The e-book is something that has been around for a while and is not unfamiliar territory for people. The ability to store a multitude of books on a small and slim device such as a Kindle, iPad, or even a smart phone. The convenience of having books stored on a device means that there aren’t any heavy books to lug around and take up space in bags.
Reading The Tattooist of Auschwitz on a Kindle device was a new experience. The device was small and compact and was light enough that it did not feel weighty after an extended period of reading. The book itself is based on the true story of Lale Sokolov and the three years that he spent in Auschwitz-Birkenau and the meeting of his wife Gita Furman. It is an incredible insight into the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of the prisoners of Auschwitz and the things that they had to do to survive. Although there is some creative license given and parts of the story are embellished for dramatic purposes, the fact that it is mostly true is quite incredible and would interest a lot of students. For some students, World War II and the events that occurred within is of great interest, and having an underlying love story would open that pool of interest wider.
This would fit well in the senior history curriculum as an extension to the World War II topic as well as the English curriculum as a form of historical writing and authorial intent around where and what to embellish when telling someone else’s story. At the higher year levels in high school, students are reading more and more texts and often find it difficult to carry them around as they may be cumbersome and heavy. By having a device that stores all of the text that they are reading, they will be more inclined to read and engaged with the text as it is easily accessible for them. With features such as in text highlighting, linking to dictionaries and the ability to make notes within the text, students are able to annotate better compared to a physical text where thy need to try and fit it in the margins. It has been found that digital reading devices, be that a Kindle or iPad, promote new literacy practices like better in text note taking and allows them to control how they actually engage with the text (Lamb, 2011, p. 13). That autonomy around what they can do with the text gives the students more agency with what they are reading. There is no chance that the notes that they make and the different tabs that they put on pages will fall out or be ruined like a physical text. However, the is the issue of the battery running out, the screen dying or being damaged either by water, being dropped, or another mishap.
The other downside to e-books is the issue of reading from a screen. It has been found that people read slower when using a screen and that it becomes a lot more tiring than reading from a book (Combes, 2016). Students often find it difficult to concentrate when reading a large amount of text on a device so there is a need to set up brakes so that they do not have a form of tunnel vision. This has the potential to affect their other studies. The format of the e-book can have limitations as well and students may be unfamiliar with the layout and also the device that is being used. Even though students are becoming increasingly familiar with the most common devices that are available, there is still developing research on how students engage with the content of e-books and the different devices that they can be viewed on (Roskas et al., 2016, p. 6).
The thought that the e-book can act as a straight swap for a physical text is not that simple, there is a need to teach students how to use the device first and the different features that will be relevant for the class that they are in. The overall benefit of having all the books in one place is appealing, however, the issues around the device itself and the options that the students have outweighed the benefits of e-books.
References:
Combes, B. (2016). Digital Literacy: A new flavour of literacy or something different? Synergy, 14(1).
Lamb, A. (2011). Reading redefined for a transmedia universe. Learning and Leading with Technology, 39(3), 12-17.
Roskos, K., Burstein, K., Shang, Y., & Gray, E. (2014). Young children’s engagement with e-books at school: does device matter? Sage Open, 4(1), 1-9.