Fostering Academic and Social Independence through Digital Readers

          A recent advancement of integrating technology with literacy is the use of electronic-book readers such as the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook and Apple iPad.  In Lotta Larson's article Digital Readers: The Next Chapter in E-Book Reading and Response, she lists several advantages of e-book readers including multimodal animations and sounds, a text-to-speech option, a highlighting tool, a dictionary and a note-taking feature that would be helpful in establishing academic and social independence for young readers.

          The opportunity to use e-book readers is very motivating for children, even struggling readers.  The text-to-speech tool allows younger students to listen to a story if they cannot read the text independently.  However a downside of this feature is that the voice is semi-robotic and does not demonstrate inflection as the author might intend.  Unlike digital readers on laptops or desktop computers, e-books are more portable and allow students to read in a more comfortable setting and read together, which encourages positive social peer interactions.  Possibly the most advantageous features are the note-taking tool and dictionary, as they allow children to initiate their own learning and solve decoding and new vocabulary challenges independently.

          The case study on Amy and Winnie focused on the digital note-taking tool, by which the students transferred their thoughts into written notations.  It was very interesting to see how the spontaneity and impulsiveness of the notes Amy and Winnie had taken reflected their understanding of the story, personal meaning making, questioning, answering and literary evaluation, all of which contribute to enhanced text comprehension and interpretation.  By using the tools built into the Amazon Kindle, the students were able to become more reflective, metacognitive and independent learners.  Ms. Miles was also able to gain further insight into the girls' personalities through their notes (Larson, 2010).

          While I am more familiar with the Amazon Kindle than the other digital readers, as I have used the text-to-speech feature to complete reading assignments, it is my understanding that it does not offer picture books in electronic form.  The Apple iPad and the Barnes & Noble Nookcolor, which will be released later this month, both have colorful touchscreens and appeal to children as well as adult readers.  In The iPad Meets the Children's Book, author Karen Springen states, "In fact, children's stories held six of the top 10 paid iPad book-app sales spots as of press time" and lists a number of popular children's book titles.  Teachers should explore the use of digital readers, as there are many advantages of using them as instructional tools in the classroom.

References

Barnesandnoble.com (2010). Nookcolor. Barnes & noble. http://www.barnesandnoble.com
          /nook/index.asp

 Larson, L. C. (2010). Digital readers: The next chapter in e-book reading and response. The Reading
          Teacher 64(1), 15-22.

Springen, K. (2010). The ipad meets the children's book. Publisher's weekly. Retrieved from
          http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/42762
          the-ipad-meets-the-children-s-book.html