Literature in the Digital Environment
How much of this is (toddlers and young children using iPads) experiential play and how much is actual literacy ie. engaging with and making meaning from information on the screen?
An iPad can be a useful teaching tool. On a personal note, my now eight year old son, who has autism, intellectual disabilities and global developmental delay learnt to recognise and name all the letters of the alphabet before he started school, because he was engaged in and enjoyed using an app my mum had purchased that involved tracing the letters on the screen, with the app announcing the name of each letter. However, they can only ever be a tool. They are not teachers. They are interactive only to the point to which they are programmed. They can never be uniquely responsive in the way a parent or teacher is.
Proper experiential play happens with physical objects not just representations on a flat screen. An iPad can never replace exploring the world. Wise selection of apps can enhance learning but never replace real world experiences.
Some literacy activities can happen on a screen, such as my aforementioned anecdote about my son. Struggling readers can read an electronic book, and tap the unfamiliar words on the screen to help with pronunciation, or they can have the book read to them and read along with it. An interactive ebook may provide additional interest and engagement to a struggling reader who is disengaging with reading because it is seen as too hard. However, the human element is not absent as it requires a skilled, knowledgeable teacher or librarian to select the best apps and titles to promote reading, and to provide supervision and discretion to observe who is using the iPad app for its intended purpose or who is just playing.
I am frustrated, again, with the dated articles we are recommended to read for this subject, especially on the topic of digital literature. The article by Springen (2010) was published eight years ago, and much has changed in the digital media space in that time. Children’s book sales have increased, proving that digital media is not a threat to children’s publishing. Barnes and Noble and Borders have gone bankrupt, and taken the Nook down with them. While the article may have been informative in 2010 it doesn’t tell us anything new now.
Despite being a more up to date article, Cullen (2015) also fails to shine any new light on the issue. She is overly optimistic about the skills that video games can teach (inquiry learning??) and while I am certain that there are some high quality games out there that promote problem solving skills, cooperation and inquiry learning, they are few and far between. I also don’t think that Apple’s App Store ratings are the best guide to suitability and quality. A game that is well developed and fun to play will get a five star rating regardless of whether it actually promotes any qualities we would like to see in our children or students, and fails to take into account whether it supports any learning goals. There are many better curation tools available to use than the App Store ratings.
Choose one (trend) and evaluate its impact on the teacher librarian’s role in schools.
3. Curation in the app store continues to be a significant sales driver and signs are its role will continue to expand. (Friedlander, 2013).
Curation is one of the roles of the teacher librarian. TLs need to be aware of what is on the market, whether an app supports the curriculum, whether it adds anything apart from novelty to the teaching and learning, whether it is a cost effective method of teaching and learning and what licensing is available for school use – can the school legally purchase one copy of the app to then put on a class set of iPads, or all the iPads in the school? A teacher librarian may not be given the resources to purchase a single copy of an app for evaluation purposes and may need to rely on reviews and personal recommendations. If purchasing iPad apps and ebooks is within the scope of the TL, they would do well to find some reputable reviewers of both ebooks and apps for evaluation.
While Lamb and Johnson’s (2010a) article is old, it actually does stand up well. I think this article should be supplemented with a list of more up to date book-electronic media cross-overs, however. Reading some of this honestly makes me want to become a secondary teacher, as the technology and skills are just not there in primary schools. An augmented reality picture book would be awesome.
I’ve long contended that listening to audiobooks still counts as reading, and it seems the research backs me up (Dahl, 2016). This article relates to adults specifically but I think it still applies, though in different ways, to younger children. To a younger child, an audiobook serves a similar role to an adult reading a book aloud. The child can be exposed to new words and concepts which will increase their print reading ability and confidence, especially if they are able to follow along in a print book at the same time. Even when reading and decoding is not yet second nature, audiobooks are still reading.
For young children, however, the best way for them to make connections between the different parts of their brain, and understanding the book, is by having an illustrated book read aloud to them (Kamenetz, 2018). This method was shown to be the best for brain activity, compared with audio alone or an animated story. This research suggests that when selecting illustrated ebooks for young children, the more basic, the better.
Think about how you process information and read. Are young people any different? Do they use technology differently to older people?
