Word Count: 746
Category: E-Book
Title: All About Big Cats
Author: Jordyn Madison
Publisher: 2014 MPB Publishing
Age Appropriate: Stage 2 (8+)
Cost: $4.19
Location: Amazon Kindle app on smartphone, tablet or Kindle device.
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
The motion of today’s society into the information era requires a new set of skills and abilities for students to master (McAlister, 2009). The skills required to be a 21st century citizen focus on the digital landscape and students need to be familiar with how to operate and derive meaning from these online environments. Portable technology has enabled digital literature to become more prevalent and accessible in the classroom and it is essential for teachers to educate students on the interpretation of various digital literature and immerging forms of communication (Manresa & Real, 2015) including e-books.
An e-book is digitalized text from print form and is read online using a technological device (Lamb, 2011). The shift to non-traditional formats for literature are prevalent in school programs such as BYODs and the increase in platforms available to implement within the classroom. Manresa & Real (2015) highlights the importance of facilitating learning in new reading conventions, experiences and promoting exposure to new formats that are accessible through the use of a Kindle or e-reader device.
Content, Interaction and Presentation:
All About Big Cats by Jordyn Madison is an American e-book available through the Kindle app. The 47 page book is organised into chapters based on the animal focus and students are able to select the area they wish to move to with ease using the table of contents. The information is comprehensible for students in Stage 2 and provides basic information about each animal in focus. The dictionary function works within the e-book to assist students that are unfamiliar with any concepts or topic addressed. Further links are provided to different texts and can be provided to the students if suited to the learning objectives.
Interest is gathered and maintained through the use of images throughout the text, however, since there is only interaction with text and no other media, students could become disengaged. The presentation follows the traditional format of print media. An interesting addition occurring in the Kindle app is the text is underlined if other Kindle users have highlighted that text as important, which can assist students in understanding the crucial information, however, according to Radovan & Perdih (2016) may interrupt students’ readability of the overall text.
Adaptability:
Walsh (2013) provided features of adaptability to include being able to search for keywords and phrases, bookmarking capabilities, annotation, changes to font size, background colour and the incorporation of dyslexic-assistive fonts. The Kindle app provides each of these features that occur in a user-friendly manner, making it engaging for students to use the various components. Students may choose a particular ‘big cat’ and bookmark the pages on their cat and proceed to write notes within the app itself.
Improvements in converting text-to-voice could promote students’ oral vocabulary as there are examples of geographical locations that students would not be familiar with. Another improvement would be the conversion of the imperial measurements into the metric system.
Accessibility:
The requirement for this to be accessible for each students would be working in small groups and sharing an iPad per group or each student having access to a device that has the Kindle app. The Kindle app is not available for Chromebooks or Microsoft operating systems which can cause barriers to access for some schools and students (Leu, McVerry, O’Byrne, Kiili, Zawilinski, Everett-Cacopardo, Kennedy & Forzani, 2011). This e-book would be most effective in the classroom if every member had access to a Kindle-friendly device and the initial cost could be budgeted for. The e-book can still be sourced in other methods, however, the most effective would be through the app as it can be accessed across the board of students.
Classroom implementation:
Students use this e-book to develop an understanding of the digital formats and how to develop their literacy and comprehension skills, such as scanning, in a digital layout (ACARA, 2016). Working within small groups, if limited on devices (Bormann & Lowe, 2010), students are able to record meaning and develop an ability to identify literal information in texts, form meaning and develop an understanding of the purpose of information text types (NESA, 2015). Using this e-book as a foundation or introduction lesson in the class to provide students with guided instruction and developing the initial research and literacy skills would maximise the text’s positive features.
References:
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2016). Literacy. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/literacy/
NSW Education Standards Authority. (2015). English K-10 Syllabus: NSW Syllabus for the Australia Curriculum. Teaching & Educational Standards, Sydney NSW.
Lamb, A. (2011). Reading redefined for a transmedia universe. Learning and leading with technology, 39(3), 12-17. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.csu.edu.au/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/ login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=67371172&site=ehost-live
Leu, D. J., McVerry, J. G., O’Byrne, W. I., Kiili, C., Zawilinski, L., Everett-Cacopardo, H., et al. (2011). The new literacies of online reading comprehension: Expanding the literacy and learning curriculum. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 55(1), (pp. 5–14). doi: 10.1598/JAAL.55.1.1
Manresa, M., & Real, N. (2015). Digital Literature for Children (pp. 105-120).
McAlister, A. (2009). Teaching the millennial generation. American Music Teacher, 58(7), 13–15. Radovan, M., & Perdih, M. (2016). Developing Guidelines for Evaluating the Adaptation of Accessible Web-Based Learning Materials. The International Review of Research In Open And Distributed Learning, 17(4). doi: 10.19173/irrodl.v17i4.2463
Walsh, M. (2013). Literature in a digital environment (Ch. 13). In L. McDonald (Ed.), A literature companion for teachers. Marrickville, NSW: Primary English Teaching Association Australia (PETAA).