Research shows that switching to color printing brings materials to life and can help improve communication as well as productivity. It’s true; no matter the subject at hand or the age of your students, studies say color can help boost retention, comprehension and engagement in schools.
That’s why today’s inkjet technologies are designed to make color printing fast, efficient, and reliable — as well as affordable for educational organizations across the board.
Read on to see the difference that color can make in the lives of your students, and how Epson can help make it happen:
Boost student memory and attention spans
Scrolling on screens can lead to skimming, distractions, and fragmented learning. For longer content, print can be better than digital for retention and comprehension — and adding color-rich cues and visuals can help keep students motivated and engaged.
Study after study shows that color-printed educational materials make for brighter students. In fact, using color in lessons and handouts has been found to increase attention spans by 82%, and learning and retention by 78%. Colorful materials are also 80% more likely to be read and can boost comprehension by 73%.
Epson Ideas: Given these findings, why rely on boring black and white copies when vibrant, easy, and affordable color printing is so readily accessible? Certain colors can even stimulate specific reactions: heightened energy and attention from red, for instance, and deeper creativity and calm from blue.
See what works for your students. Epson’s instant-dry DURABrite pigment ink provides extra-sharp text and vivid color graphics, even on plain paper. And with PrecisionCore Heat-Free Technology™ and no warmup time needed, Epson WorkForce printers like the WF-C21000 deliver a fast First Page Out Time up to 100 pages per minute* — perfect for preparing lesson plans in advance or on-the-go.
Create classrooms conducive to learning
Beyond using color in printed lesson materials, infusing different hues into the classroom environment can help enhance learning at any age while also developing visual skills and impacting emotional states. With this in mind, and based on student and educator interviews, research, and contributions from color and perception experts, design leader Tarkett’s study on why color matters in education provides a working guideline for educators hoping to create an optimal learning environment.
“Many studies confirm that colors produce different effects which are physically perceptible,” according to the report’s Dr. Lennie Scott-Webber, “particularly on tension, heartbeat, respiration, digestion, body temperature and brain activity.” And in schools, they can also help stimulate psychomotor skills as well as personal and academic development — and encourage further learning.
Epson Ideas: For younger students in particular, the intentional use of colors in the classroom is especially important for learning and growth. “Make an effort to display art from different artists in your classroom,” suggests early childhood expert Dr. Pam Schiller. “The artwork you choose can lead to discussions about why the artists chose certain colors and how they used colors to create emotional reactions to their work.”
Keep classes organized with handy color-coding
Information is located 70% faster when it’s in color, which is why color coding is so convenient — in the classroom as well as in administrative offices. Academic studies show that color can manipulate emotion, yes, but it impacts cognition as well. According to research on “The Impact of Colors on Learning” at Kansas State University, “color as a graphical device can reduce visual search time and might support learners to quickly access information.”
This is based on earlier scholarly findings that have shown color to be a “cue which helps learners retrieve information” while enhancing the organization, presentation, and identification of that information. So it’s safe to say, “compared with monochromatic information, color-coded…visualizations can better support knowledge acquisition.”
Epson Ideas: When it comes to file labeling, color coding is a no-brainer. But it’s just as helpful in keeping other parts of school life organized. With Epson’s easy-to-use software and user controls, teachers and administrators can enable consistent color programming into a range of academic and extracurricular materials.
Do more for students with special needs
In his book-length study on “Reading Through Color,” human memory expert Dr. Arnold Wilkins found that somewhere between 5 and 20% of young students experience some kind of visual stress while reading. This can consequently reduce reading speed while causing headaches and physical discomfort, thus delaying learning even more.
Research has shown, however, that using elements of color like highlighted sections and text overlays can make a significant impact on these individuals. So much so, that another report co-written by Dr. Wilkins in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders found a 35% improvement in reading speed when students with autism used colored overlays.
Epson Ideas: “Colors have a massive impact on the mood of a child,” according to Tarkett’s report, and “happiness, sadness, anger or fear may all become more intense as a child gets older.” That’s why different hues and shades can be so powerful at directing learning and facilitating comprehension, while color therapy activities like coloring have even been found to increase interest and focus in students as well.
Everyone learns differently. But with a printer engineered for speed and reliability on premises, educators can easily cater to individual student needs. Ready to learn more? Visit Epson.com/business-inkjet-printers-education to see how Epson WorkForce printers can make a difference at your school.
* Black and color print speeds are measured in accordance with ISO/IEC 24734. Actual print times will vary based on system configuration, software, and page complexity. For more information, visit www.epson.com/printspeed
