While perusing through the edubloggers, I came across a post that really spoke to me. A post by Dana Hufff (huggenglish.com) talks about digital books and how they can shape education. While I have a Kindle and absolutely love it, I've always been worried about the future of books--how do we preserve the power of a book? How do we ensure that students have and value physical copies of books? While I am hopeful that bookstores will still be around in ten years, Huff has convinced me of the value of digital books. She specifically discusses how digital books, such as one with Shakespeare's sonnets, provide tools for comprehension to help readers. With the sonnets particularly, there are a number of scholars who respond to the sonnets. This seems like such a powerful tool for high school students because the readings include tools for comprehension, which can aide in comprehension of the text. This seems to be a great way to prevent students from using Sparknotes of No Fear Shakespeare. Wouldn't we rather give the students the tools to understand in a deep and meaningful way? I think so.
Huff also talks about an app related to a short film "The Fantastic Flying Books" (which is absolutely wonderful and I recommend watching!) Huff writes about how the reader can interact with the narration that accompanies the reading. While this is perhaps geared more toward a young child, I love this idea that digital books let students interact with a text. Let's think back to the Shakespeare example. Not every student is going to love sitting down with a physical copy of Shakespeare and reading. Sure, it's a nice picture, but is it realistic? Now let's think of this interactive text. Giving students a digital book that they can interact with and learn from is exciting. It makes learning fun; it makes reading meaningful. And, students will hopefully walk away with an understanding. Instead of getting frustrated with Shakespeare's language and closing the book, perhaps students will use one of the text's tools--such as listening to a famous scholar discuss a sonnet. In this way, students get a new perspective and a new understanding.
Now, I'm not saying we should do away with physical copies of books but I am saying that as future educators we need to be made aware of the tools we can use in our classroom. If digital books are a future reality in classrooms, we should take this opportunity to familiarize ourselves and realize their merits.
It's very interesting, Katie, to contemplate the ways in which the use of digital texts offer us ways to make accommodations for struggling readers.
ReplyDeleteI should also tell you that you actually know someone who has been thinking a LOT about the possibilities you're imagining here...
...since it may not be readily apparent, Katie, the blog to which I linked is Kristen's School Library Monthly blog.
ReplyDeleteKJ,
ReplyDeleteI think the idea of digitally reading shakespeare is a great one. It occurs to me that instead of having a glossary of every likely unknown word at the bottom of the page, these words could instead be hyperlinked and a caption could pop up over the word if a student hovers over it. This strikes me as a way that digital reading could in fact be superior to analog reading because it allows students to keep their place on the page without craning their neck up and down every few words!