Fast and Slow: Using Spritz for Academic Study?
- PDF / 893,197 Bytes
- 21 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 31 Downloads / 186 Views
Fast and Slow: Using Spritz for Academic Study? Arinola Adefila1 · Sean Graham1 · Ashok Patel2,3
© Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract In an age of increasing digital reading it is interesting that University students’ are not adapting innovative technologies for academic study. This is even more surprising because today’s university students are purportedly digitally native keen to use new technologies in comfortable personal spaces but adhere to traditional paper when studying. There is a distinct paucity of research with respect to how students use technology for academic purposes, particularly independent study. This small-scale qualitative evaluation investigates how undergraduate students respond to a refined Rapid Serial Visual Presentation speed reading application called Spritz, which claims to significantly increase users’ ability to skim read and comprehend content effectively. We evaluated the tool and asked students to express which affordances they would forego to make the technology acceptable. The sample of students focused on those enrolled on a module about academic reading were introduced to Spritz (N = 55). Nine students agreed to take part in the trials. Participants used the Sprtizlet App which enables a reading speed of up to four hundred words a minute to perform reading tasks. The findings suggest the technology is acceptable for certain types of skim reading and scanning, but Spritz did not meet the varied requirements of the participants’’ academic study practices. Keywords Spritz · Academic study practices · Digital reading technologies · Evaluative comprehension · Technology acceptance · Personalisation
* Arinola Adefila [email protected] Sean Graham [email protected] Ashok Patel [email protected] 1
Centre for Excellence in Learning Enhancement, Coventry University, Coventry CV1 5FB, UK
2
School of Life Sciences, Coventry University Coventry, Coventry CV1 5FB, UK
3
Present Address: Birmingham City University, Birmingham, UK
13
Vol.:(0123456789)
A. Adefila et al.
1 Introduction Students’ study habits are characterised by personalized reading skills and strategies that significantly determine academic success (Salmerón et al. 2015; Britt et al. 2017). In Higher Education (HE) most students use traditional paper interfaces when studying (Vincent 2016). There is evidence to suggest that digital materials are extremely important resources for students (Margaryan et al. 2011; Parkes et al. 2015), however, affordances associated with the use of paper “have special qualities that cannot be matched by digital media” (Vincent 2016: 104). In a study analyzing the technological skills of occupational therapy students (Hills et al. 2016) conclude that though electronic devices are invariably shaping how students’ access and consume information, the technical ability of students is varied. Bennett et al. (2008) contend that though many “net generation” (born post 1980) are familiar with digital and internet technologies) and may have become adept at using digital t
Data Loading...
