Will there be a positive impact on the development of reading skills of students if e-books are introduced and put in libraries?

Beaconhouse has spent a huge amount of money on the implementation of ETAC initiative . It has been a huge amount that is spent in order to make a Hi tech environment in schools .Being the Senior Mistress of the branch I thought of demanding e-books in the library but I am not sure what would be the impact of it on learners reading and also on the story telling by the teachers.

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Permalink Reply by Angus Chan on March 27, 2012 at 9:20am

Public libraries already have ebooks for people to reserve and takeout. There is the convenience factor i.e. you don't have to be at the library to search and check-out books and as people are slowly gravitating to eReaders for home use, it's only going to be natural that they appear at the libraries of educational institutions (eventually students and parents will wonder why they can borrow an ebook from the public library and not from the school library).

There is definitely a challenge for story telling as the eReaders are fairly small (i.e. around 6-7 inches) unless you're using a more expensive iPad (10"). The iPad itself may lend itself to story telling, but it's still fairly small when you consider some of the large format books for younger children. In a group setting, even 10" may not be large enough; you may need to use something that can project the reader to a TV/Projector in a group setting.

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Permalink Reply by Stacey Bell on March 27, 2012 at 2:49pm

I think that e-books in school libraries is a great idea. With the rate that e-books are becoming more popular, students will come to expect them and be familiar with this form of reading. Story telling may pose an issue but you can always use an ipad and have students follow along. You can also make the print bigger for students who need this. There are ways to look up words that you are struggling with too. E-books are great are its a great way to update your library with technology.

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Permalink Reply by Kate Mason on March 27, 2012 at 6:50pm

E-books would be a great addition to the library! I know that many of my students have devices to read e-books at home. Our counties new LA curriculum includes the textbook and resources online. We use the online version whole-group and they can also use it individually. The students enjoy using the online version and are able to use it at home as well. I don't think it would hinder student learning. It would be great if more students had access to use e-books.

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Permalink Reply by Janet Lindner on March 28, 2012 at 9:48am

You make some good points. Many students now carry eReaders with them. I sometimes have to ask my students to put the eReader away so that they can focus on our classwork. Also, many publishers offer eBooks as an alternative to the hard copy text. Our department has not adopted the eBook option, but we may have to consider it in the future.

Your point regarding the impact on reading skills is certainly something to consider. Not having done any official research on this, I have observed more students reading since the eReaders have become popular. Of course, I don't know what they're reading, but they are reading something.

Has there been any research started on this topic at all?

Janet

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Permalink Reply by Janet Lindner on March 28, 2012 at 9:55am

I'd like to see some research data on the impact of eReaders on students' reading skills. With the popularity of eReaders and the availability of eBook textbooks, this may become the new technology that we adopt for classroom instruction.

Janet