I found this chapter of the book to be very
informative. Growing up and going to school in the early 2000's has really
changed with the advancements in technology, especially when it comes to
working with technology in the classroom. As a student I personally enjoy
reading from a textbook as to online. I feel like it is easier for me to
concentrate and I like to be able to take side notes and highlight on the
paper. It saddens me to read from this text that we are moving towards almost
not even having paper books at all and leaning towards reading more on the
computer.
When I was in first grade I struggled a lot with reading. I remember one
day when my teacher was preforming a running record with me and she was marking
off all of the words that I was reading wrong. This was making me very anxious
and I continued to read the words wrong when I was trying to correct them over
and over. My teacher noticed that this was making me uncomfortable and let me
take a break before we continued. I feel like the opportunity to read face to
face with my teacher with the book open together made it helpful for her to
guide me. If I was taking a running record over the computer and reading aloud
I may not have gotten the help that I needed.
This textbook (Johnson, 2014) mentions that 93% of children from the
ages of 8-18 will spend an average of 90 mins on the computer daily. If this is
the case I think that if we put more technology in the classroom to read, then
the time spent on the computer will increase dramatically. However, I do not
think it will increase because they are using the computer to read. I know from
experience that when I am reading on the computer or doing homework I get very
distracted on other things such as the internet and social media (for example
it has taken me over an hour to just write this much of my blog). I agree that reading
online can help students learn with the extent of hyperlinks to define
vocabulary and show you alternative links to what they are reading, but I think
it should be monitored. On page 7 in the
text it gives a table of the differences between traditional print and digital
print. I highly believe that both environments for reading and comprehending
are beneficial for readers but I think the reader’s ability to read plays an
important part. In my opinion a child that is new to reading may benefit better
with a traditional book where they can flip the pages on their own and learn
that print goes from left to right and from page to page in order. Where as a
more advanced reader may benefit from the digital text so they can look up
synonyms of words and expand their reading further. Overall, this chapter of
the book really made me think about what the future is going to be like for
upcoming students and how many traditional styled paper books are actually going
to still be made.
Hi Jessica,
ReplyDeleteI have to completely agree with you, I completely understand the struggle when reading online texts. I am that person that loves to highlight, and right down ideas right next to the point that helped me develop that idea. So when I think of our technology and it's growth it worries me for how children will learn when it no longer comes from a textbook. Will they take away the important knowledge that is needed for their education?
I also relate to you completely when you discuss struggling when learning to read. I had the hardest time, it made me anxious to go to school and in honesty for a while I hated being so embarrassed about reading that I would pretend to be sick so I wouldn't have to go. But then I met a reading teacher in my elementary school who was going to help me improve my reading skills, and she truthfully changed my overall feeling of school, she made me want to learn again.
I completely agree with you that both traditional and digital print are important in today's society for children's learning.. I really enjoyed reading your post!