Could instant information be bad for generation?

On pp. 13-14, Miller and Warschauer discuss the pros and cons of assistive ebook features such as read-aloud and built-in dictionaries. They say that such features can aid in reader engagement and understanding, while noting concerns that they might be doing the work for learners. Read-aloud may be too much handholding for learners who should be trying to read themselves, and dictionaries may provide answers that the students could have generated themselves from context clues.

I think this is important to consider in our discussions of all digital learning technologies, not just ebooks. Computer technology is very good at providing instantaneous feedback, and this is often seen as an advantage of the medium. However, I’d like to see a discussion of how non-instantaneous gratification may be important for learning. The struggle to read or understand a word, or concept, is likely important for student learning (in Core Mechanics class, we speak of this as “generation”). In all sorts of circumstances, it may be better that the student NOT have the calculating and encyclopedic powers of computers at their fingertips.

I’d be curious to hear what the research says about the role of time in learning, and what researchers understand about the rapidity of feedback vs. the importance of reflection and mulling things over. In my experience, instant referencing and feedback are usually seen as a unique advantage of computers, and I am interested in what the evidence against might be.