RECENT NEWS: OLD STYLE BOOK READING MAY BE BETTER

A fascinating story in Science Daily in December summarizes the findings of a professor from the Center for Reading Research at the University of Stavanger in Norway. Anne Mangen feels that educators should take a closer look at digital teaching aids, and their effect on cognition, memory, and attention. "Learning requires time and mental exertion and the new media do not provide for that," she says. Reading from a book, on the other hand, gives the reader more opportunity for reflection. Mangen calls for a "more nuanced view on the potentials and limitations of all technologies – even of the book" and warns against "a tendency to reduce a complex field to a question about being for or against."