Crystal A. Baker, E-books or textbooks: Students prefer textbooks, published Computers & Education, 55, 2010, pp. 945-948 (unfortunately, only available for a fee or subscribe to networks). The abstract says it all:
Previous research has demonstrated That the experience of reading e-books is not equivalent to reading textbooks. This study examines factors influencing preference for e-books as well as Reported use of e-book content. Although the present student cohort is The Most technologically savvy to ever enter universities, students do not prefer e-books over textbooks Their regardless of gender, computer use or comfort with computers. No Significant correlations Existed Between the number of e-books previously used and overall preference of e-books: Participants who HAD previously used an e-book still preferred print texts for learning. Despi Easily the ability to access books through supplemental content via hyperlinks and other features, Were students more Likely to use special features books in print Than in e-books.
In essence, given a choice, students prefer to study books on paper. And, since they react in this way, even students who have already used e-book, the probable cause of this preference is not the habit, but the simple usability. The experts know this, but it will take a while ' of time before these findings become common knowledge ...
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