Printed Vs. Electronic: The Struggle To Choose Between Medias

Instructional materials are the communication networks used by an educator in the setting of a classroom during the teaching and learning course to concretize an idea. Conventionally, the 'talk-chalk' method were profoundly by instructors during their lecture. But in the modern education, instructional materials aid to fulfill the gaps in the method wherein different lessons are taught. According to Dike (1989), instructional materials facilitate both teaching and learning, and students are unable to do well when they are not available. Thus, this implies that the use of instructional materials and resources is important to educational targets and aspirations. Consequently, instructional materials are the communication medium through which a message transfer between a sender and a recipient is facilitated (Tyler, 1987).

For the past decades, distinction of printed books and electronic books have been provided for the common format of instructional materials. Cambridge dictionary defined a printed book (p-book) as an object consisting of a number of pages of text or pictures fastened together along one edge and fixed inside two covers. A “print book” specifically refers to a physical book, the one printed on paper. Hawkins (2000) states that an electronic book (e-book) denotes to the digital or electronic version of a book, which is viewed on an electronic device.

According to Robles (2015), with the introduction of Republic Act 10533, the Enhanced Basic Education Curriculum or known as K-12 Curriculum, the demand for the instructional materials tripled as the learners chose to study in the public schools for two (2) additional years. In contrast, studying in the 21st century provides results-based education for students who are very confident with internet and software. With this, Basilan (2016) echoed that the requirement to exercise active facilitation methods and skills in the expansion of K-12 education is imminent as educators now named as facilitators and training distributors. The government must provide instructional materials that will equitize student's appetite for knowledge with due respect to their technological assets.

In the lens of instructional materials and resources, there exist a problematic scene when printed book and electronic book coincide in the context of education. According to Haugh (2016), the shift from physical materials to digital holdings has resulted to numerous departmental problem. The shift from physical materials to digital holdings has slowly infiltrated libraries across the globe, and librarians are struggling to make sense of these intangible, and sometimes fleeting, resources. Materials budgets have shifted to accommodate large journal and database subscriptions, single-title article access, and, most recently, e-book holdings. Moreover, Amemado (2014) claimed that when e-books have achieved a critical mass and reached maximum popularity, use of the remaining print books can be expected to drop significantly.

[The reasons are] distance education, electronic documentation and virtual library; collaborative work at a distance within and between university academics; Web 2.0 and the customization of environments; the economy on development and management costs of digital environments dedicated to teaching activities at an institutional level.

On the other side, Jeong (2012) argued on his paper that he found a significant “book effect” on quiz scores; compared to e-books, p-books appear to enable better reading comprehension and regarding eye fatigue, students had significantly less eye fatigue after reading p-books than after reading e-books.

Second, reading from a screen is not the same as reading from a p-book. This study found that the students’ CFF scores were different for e-books and p-books. We found that the students experienced more eye fatigue when reading e-books than when reading p-books. Eye fatigue can cause students to grow tired and may even cause nervousness. We found that sustained or intentional reading of digital texts on screen displays was difficult in part because of hardware limitations and ergonomics: stationary computer screens require static reading positions, and poor type representation impedes reading and causes eye fatigue.

In the context of education, the instructional materials and resources incorporates printed materials (p-books) and multi-media materials (e-books) as well as materials used in the classroom and available in the libraries. The method used to choose these resources is crucial in providing students and teachers with a dense basis for learning and accomplishment of competencies in teaching. Thus, the question of which medium, channel or network is to be used when the need for the adequate resource or material is needed. Printed books are still the most compact and inexpensive means of conveying a dense amount of knowledge in a convenient package (Blumenfeld, 1999). Moreover, the CQUniversity Library (2019) stated:

Scholarly books contain authoritative information and this can include comprehensive accounts of research or scholarship, historical data, overviews, experts' views on themes/topics. Use a book when you require background information and related research on a topic, when you want to add depth to a research topic or put your topic in context with other important issues. Likewise, the Open University (2014) stated:

Text books can present a focused view of a key issue. In producing a text with a specific theme, the author has drawn on a range of sources and synthesized these into a set of coherent arguments. Text books often highlight the key features of lengthier pieces of work, and also provide you with the full bibliographic references of the primary material.

Contrariwise, Staiger (2012) argued that students seem to favor e-books for its convenience of use, making it a sufficiently student friendly tool for gathering resources. Doiron (2011) cited the following researchers in his book, Using E-Books and E-Readers to Promote Reading in School Libraries: Lessons from the Field:

Researchers have explored how e-books have benefits for children’s reading engagement (Moody, Justice, & Cabell, 2010) and how they may actually help readers better understand the texts they are reading (Larson, 2009). The rich multimedia features in many newer e-books (such as audio narration, sound effects, animations, links to dictionaries, etc.) support the reading of the text and help readers visualize meaning and comprehend more easily (Grimshaw, 2007). Also, he cited that the convenience of using e-books is evident for they are require less budget, they consumes smaller spaces and can be easily updated.

It conclusion, the print and electronic textbooks both have advantages and disadvantages. Most causes came from the format medium, but others depend on the user’s perspective or specific textbook features (Woody et al., 2010). Thus, pupils are subjected to learn on either type of textbook.

Leading factors why there is a trend on electronic versions take account of cost, convenience, and interactivity. In general, e-books costs cheaper than print versions. However, most have a restricted authorization and unavailability to the user. Shin (2014) mentioned that “When students find valuable information, they want it stored on their personal computer or in a computer network to secure its permanency. They do not consider an e-book as a permanent place to store valuable information”. Print textbooks, on the one hand, can be present all the time. Even though, the versatility of an e-book, in all anytime and anywhere, it’s accessibility and collaborative characteristics can sometimes suffice for users to turn to print.

Overall, the decision to choose between print and electronic textbooks is very complex. Different people, different priorities and preferences. But in the Philippine Context, Firat (2016) as cited in Garcia (2017) explained that by proliferating and integrating e-learning technology in the Philippine education system, the transformation of teaching and learning process increases the academic achievements of Filipino college students. While, according to the site of Department of Education (DepEd), Priority given to textbooks and teacher’s manuals; amounts from the aforementioned budget for instructional materials, shall be utilized for the procurement of textbooks and teacher’s manuals approved for use in public schools by the DECS Instructional Materials Council.

Content and cost are the typical considerations when deciding on which medium to put budget. As stated earlier, electronic books are more budget-friendly. Since they are not printed, e-books are able to incorporate features such as color and images with no additional cost (Heider et al., 2009). Yet, e-books require some electronic devices to access the book.

The effectiveness of learning in regard to different types of textbooks is obvious. Chulkov and VanAlstine (2013) established “the achievement of learning outcomes was not significantly different between students using printed and electronic textbooks”. However, the rate of gathering information of students appear to be a different in how efficient students were. Daniel & Woody (2013) affirmed, “e-textbooks may actually be less efficient than paper-based textbooks because students take significantly longer to read the e-textbook than the paper version”. Mangen et al. (2013) reprimanded that, “Scrolling is known to hamper the process of reading, by imposing a spatial instability which may negatively affect the reader’s mental representation of the text and, by implication, comprehension”.

In general, e-textbooks and print versions are better suited for different types of reading. Mulholland & Bates (2014) stressed that electronic textbooks are “used like reference books, to locate information and evidence rapidly, viewings are brief, and users do not normally read the entire book,” in contrast “print books are preferred for extended reading”.