This article is a study between print and digital text using comprehension measure at the end of a semester. This study was done at the collegiate level with a control group who did all their reading from printed text and the experimental group who received training with online tools to assist them in reading online.
Literature search showed some studies had already been done on the length of time, which showed that print text was faster to read than digital and reading comprehension and speed, which found no significant difference between the two.
This study by Kol & Schcolnik (2000) focused on the giving students the following skills: Using the find feature, highlighter, hyperlinked outline to scan better, skim better and close-read better than those students reading from print.
Their hypotheses were that those strategies would allow them to read better or at least as well as those students reading from print text. (Scan better and skim and close-read as well as print) They defined the following terms, “scanning is defined as quickly looking over a text to locate specific pieces of information by using the find feature of the word processor,” “skimming as reading the hyperlinked outline provided, clicking the outline to access specific sections of the text, quickly reading and highlighting those sections, and scrolling to read the highlighted sections to get the main ideas,” and “close reading is reading intensively to comprehend ideas, logical relationships and /or fine points” (2000).
The same text on brain research from a journal was used to test student’s comprehension. Both used same text font, same size, same color and same color background. The layouts were different the digital study used hypertext links and the print was the entire article. The results were that students did skim better and close read digitally but they did not scan better. The find feature in the end did not help them scan better.
Reflection: Interesting study at the collegiate level but what I take away from this article is the importance of teaching skimming, scanning as pre-reading strategies and the need to find skills to help them read more deeply for comprehension.
Well I am not throwing my books away yet based on this article but I might look into non-fiction eBooks because what I find is the non-fiction especially in science and technology are almost dated when we put them on the shelves and if at the secondary level they can read digital text (not Internet text) as well as print text then it might make sense to have only what is current—who wants to use outdated research!
Reference:
Kol, S. & Schcolnik, M. (2000). Enhancing screen reading strategies. Computer
Assisted Language Instruction Consortium Journal, 18(1), pp. 67-80.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
How Do You Interact With the Information on the Internet?
Confused and overwhelmed, that is how many students feel when we ask them to read and comprehend what they find on the Internet. Vicki L. Cohen (2006) who has written, Strategies for Comprehending Electronic Text in Digitally Mediated Times, states, “This type of reading and writing is complex, can promote higher order thinking, and can foster complex reading and writing useful in the world of work or global communication.” We need to teach new ways of interacting with the information that we are asking students to read. Skills needed are ones that go beyond what they have learned for reading linear/print text.
This article focuses on four key areas of digital text: Nonlinear hypertext, multiple-media text, interactive texts and online communication text. Inferential reasoning and context clues are needed when reading this nonlinear text. Hyperlinks can carry you away, do you want to go there? Can you find your way back? Students get to control their own destiny when Internet searching. Next, students will encounter graphics, pictures, animation, ads (lots of ads), icons, audio clips, video clips, and text of all different sizes, color and shapes quite different from black print on white page. Can students take in all these multiple-media texts? Will their attention be diverted from what is important to what is entertaining? Students today get to interact with what they are reading through blogs, wikis, discussion boards, glogs---they read, they can respond and they can create. Tough part of all of that is “self-monitoring” do they understand the author and how to appropriately responding? Lastly, the online communication networking text IM’s, chats, phone texts are they self monitoring, can they decipher a new casual type of text, do they know how to read the “affect” of the author. Do students know how to respond when they barely know how to read face to face nonverbal language? Many questions arise when we switch from print to screen text.
Cohen (2006) lists eleven behaviors that are displayed often when children are Internet researching:
1. Preference for browsing rather than entering a keyword, and conducting a
search.
2. Difficulty in formulating keywords for a search.
3. Limited exploration; much use of well-known websites.
4. Little patience.
5. Difficulty with large amounts of text.
6. Tendency to focus on collecting factual knowledge than answering more conceptual
abstract questions.
7. Tendency to search for one correct answer.
8. Little attention to reading and processing of information.
9. Tendency to change the search questions when literal answer is not found.
10.Difficulty assessing the relevance of information found on the Internet.
11.Difficulty in assessing reliability of information found on the internet.
These behaviors are seen in elementary through college students. So these are the behaviors that need to be addressed in order to develop good digital readers.
Reflection: What is really great about this article is that it not only talked about the differences between print and digital text reading and behaviors often demonstrated by student but it also looked at solutions.
This author feels that digital reading strategies need to be taught. Strategies like:
•Graphic organizers--help students construct knowledge
•Write out their “essential question”—look at each sites relevance to their question
to help keep students on track
•Navigation skills—young students may need help how to navigate through everything
that is visible on their screen
•Pre-read strategy—first can they read and understand the information? Skim over
the headings and decide if you can tell what the main idea of the website is
•Post-read strategy—can you summarize what you read?
•“Synthesizing: The student must not only identify the main idea but generate new
theories of how this information applies to their topic” (2006).
I think this article hit the nail on the head for me! The behaviors that the author listed are exactly what I have witnessed with 7th and 8th graders at my school! What am I going to do about it? I need to break down these behaviors into classes or mini-lessons that focus on strategies for reading on the Internet.
Reference:
Cohen, V. (2006). Strategies for comprehending electronic text in digitally mediated times. