I have had a Kindle for about 2 years now, and I love it. I love that I can get any book any time (and for free if it's in the library collection). I love that it's portable. I love that I can adjust the font size. I love that (with a cover with a light) I can read no matter how much light there is.
Since I have had it, I read more, and I read a wider spectrum of material, but I also read more shallowly. I never flip back to clarify a section that didn't really make sense. When there's a character who has been introduced before, but I can't recall the details, I never go back. When I get bored, I don't skip ahead, or flip to reassure myself that it will get better: I just stop reading. For me, reading on the kindle is only ever in page order. While I know I can search and set bookmarks and highlights, I never want to leave the reading in order to do those things. In print books, I flip back and ahead all the time, without finding an interruption. I have spent enough hours with my kindle so that my patterns are set. Not to say that I couldn't change them if I really wanted, but if I haven't had the drive to use the extra tools yet, I doubt that I will in the future.
So I still want to read books that I think I will love in print. I buy print versions of the books for class so that I can flip through them. (I tried to write my paper on "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" from an ebook, and I wanted to pull my hair out.)
Based my experience, I would think ebooks are a great way to make sure every student always has something to read at hand which they enjoy. But I think that they should also sometimes use print books for the richer experience of being able to easily flip forwards and backwards. It will be interesting to see how the use of ebooks progresses as ereaders become more and more common.
Since I have had it, I read more, and I read a wider spectrum of material, but I also read more shallowly. I never flip back to clarify a section that didn't really make sense. When there's a character who has been introduced before, but I can't recall the details, I never go back. When I get bored, I don't skip ahead, or flip to reassure myself that it will get better: I just stop reading. For me, reading on the kindle is only ever in page order. While I know I can search and set bookmarks and highlights, I never want to leave the reading in order to do those things. In print books, I flip back and ahead all the time, without finding an interruption. I have spent enough hours with my kindle so that my patterns are set. Not to say that I couldn't change them if I really wanted, but if I haven't had the drive to use the extra tools yet, I doubt that I will in the future.
So I still want to read books that I think I will love in print. I buy print versions of the books for class so that I can flip through them. (I tried to write my paper on "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" from an ebook, and I wanted to pull my hair out.)
Based my experience, I would think ebooks are a great way to make sure every student always has something to read at hand which they enjoy. But I think that they should also sometimes use print books for the richer experience of being able to easily flip forwards and backwards. It will be interesting to see how the use of ebooks progresses as ereaders become more and more common.
I'm recalling data I saw recently that ebooks now outsell paper books. It could be really interesting to do some sort of poll on how people do read on them -- great thinking about "literacy" now. I use the highlight/annotation features a lot (I mostly read scholarly things in e form and my pleasure reading in paper, but that's starting to shift). I can use the search then to find what I want when I'm writing from/about a book. I save my annotations and highlights on my kindle account on my computer so then can copy and paste into writing I'm doing on the same computer.
ReplyDeleteI'm so interested in these ideas about how *we* read and how we then expect that kids might read. For sure, kids should have access to a really broad range of reading materials, paper and digital. And it will be so interesting to see how *they* engage all the different formats and make sense of them.
Should we be teaching how to navigate ebooks and reading strategies the way we teach them how to navigate paper materials?
EmilyEd18,
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree with you! I also have a Kindle App on my iPad and I often read our course reading on the iPad. It is so convenient to be able to access our readings digitally, instead of having to go to the library, or buy the books at a store. I enjoy reading from my iPad for the same reasons you do! However, nothing compares to handling a real book. I always feel so accomplished when I finish reading a paper text, I can always looks back to see notes I've made and it stays on my book shelf forever. Usually, when I finish reading a digital text, I never go back and look at it again. However, I have to say, I am amazed at the fact that my father, who is usually very traditional and always likes things to stay the same, has switched to reading books on a Kindle. I didn't think it would be that easy for him to adjust, and to enjoy a digital book (as opposed to his library full of paper books). He, who is much older than I, and very accustomed to paper books, was able to switch over to handling technology so easily. Imagine, for children (who have not had as much practice handling paper books, as my dad has) how much easier it will be to get accustomed to reading digital text. I think if the resources are made available, most students will choose a Kindle version rather than a paper book. If the ebooks were made available to students, I definitely think that teachers should teach these students how to navigate ebooks and how that compares to paper materials.