Let’s talk about reading – A puzzle that promotes sustainable reading in today’s digital culture
“Let’s talk about reading” is an exploration of the benefits and consequences of different reading habits, both for students’ experiences and the environment. Through consultation with SSAM [South Småland Waste & Environment], personal experiences and collaboration with students, the project resulted in a development of a puzzle that was created with and for students. about reading habits and their environmental impact.
In today’s digital culture, students tend to read digitally more frequently, where many lack an understanding of the impact of their reading habits. That raises important questions like: How does this shift towards the digital reading culture influence students’ learning process, what are the benefits and challenges compared to physical reading and what impact does it have on the environment? Taking this into consideration, I saw the need of helping students to understand and reflect on their reading habits and find a balance between reading physically and digitally.
During the project, I had consultation with an employee at SSAM. It was used as a method to gain access to broader perspectives, new knowledge, skills, and experiences about environmental issues and challenges connected to reading materials. They provided insight into their recycling processes of books and electronic devices, aligned with the importance of making sustainable reading actions and having greater environmental awareness.
To understand the issue from the students’ perspectives and their needs, I made a survey that I sent out to students. From the responses, I could see that a large number of students did not reflect on the impact of their reading habits on either their reading experience or the environment.
It also showed that there was a need to provide more knowledge and guidance to the students about reading options and their environmental impact to facilitate more comprehensive and sustainable reading choices.
I held a workshop and different tryouts with students at the Linnaeus University library, to test out ideas, develop the design concept and to make and test different prototypes together. My role as a facilitator of the co-design process was to provide support, instructions, and encourage students to share their experiences, ideas and feedback.
During the tryouts of the prototypes with the students, they expressed:
“The puzzle was enjoyable to solve and liked the interactive aspect rather than just discussing reading”
The informative puzzle will be used as a mindful activity that can feel meaningful for students and at the same time highlights the positive and negative aspects of reading habits. The puzzle-solving helps the participants to actively engage themselves in learning and information processing, fostering deeper comprehension and understanding of the presented facts and questions, rather than just receiving information on a paper.
The text on the pieces is divided into three different aspects associated with various reading choices. First, questions on readers’ experiences of reading digitally and printed books. Second, individuals’ relationship to reading and third how the way we read affects the environment. For example, certain puzzle pieces prompt discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of physical versus digital reading. Another example emphasizes the importance of borrowing books from libraries and how that contributes to extending the lifespan of reading materials.
The informative puzzle can influence students to rethink their reading behaviors and think of their reading practices of handling their books in a more sustainable way. However, understanding the benefits and challenges of reading through the puzzle can work in the short term, but it means that students also need to know how to build up their reading habits to get the benefits in a larger scope, for a more sustainable way of reading in the long term. Therefore, a future development beyond the puzzle activity could have been to focus on how the students can continue developing their sustainable reading habits.
Goal and aim
The project’s aim was to promote sustainable reading behaviors, along with a broader understanding of how the act of reading in different forms affects the readers and the environment. The goal was to provoke critical thinking and at the same time get students to be more informed, empathetic, and environment-conscious in their reading choices.
