Although I have many friends who have e-readers and love them, they are a piece of technology that has never appealed much to me, as I prefer to physically hold books in my hands. I had never really considered how e-readers could be used in the classroom until writing this blog post, and I've come to realize that they can be used to provide book access to students who might otherwise be left out. For some context, I have taught many students who need materials to be accessible in both English and Spanish, and I have taught students with severe vision impairment. Providing accommodations to these students with the basic materials I'm provided, particularly English novels in standard font sizes, can be difficult, but e-readers could make it much easier for students needing accommodations to access our texts.
While not all e-readers are the exact same, nearly all of them come with accommodating technologies like text-to-speech, enlarged fonts, and translation tools. Using Dr. Joan E. Hughes's R.A.T. model for technology integration, e-readers can be applied to all three levels. They can replace the need for teachers to make all these accommodations themselves (for my students who need bilingual materials, I have to create all the materials myself due to my school not having a multi-lingual learner specialist). They could also replace the need to buy copies of large-text editions that kids might be embarrassed to be seen reading (not to mention that not every book has a large-text edition).
This also seamlessly transitions into e-readers falling under the amplification and transformation levels of the R.A.T. model. If I am not having to spend hours making these accommodations myself and an e-reader can seamlessly do it for me, then effectiveness and efficiency has definitely been increased. Learning is also transformed, as kids who previously might not have had the same access to texts as their peers can now access them. It is important to mention that true transformation with a piece of technology is contingent upon educators learning everything they can about the tech, but I do still believe that aspects of e-readers in the classroom could be called transformative.
Of course, this is not an exhaustive list of how e-readers can be beneficial to the classroom. Education World has a great article about how e-readers can be used in the classroom as does WeAreTeachers. Even beyond e-readers being a great accommodation tool, they may also spark a new love of reading in students as some students may discover they prefer e-readers over physical books. However they might be used, an intentional implementation of e-readers in the classroom can be beneficial to everyone from students to teachers and beyond.
References
Caron, S.W. (2012). Top 8 tips for using kindle readers in the classroom. Education World. https://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/how-to-use-kindle-in-the-classroom.shtml
Hughes, J.E. (2016). Replacement, amplification, and transformation: The r.a.t. model. Tech Edges. https://web.archive.org/web/20190612101737/https://techedges.org/r-a-t-model/
WeAreTeachers Staff (2015, January 7). 10 tips for using e-readers in the classroom. WeAreTeachers. https://www.weareteachers.com/10-tips-for-using-e-readers-in-the-classroom/
Before this post, I was not a fan of e-readers either. However, after explaining how beneficial and inclusive they can be, sign me up! I worked with a student who was going blind in the fourth grade. He would have benefitted so much from an e-reader! From reading aloud information to making the pictures and font large enough for him to read and enjoy independently would have been priceless! As you mentioned, they can be used with everyone else in the classroom as a great technology tool.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting such an informative topic this week.