Computers Versus Books Exception

Other Examples of, and An Exception to, Computers Being Educationally Better Than Books:
An Addendum to the Essay Computers Versus Books and Paper in Schools?
Rick Garlikov

One example of computers being more educational than books is the greater plethora of easily found explanations on the Internet than are available in a library or bookstore, particularly explanations of parts of topics within a larger topic. If you are having trouble understanding certain aspects of math, such as how to add fractions or how to convert fractions into decimal and vice versa, you can find many explanations on the Internet pretty quickly and then try to find one among them that you can understand in a way that makes sense to you. Someone can post an explanation of some small but troublesome problem without having to write a whole book around it in order to make it available to the public; and many people do just that.

Another is the ability of computers and the Internet to instantly provide broadcast video material of recorded works, such as those of historical speeches, news stories as they were seen at the time, or other events. Videos of historical events or persons can give a flavor and often an understanding or an appreciation that the printed word cannot.

However, too many people mistakenly believe that video or graphic presentations are inherently better explanations than print explanations, and that is not necessarily, nor often, true. I have seen plenty of explanations of math and physics and principles of physics presented in detailed, colorful animations with accompanying narration that give no better nor more meaningful explanations than poor ones found in books. I have seen great explanations in books of material. While graphic animations with narrative offers more potential for a good explanation in some cases than print, the explanation itself still has to be good, no matter what form it is in. A poor explanation given in video form is no better than one given by a teacher in a classroom if the teacher can't explain the material well. A recording of a poor explanation is no better than a live viewing of it in person. Oppositely, there are explanations often given in books that can teach students very well if the student attends to them carefully and with reflection.Some of these explanations are even purely verbal, with no pictures or graphics, whatsoever.

There are two arts involved in understanding explanations: 1) the explanation has to be designed well so that it will most likely take the student or viewer/reader/listener from what s/he understands to what s/he is trying to understand in a way that makes sense, and 2) the viewer/reader/listener has to have active analytic skills to be able to make sense of any explanation given. Learning often requires an active, inquisitive, reflective mind that seeks connections and coherence with what one already knows or can derive. Writers can state connections, but it often takes work to perceive them and see their ramifications. This is particularly true about material involving new concepts or analyses of common ones. Conceptual understanding is not just a matter of learning facts or being able to repeat or describe what one has been told or shown or what one has read.

So, while the Internet makes it easier to find a great deal more material and explanations, particularly on specific topics within larger ones, and while that gives one the chance to find a better explanation of something one does not understand, still there is nothing about explanations on the Internet or in any broadcast medium that makes an explanation good, or successful, just because it has animation or video and voice narration.

And as long as students are not taught to analyze and evaluate explanations they see or hear in a meaningful way to be sure they make sense to them, even good explanations will not necessarily be helpful or be understood. This is particularly true of "one-way" explanations where the student cannot ask questions that yield helpful responses while the topic is still reasonably fresh to the student. We have all had the experience of asking poor teachers a follow-up question to which the teacher responds by simply repeating what s/he just said that wasn't clear the first time and that mere repetition makes no clearer. And the problem with books or television or lectures or any other one-way medium is that one can't even ask the questions of the presenter in the first place. Luckily the Internet provides opportunities sometimes to find the presenter or someone else to ask follow-up questions or further explanation or from whom to seek further guidance. But when that is not available or helpful for any given explanation for which a viewer/reader needs it, that explanation is no better for that student on the Internet than one in a book.

Moreover, for many people, it is perhaps easier to keep a long or complex explanation in mind, and see the relationship among the parts, better when it is written out in front of you then it is to have to follow it in serial temporal order when it is presented in a video or audio format. So, for some purposes and some people, an explanation in writing on physical pages may be superior to an audio or video explanation or to one on a computer screen which one has to scroll back and forth to juxtapose passages one needs.

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