What makes a good digital text?
A good digital text is accessible to all learners and supports readers living with an exceptionality. Adaptability features within the digital text allow the reader to create their own experience based on their personal learning needs. A good digital text is available without a cost and is compatible with various technological devices. Digital text that fosters student engagement and the love of reading are criteria that make for a rich digital text. A good digital text will extend students thinking, motivation and offer opportunities for collaboration and participation in the book.
A good digital text can be tailored by educators to attain instructional goals. Teachers can keep a shared reading basic, but enlarge the book or hook student’s attention using an interactive book as a minds-on activity. Digital text will allow teachers to annotate and highlight the text to draw students attention, the annotation is not permanent and can be easily changed or deleted as needed. Traditional books do not allow the reader this functionality or flexibility.
What purpose do digital texts serve?
As an educator, a digital text offer features that meet the needs of my students. For example, Sora is a program supported by Overdrive that provides its subscribers with a wide variety of digital text. Sora allows students to change many features to individualize their reading experience. A student who is living with dyslexia will click the feature that provides them with the appropriate font. A student who has a visual impairment can increase the font size to engage with the book. These features are not available with a traditional book. Students living with exceptionalities are limited in a traditional library as to what books will allow them to read the text. Digital text opens up a wide array of options and opportunity for students. The multimodal features of digital text also support students who are sensitive to stimulation. The audio, video and animation of digital text engage readers who struggle to stay focused while reading a traditional book.
Struggling readers can also benefit from the adaptability of digital text. Many digital texts include a read-to-me or an audiobook feature. Students who have difficulty with decoding or fluency can read or experience a wide variety of digital literature.
In the classroom, I have used reading websites and apps as a centre during literacy instruction. Students are able to independently read on the tablet while I work with a small group. Students are engaged with the reading app centre and look forward to their turn using technology. Many of the apps track students reading this ensures students remain on task and hold students accountable for their time using technology.
What is digital text is best, E-Books, Enhanced and Interactive Books?
My personal preferences of reading digital or traditional text are different depending on the context. When I read for pleasure I enjoy holding a book. I derive satisfaction when I complete a chapter and like my pretty bookmarks, I get to place in the book. When reading for work or academic purposes I enjoy reading online. I create folders on my desktop or in Google Drive to easily organize my literature. I can title it and quickly search online documents. As I work through my Masters of Education Learning, I appreciate the collection of literature I have and it takes no physical space on my bookshelf.
In terms of digital literacy, I do prefer the enhanced and interactive books over E-Books for primary instructional purposes. I appreciate how students are captivated with the music throughout the text and animated illustrations. Providing students, the ability to see the text clearly on a large interactive whiteboard supports learning and engagement. Intermediate students do benefit from E-Books since students in this division are generally reading novels. Using E-Books for book studies in the intermediate division ensures each student has independent access to the text. Students are able to read at their own pace at home or at school.
How will I incorporate digital text into the school board?
Fortunately, the school board I work for supports many digital literacy platforms for students to access, Sora, Bookflix, Story Online, Epic, Raz Kids and Study Jam by Scholastic. In my role as Technology Enabled Learning Teacher Contact, I have the opportunity to work with teachers to embed technology into the classroom. As I get ready to begin a new school year, I look forward to sharing my learning of the benefits and affordances of digital literature with my colleagues.
My first step will be to link digital literacy websites to the school board intranet. Teachers who are interested in exploring digital literature will organically investigate the resources available. I will work with teachers to uncover their personal learning goals for integrating digital literature in their classroom practice. I will then support teachers registering the educator account and obtain login information for each student. To scaffold teachers embedding digital literature into their classroom I will model a lesson demonstrating the various features of the platform and digital text. I will work directly with students to ensure they do not encounter barriers to accessing digital literature. Finally, I will follow up with teachers throughout the school year to see what their classes experience has been using interactive, enhanced or E-Books.