I found Doris Lessing’s [1] Nobel lecture incredibly moving as she describes the hunger for books - printed books, in African schools. How a book from England can cost over a year’s wages in Zimbabwe. She recounts stories of how people with very little money have read bits of books or tried learning by drawing letters on the ground.

She maintains that in order to write, there must be a close connection with libraries, books, the traditions. She mentions how the internet and the web makes people so busy creating pieces and less time really reading and deeply exploring.

As someone who finds new technologies and innovations with the web and eLearning exciting, it makes you stop and think about why you are doing it. As a mobile and web revolution is starting to happen in parts of Africa, does that mean that adults and children are becoming better educated. Does it help them perform their work better.

I have a Nokia N73 handset and downloaded The Da Vinci Code from MobiPocket (which for some reason I had not either read or even see trailers of the movie so did not really have too much idea about the story in advance) You download an app they call a mobireader and then you get a photo of the front cover and navigate through content via hyperlinks. You have the following options:
Library
Annotations
Bookmarks - you can bookmark a page or remove a bookmark
Navigation: first page, go to page, table of contents, about this title,
copyright info
View: autoscroll, rotate, normal screen
Selection mode: lookup, copy, highlight, add note, modify, add link

I never thought I could get used to reading so small print, but because I found the story compelling, I became hooked and it made many boring commuter journeys fly by. You can download demo versions first but books are similar prices to some paperbacks e.g. Da Vinci Code I paid $6.95 for. I did find when I was reading, sometimes I was holding the phone probably a bit too close to my face at times but generally was viewing at arms length quite comfortably. I’m not sure about long term effects on my eyes, but so far it has been an enjoyable experience.

However my experience with holding printed books, magazines and newspapers is much more sensory, much more interactive and absorbing.

So which is better, to provide readers (like Sony reader), mobile phones with book authoring and books on them, or would it be better to provide printed material. In the name of convenience, is technology proving to be a faciliator of a learning experience or is it just providing an electronic ‘lump’ of information. I guess if the story is there and its a good story, it can capture the imagination of its readers in a way that they forget they are holding a device, then its doing a good job. But its by no means a perfect substitute.