Article Summary
Corey Galbreath
Publication
Date: May 15, 2012
Author:
Cynthia Chiong, Jinny Ree, Lori Takeuchi and Ingrid Erickson
Source:
The Joan Ganz Cooney Center
Summary:
Print Books vs.
E-Books was an article that
researched some very interesting information that dealt with the cost
and benefits of print books and e-books. E-books are the new fad and
all textbooks are slowly transitioning to e-books and not being sold
as a print book. The technology development in todays society is very
predominant and increasing every day. There are many positive and
negative effects that come along with e-books and the research
executed in this article explains those.
During
this article, there were three different trials conducted and
overall, the findings were very similar. The experiment included 32
pairs of parents and their 3-6-year-old children that were asked to
read a print book and e-book together (two different e-books were
used: enhanced and basic). The first test focused on parent-child
conversation after reading a print book vs. an e-book. The findings
were that e-books prompted more non-content related interactions,
whereas print books improved vocabulary and overall language
development. The second test focused on story comprehension after
reading the two different text types. The findings were that while
reading an e-book, the students' and parents focus was not on
comprehension, but on non-content related issues. The last test was
engagement in the different text types. The conclusions made were
that print books were more advantageous for literacy building
co-reading, whereas the enhanced e-books were more advantageous for
engaging children and prompting physical interaction.
The
consensus in this article after all of the experiments were conducted
was that e-books were not as beneficial for students and parents as
were print books. It is recommended for designers to modify their
designs in e-books. Some designs are too distracting and thus get the
reader off task and the comprehension level is at a low. According to
this article, e-books don't offer the student and parent an effective
co-reading experience.
Reflection:
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article. It was an interesting
topic and I never thought about all the pros and cons of print books
and e-books. After reading the article and mimicking the tests, my
mom and I found that the findings researchers discovered were spot
on. We went through all of the three tests and compared our results
to the results of the article.
We focused on the findings to see how our data correlated with the
articles data. We made sure to cover parent-child conversation, story
comprehension and engagement. My mom and I fell into the majority of
those findings. After we were done reading on the e-book, we had no
recollection of what the story was about. We stared at each other in
confusion and were completely baffled because we couldn't talk about
the excerpt we had just read, nor could we remember any supporting
details. The background pictures and font changes were very bright
and vivid and caught our eye easily. I would be in the middle of a
sentence and wander off because of all the distractions. And I am 24,
let alone giving a 3-6-year-old this material and asking them to
constantly focus on the material at hand.
Technology today is
becoming integrated more into our classrooms and is supposed to help
our students learn better. But are our students benefitting from all
of the technology or just some
technology? Technology such as SmartBoards, Ipads, Elmo's, and
laptops, do enhance the learning for students because it is a new and
effective way to make learning fun. I do agree that technology in the
classroom is a great addition to our educational system, but when
analyzing all of the technology equipment used, are the overall
grades showing a positive or negative slope?
References:
- Chiong, C. (2012). Print Books vs. E-Books. Reading Rockets. http://www.readingrockets.org/research/topic/comprehension
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