From Print to Pixels to Prompts: Stage-Switching as a Critical Competence for AI-Mediated E-Learning

Abstract

This perspective article argues that digital reading within e-learning environments should not be conceptualized as a static shift from print to screen, but as an evolving continuum spanning three overlapping modalities: print reading, e-reading (pixels), and prompt-mediated reading (prompts). In this third stage, generative AI systems dynamically synthesize, curate, or interpret text on behalf of the learner. Drawing on digital literacy frameworks, cognitive load theory, and recent scholarship on generative AI in education, this paper introduces a conceptual model of this reading continuum. It systematically examines the pedagogical affordances and cognitive trade-offs of each stage regarding comprehension, sustained attention, and learner autonomy. Rather than framing AI-mediated text engagement as an academic threat to be restricted or an uncritical tool to be adopted passively, this article calls for an explicit curricular reframing around stage-switching the deliberate pedagogical capability to navigate across these modalities. The paper concludes by outlining concrete implications for e-learning instructional designers, curriculum developers, and future empirical research into digital reading behaviors within AI-saturated educational ecosystems