ABSTRACT

The growing digitalisation of society extends into the university setting where, although students may appear to be avid users and proponents of smartphones, tablets and other digital technologies, recent studies show they also like to use pen and paper, as well as to read hardback books. This chapter draws on the authors’ recent European empirical studies to illustrate and explore this research in which the preferences of students for reading and writing hard copy or digital text were surveyed. The results from the UK, Italy and Ireland are examined from a cross-cultural perspective to highlight variations and similarities in the student practices. Set in the context of the burgeoning ‘edtech’ culture the studies highlight that whilst most students owned a smartphone very few reported using them for academic work. Instead they use the combination of digital and paper based learning tools preferring their laptops and tablets and hard copy books over the almost wholly digital approach currently favoured by their universities.