It was an interesting article that expressed both a concern about what digital books will mean for the traditional printed word and for how they will affect reading as a past time and excitement about the interest that digital books can generate in young readers.
To summarize the article: Carisa (the author) points out that while she originally feared that e-books would be like other digital media and turn her child into a passive zombie, she soon discovered that e-books offer many features that will support the literacy development of young readers. Some of these features were that the device can read for very young readers which would help in the “1 out of 5 homes” in which parents don't read to their children. Or adults can select a “read it yourself” feature so they could read to their child to increase time spent together. She also discussed the convenience of having your entire library handy at a moments notice that e-readers provide. She references PicPocket books as an excellent resource to obtain quality reading materials for her and her child to read together at bedtime.
I think that media dominates the world and that we should take advantage of any opportunities to expose out children and students to reading. Last fall, I bought a Kindle, even though I had reservations and didn't know if I wanted to give up the traditional paper books that I love. Having the Kindle has dramatically improved my ability to spend more time with leisure reading. I definitley plan to pursue developers like PicPocket to encourage my daughters to read and love every minute of it.
You hit on some really interesting things about literacy that I never would have even though about. Though I still think it would be important to introduce books, it may be equally as important to introduce e-books. In our future society this will likely continue to be prevalent and may even be a requirement to know how to use in some cases. A question that came to mind about the iPad, e-book thing and the children being read to rate in households would be: How many of these households that can afford iPads are the same households that are not reading to their children? As a child who grew up in an upper middle class society who might be able to afford these pieces of technology I know my friends and myself were read to as children. So, I guess what I'm really asking is if the lower classes where (at least I am under the impression) children are not read to as frequently would have the opportunity to benefit from the literacy instruction on a piece of technology a parent may not be able to afford or even want? Are we once again creating another educational inequality because people of a certain socioeconomic background cannot afford such things? I don't know these were just questions that came to mind!
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read the title "How will digital books affect young readers", i immediately thought of how much I hated the idea of books because on kindles, Ipads, nooks, and computers. I took a class freshman year where ALL of our reading was done on the computer, and i'm not talking about a little 5 page essay, i'm talking about 100+ pages of reading online. Needless to say, I have glasses now. I'm not sure if my bad I sight stemmed from reading off my computer, but i'm sure it didn't help. Thinking about young readers trying to read of computer screens and straining their eyes, like i did, just does not sit well with me. However, recently a girl I work with brought her kindle to work and let me play around with it a little. I loved it! I'm not sure why it was so different from reading off my computer, but the words actually looked like a real book. I think the fact that you can buy just about any book at any time and have it instantly on your kindle/Ipad/nook is just awesome. Also, like Katherine mentioned I think it's brilliant that the devices offer the option to either read to the child or let the child/parent actually read the book. I think this new technology can only improve the learning of young children's.
ReplyDeleteKatie brings up a good point though that it could cause educational inequality. Some lower class families are unable to buy this type of technology. However, it's hard to say if the lower class families are the families not reading to their children. Sometimes I think it's the upper class families, that have parents with very time consuming jobs, that are the ones that are unable to find time to read to their children. So, the kindle/Ipad/nook would obviously be affordable and beneficial for these families. Ideally, one day hopefully schools will hopefully be able to provide this type of technology for students to work with while they are at school and have free time to read, that way everyone is benefitting,