Saturday, June 2, 2012

Are E-books really good for all our students?

I love integrating technology in my classes. My school will be piloting iPads in the World Language department and I already have a long list of appropriate apps to use for class.  With so much technology being used in our classrooms, some might question how long we will still be seeing books that have paper pages.Have you notice the line up of Nooks at our local Barnes 'n Nobles bookstore and even the Kindle app on mobile phones? Obviously many people are seeing the many advantages of e-books. But are their any disadvantages for our children?

Kate Garland, a lecturer in psychology at the University of Leicester in England, has done comparison studies with students reading the same content in both media with different results in student performance.  The surprising results were that students retained information quicker when using paper books as opposed to e-books.  E-books seem to require students to read over pages. 


Now the truth; I had a Kindle and soon it found it's way on the shelf collecting dust. Why? Well, it seems I like others, appreciate the spatial context in a paper book.  I like knowing where on the page something was written; was it the lower right-hand side or top left-hand side?  


Check out the article in Time Magazine http://healthland.time.com/2012/03/14/do-e-books-impair-memory/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+timeblogs%2Fwellness+%28TIME%3A+Wellness%29