Reading habits in Hungary, 2012

Differences in reading habits

Presenting results of a researchamong high-school students

on digital readingin Hungary

between 2010-2012

IntroductionMárton Fekete

Andrea Kis

University of DebrecenDept. of Computer Science & Library and

Information Science

MentorBéla Lóránt Kovácsassociate professor

2010-2012

Base line question

What can be said about Hungarian high school students’ reading and skills of digital literacy?

Preliminarieschanging reading environmentdigital environment is getting greater emphasis

in readingInternet (desktop & smartphones)

25% of Americans use only mobile devices to access the internet, as opposed to desktops (On Device Research)

eBook readers53% of those who buy eBook readers state that they now

read more books than they did before86% of eReader owners read on their device more than

once a week, 51% on a daily basiseBook revenues (growth 28%) top hardcover (growth

3%) in US in Q1 2012 (AAP)

Preliminarieschanging documentsstronger visualizationlesser need of high cognitive mediation

the fastest growing community of internet users are those before primary school education

at school many children use the internet at the age of 6growing interactivity (Web 2.0)

48% of young Americans said the find out about news on Facebook

250 million Facebbok users log in on any given day25 comments on average per month on any Facebook

content73% of Hungarian students comment at least

occasionally

Preliminarieschanging readerspossess skills of digital literacy

using keyboard, webcam and microphonecan open, create, edit and share multimedia

documentssearching and finding relevant results via

internetdigital divide

monetary reasonsgeneration reasons

N-generation or digital nativesvs.

previous generations or digital immigrants

Research base groupdigital generationprefer relevant, instantly useful and fun

informationprefer receiving information quicklyfrom multiple multimedia sources

parallel processing and multitaskingnon-linear and non-sequential processingprefer processing pictures, sounds and video

Results onquick and prompt information preference 78% use the internet, 64% use the home

library to complete a homework paper

home library

school library

public library

specialized library

electronic library & internet

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Results onquick and prompt information preference most prefer web sources (81%) to articles

(17%) and articles to books (2%)if an article/book is accesible online, 84%

prefer using the online version for easier search&find purposes books

2% articles17%

web pages81%

Results onmultiple multimedia sources79% use 2-3 document sources to complete a

homework paper

78% use electroniclibraries and the internet

as well to complete a paper

no sources7%

1 source

10%

2 sources64%

3 sources15%

4 or moresources

4%

Results onparallel processing90% keep at least 2-3 browser tabs open

81% do not close the browser tabs after reading it through so they can get back or refer to them later on

29% don’t read the contents thoroughly; they frequently get back to them later on

1 tab.10%

2-3 tabs55%

4 or more tabs35%

Tabs kept open

19%

29%33%

19%

Switching between tabs

read throroughly, close and move onread mostly, not close, move on and sometimes get backusually not close, often get backnever close, often switch back and forth

Results onparallel processing56% growth in media multi-tasking over the last

2 years (IAB)64% of web users do something else while on the

web, e.g. listen to music or watch TV (MS Advertising)

59% listen to music or watch a movie while reading or studying

never29%

rarely12%often

38%

always21%

Multimedia access while learning/studying

Results onmultimedia preference95% use the internet to search for multimedia

documents96% at least frequently visit social networks

(especially Facebook) and media-sharing sites (especially YouTube)

rarely5%

often29%

always66%

Accessing multimedia/social network

when using Internet

Results onmultimedia preference„long, raw text” is the least preferred

document type (57%)„text with a lot of pictures and images” is

the most preferred (36%)

text rich with images (eg. magazine article)

long, raw text (eg. novel)

text with short paragraphs and titles (eg. students' book)

short text with loads of images (comics, albums)

text with highlights and images (eg. traditional website)

36%

29%

14%

14%

7%

long, raw text (eg. novel)

text with highlights and images (eg. traditional website)

short text with loads of images (comics, albums)

text with short paragraphs and titles (eg. students' book)

text rich with images (eg. magazine article)

57%

19%

14%

7%

2%

Contradictions inmultimedia preference„text with a lot of pictures and images” is the

most preferred document type (36%)to 13% that was the least preferred

long, raw text” is the least preferred document type (57%) it is also the second most preferred (29%)

they do posess the skill to utilize multimedia documents (of the digital literacy skill set) and feel a preference toward them

they do not posess the skill to set the concept of „reading” and „multimedia” apart (of the digital literacy skill set)when they think of reading, immediately a „long, raw

text” comes to mind

Results onnon-linear and non-sequential processing „[…] the facilities of new technologies make

non-linear narrative more possible than the printed page does” (Jewitt, 2005)

notice sequence on a printed page show that most study1. interesting or vivid images2. text explaining the interesting images3. highlighted text4. less interesting images5. regular text6. text explaining the less interesting images7. minor text

1

2

3

4

5

6

78

9

Results onnon-linear and non-sequential processing 40% of those who read comments do so while

processing the information (and before they’ve finished)

19 % don’t read comments immediately after processing the information but on a later occasion instead (after spending time with other documents or activities)

before getting to know the

content13%

while getting to know the

content40%

immediately after getting to know

the content28%

at a later date after getting to know the

content19%

Contradictions innon-linear and non-sequential processing40% of those who read comments do so while

processing the information (and before they’ve finished)

only 7% of those who write comments do so while processing the information (and thus the rest is influenced by the others’ comments they’ve already read)

they do possess the skills of non-linear understanding and processing (of the digital literacy skill set)

they do not yet possess the skills of individual, independent and interactive judgment (of the digital literacy skill set)

First glance verdicton Hungarian high school studentsdigital natives

can do parallel processingacquire information from multiple sourcesprefer multimediaprocess information non-linearly

have the skills of digital literacy

True verdicton Hungarian high school studentsbecoming digital natives

can do parallel processingacquire information from multiple sourcesprefer multimediaprocess information non-linearlystill think of reading as processing long, raw

textstill do not like to communicate their opinion to

the publichave some of the skills of digital literacy

only not as many as the contemporary high school students in countries with higher GDP

Probable explanationlack of technological possibilities19% acces internet via wi-fi in Hungary

25% world average, 49% Europe, 61% USA29% posess smartphones, 9% use it to access the web

27% world average, 51% Europe, 63% USAin Europe, 14% use smartphones to access the

webin the USA, 25% use only smartphones for that

World av-erage

European average

USA Hungary

27%

51%63%

29%

Smartphone percentages

European av-erage

USA Hungary

14%

25%

9%

Access internet with smartphones

Probable explanationeducation systemeducation for learning slow and thorough without

teaching to communicate opinionunable/dislike to communicate opinion distinctlyunfolding need to share opinion

90% use „Like” at least occasionallyeducation by digital immigrants,

optimalized for digital immigrantsno real spread of interactive, multimedia- and

computer-based educationeducational confusion between students and

teachers

Probable explanationinformation communicating institutesmaintained by digital immigrantsoptimalized for digital immigrants

65-70% thought libraries provide enough resources for academic subjects (literature, grammar, history)

10-14% satisfied with science subject resources

chemistry

biology

physics

IT

maths

foreign languages

history

literature and grammar

12%

13%

16%

17%

35%

67%

81%

87%

International interestdigital divide possible not only between age

groups but also between countriesIT-penetration statistics show quite simillar

results in Eastern-European and Central-Eastern-European countries

these countries’ students show simmilar results on international student competence surveys (PISA & PIRLS)

the situation outlined through our survey is actually not only a national but rather a Central-Eastern-European regional situation that needs to be addressed as soon as possible to prevent further falling behind

Thank you for the attention

If you have any questions,feel free to ask!