e-Book value
Posted on: July 9, 2012
I stumbled upon this Guardian article, Enhanced ebooks are bad for children finds American study.
The same news service offered another article, For young readers, the book’s the thing whatever technology may bring.
I would wager that if the measures in the study were less traditional, the conclusions might have been different.
I would also argue that reading does not start and end with paper-based books. There are posters, notices, menus, comics, magazines, subtitles, and more. Are these good or bad for children too?
Instead, I would leverage on the value that e-books bring to the learning equation. Elements like:
- getting definitions immediately
- visiting hyperlinks to related content or concepts
- being able to fact-check online, e.g., explore a concept in a wiki
- sharing highlights and/or notes
- discussing content or concepts with other readers, experts, or even the author
In other words, well designed e-books can help readers direct their own learning in ways that a traditional book cannot.
