Biliteracy in the digital age
Abilities to effectively read both digital and print material
I’m somewhat obsessed about making tangible options for the core learning and awareness raising material for Edaith. But it’s more than my personal love of physical books and printed material because of the associations they conjure with learning, inspiration, empowerment and nostalgia.
Research has found that the reading we do on digital devices compared to paper-based reading affects the brain in different ways and can impact cognitive abilities.
Of course, by creating this brief I am contributing to the abundance of digital material to read online. But rather than simply providing a fleeting distraction or satisfying the need for constant novelty, I hope this work might instead shed light on ideas that pull us back to momentary deep reading. To the difficult but satisfying act of contemplation, to better serve our attention and ourselves.
Tina
Biliteracy in the digital age
Reading on digital devices instead of deep reading books has implications for our intellectual, social-emotional and ethical development. To adapt our skillsets, we need to cultivate contemporary biliteracy, capabilities for effective digital and non-screen based reading.
UCLA Professor Maryanne Wolf is renowned for her work on the effects of different mediums on human intellectual development. Building on her research on how we developed the ability to read, she’s found that reading on digital devices can detriment our ability to read books. Her research explains that the more time we spend using screens, the more likely we are to employ skim reading, superficial information-gathering and succumb to constant checking for new information or distractions.
In contrast, books or printed material call for slower reading, greater attention and time commitment. Wolf argues that these processes develop ‘deep reading circuits’ of the brain, which support some of our most important intellectual and affective processes: internalised knowledge, analogical reasoning, and inference; perspective-taking and empathy; critical analysis and the generation of insight (Wolf 2018).
“We are still in the early stages of understanding the impact of digital-based learning on the development of children’s reading brains, as well as on the maintenance of reading brains in adults. Transforming new information into consolidated knowledge in the brain’s circuitry requires multiple connections to abstract reasoning skills, each of which requires the kind of time and attention often absent in digital reading.” Maryanne Wolf, 2020
Wolf’s book Reader Come Home (2018) cites a range of research findings exemplifying that for children from grade five or six as well as adults, comprehension declines when reading the same material on screens rather than in print – what is referred to across studies as the ‘screen inferiority effect’. At the same time, readers often perceive themselves as more efficient reading on screens because they read ‘faster.’
What we can do
Practice and encourage ‘biliteracy.’ Maintain or develop a habit of ‘deep reading’ books. Sustained close reading - the careful, prolonged interpretation of a brief passage of a text - is key to redeveloping attention and maintaining critical thinking, empathy and a range of skills in decline (Wolf 2018).
Children should first be taught to read physical books to reinforce the brain’s reading circuit through experience, and then how to use digital media and sources effectively. Screen inferiority effect in children can be moderated by adult’s mediation in the reading process e.g. by asking questions about what is being read, enhancing the content with background knowledge, ensuring attention stays with the target content (Furenes et al 2021).
Throughout our lives, we need to maintain our digital literacy. Staying up to date on how to use and scrutinise novel technologies to ensure they serve our interests. Being able to appropriately utilise digital platforms and online information in addition to the ability to read deeply benefits our broader understandings and capabilities with both digital and paper-based materials.
References
Wolf, M. 2018. Reader Come Home. The Reading Brain in a Digital World. Harper Collins Publishers.