IELTS Essay # 88 - Is it better for children to learn to read by using online material or by using printed material? Discuss and give your opinion.

Essay # 88

Is it better for children to learn to read by using online material or by using printed material? Discuss and give your opinion.

Habits and attitudes towards learning play a crucial part in making a child learn faster and retain more knowledge. I believe learning to read through paper books is the best way for a child to learn, and online material actually contributes towards providing a less comprehensive approach of learning. However, this essay shall discuss the features of both.

New inventions do make our lives easier in many ways, but they can also cause worries and troubles – both actual and imaginary. Reading online material through digital devices results in headaches and tired eyes; we actually have to look away from the screen after a long period of reading. This can discourage the habit of reading in children. Surveys have also shown that prolonged use of digital screens can affect our sleep. Moreover, I personally am not a fan of the shortcuts, and tools for finding keywords that can be used for online texts. This makes the reader read less in depth and the learning becomes very selective, instead of understanding the whole information given.

On the other hand, it has been long proven that touching paper and turning pages aids the memory, making it easier to remember where you read something. Paper reading employs cognitive learning in a child; it is more psychological, rather than technological, about grasping more when you read through printed stuff. Of course, being native paper readers too makes us have more of a leaning towards books rather than PDFs. However, it in undeniable that with the advent of technology and population, more renewable resources will be used and that the future of learning is undoubtedly going to be through e-books.

Broad-mindedly, I accept the possibility of learning online to become a popular method in the future, and that it does have advantages of better accessibility, with tools like instant dictionary and controlling the font size. I hope that the cons discussed above can be countered and that the children can have a better experience of learning and gaining knowledge through digital devices.

(336 words)