The Road Ahead

Abstract

Chapter 10 asks us to think about two paradoxes. The first is that while print usage in the trade world has largely stabilized, the education market is aggressively adopting digital textbooks. Moreover, many students now judge print reading to be boring. The second paradox is that as screens potentially become the default mode for reading in schools, one of the much-touted goals of education, critical thinking, is ill suited to digital reading. While the notion of critical thinking remains ill defined, it surely includes reasoned analysis and reflection, for which the evidence indicates print is better suited. Digital tools, which are effective for information-seeking and fact-checking, also appear to be undermining our motivation for using our memory capacity. But readers are not defenseless. The chapter closes with concrete suggestions for mapping a way forward.