I know I read better from paper than the screen. When I need to proofread my assignments I print them out, and if I have a particular research study that is vital to an assignment, I’ll print it out. But the ease of screen reading in portability and not taking up any space wins out most of the time. I can listen to audiobooks or podcasts but I need to be doing something else menial while I do it or else I can’t concentrate. I find they are best for when I’m walking or running, driving or doing housework tasks like washing dishes or folding washing. I find online webinars really difficult to focus on due to the predominance of audio information, and I hate watching information-based videos, powerpoint presentations with audio etc as I would much rather just read an article about it. Other people, especially those who have poorer literacy or are slow readers benefit from video based presentations.
My observation of young people using technology is limited mostly to my own children. I do see them choosing more passive forms of entertainment on the iPad (YouTube videos) over interactive or creative apps (Minecraft, Toca Boca apps) where as I get too easily distracted to want to watch them, or will watch TV while completing other tasks such as folding washing. Electronic media has benefits for older people, even when they are afraid of the technology. Text size can be increased to deal with failing eyesight issues, and is more readily accessible than large print books (and an e-reader or tablet is a lot lighter than a large-print book also!).
Digitally decontextualised literary texts
Some electronic or digital texts, are simply a reproduction of the original content, with a NEXT button replacing the action of turning the page. Blue by Pat Grant is one such example. Lamb and Johnson (2010b) provide some useful suggestions for integrating multimedia into the classroom, rather than relying on print. Picture books in the digital world (Yokota & William, 2014) provides some guidelines for assessing the suitability of electronic books for preschoolers to year two. I disagree with the authors, however, that digital books have earned their place in the preschool and kindergarten classroom. Young children still need the physical experience of a book, and I don’t think electronic books will ever replace that. I also don’t think that a child under the age of eight who has never read an electronic book is missing out on anything. Secondary students who are more adept with technology, and are more easily able to transfer their knowledge across platforms and subjects will get more benefit from electronic media.
When we talk about students’ experiences at home and at school, stating that they are far more engaged in electronic media outside of the school (Larson, 2009), assumes that students have reliable internet access at home and a device they can access it on, which is not always the case. Rural students in particular, even if they are not facing poverty, struggle with unreliable internet access and limited access for purchasing a device or necessary repairs. We cannot, and should not, assume that all students are enmeshed in electronic media, nor should we make that the be all and end all of classrooms.
Today (20th Aug) the Public Libraries in NSW Facebook page shared a link to this article which lead me to the Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature. There are over 6000 titles of mid- to late-19th Century children’s literature from the UK and USA. The digital archive could be useful when examining the period historically, such as learning about children’s toys (a suggested unit in Stage 2 science in NSW), examining racism in the past, and for secondary students studying history, or the history of child development, morality or even fashion.
Cullen, M. (2015, December 21). How is interactive media changing the way children learn. In EducationTechnology. Retrieved from https://educationtechnologysolutions.com.au/2015/12/how-is-interactive-media-changing-the-way-children-learn/
Dahl, M. (2016, August 10). To your brain, listening to a book is pretty much the same as reading it. In The cut. Retrieved from https://www.thecut.com/2016/08/listening-to-a-book-instead-of-reading-isnt-cheating.html
Friedlander, A. (2013, November 26) Ten trends in interactive media for children from dust or Magic, Retrieved from http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2013/ten-trends-in-interactive-media-for-children-from-dust-or-magic/ No longer available
Kamenetz, A. (2018, May 24). What’s going on in your child’s brain when you read them a story? In KQED: MindShift. Retrieved from https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/51281/whats-going-on-in-your-childs-brain-when-you-read-them-a-story
Lamb, A., & Johnson, L. (2010a). Divergent convergence part 1: Cross-genre, multi-platform, transmedia experiences in school libraries . Teacher Librarian 37(5), 76-81. Retrieved from http://www.teacherlibrarian.com/
Lamb, A., & Johnson, L. (2010b). Divergent Convergence part 2: Cross-genre, multi-platform, transmedia experiences in school libraries. Teacher Librarian 38(1), 64-69. Retrieved from http://www.teacherlibrarian.com/
Larson, L. C. (2009). E-reading and e-responding: New tools for the next generation of readers. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53, 255-258. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1936-2706
Springen, K. (2010, July 19). The digital revolution in children’s publishing. Publisher’s Weekly. Retrieved from http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/43879-the-digital-revolution-in-children-s-publishing.html.
Yokota, J. & William, H. T. (2014). Picture books in the digital world. The Reading Teacher, 67(8), 577-585. Retrieved from http://www.readingteacher.com/
This article includes some useful selection criteria to inform collection development of digital texts.