ETL 402 Module 5.2 Reflection
Think about how you process information and read. Are young people any different? Do they use technology differently than older people? Have ebooks ‘taken off’ in your school? What reasons could explain this?
When the lockdowns forced our school library to close, I subscribed to some ebook providers for a free trial. During this time, borrowing self-selected texts decreased.
I believe there were a number of reasons this occurred, despite promoting these options to teachers, students and parents in various ways. This included emails to students and promoting the sites and instructional videos about how to log in and borrow books via library Google Classroom. Instructional videos were also shared with parents via our school stream app and weekly newsletter. Teachers also promoted new ways to borrow via their class Google Classroom and Class Dojo to parents.
Some of the reasons for low borrowing statistics may have included some students not having access to technology (though school laptops were borrowed by any student who did not have one at home) or not being able to navigate the sites on their own. Being a K-6 school and children in Kindergarten to Year 3 had not had any experience at school using laptops and were also learning how to navigate their class work on a new platform.
On returning to school I surveyed students about their use of ebooks and how they preferred to self-select books. There was an overwhelming response to reading print-based books and they preferred to read or even reread books from home rather than books online. Barshay (2019) reported that Clinton (2019) found her students also preferred to read paper-based books and felt that they learned more from the text on paper.
In Sparks’ research (2021) it was found that children 8 years and younger comprehended print-based texts better, additionally, poor readers did not look at the eB0ok and relied on the illustrations in the eye-tracking experiment.
Kamenetz (2018) reported that emotional bonding and the physical connection was also an important factor when reading with children, and parents and teachers have an essential role to play when sharing and modelling reading to children. Furthermore, Kamenetz (2018) noted that electronic devices for young children are not ideal when not supported by an adult and certainly must have both text and illustrations to be effective.
I know from my own experience I have not been able to switch to ebooks and much prefer a physical paper book in my hands. I like to flick back and forth pages at times and I know that reading a paper book just before bed puts me to sleep, rather than increasing the use of technology and being exposed to the light from the screen to keep me awake further.
References
Barshay, J. (2019, August 12). Evidence increases for reading on paper instead of screens. Hechinger Report. https://hechingerreport.org/evidence-increases-for-reading-on-paper-instead-of-screens/
Kamenetz, A. (2018, May 24). What’s going on in your child’s brain when you read them a story? KQED: MindShift. https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/51281/whats-going-on-in-your-childs-brain-when-you-read-them-a-story
Sparks, S. D. (2021, July 22). Reading on screen vs print: New analysis thickens the plot on comprehension. Education Week.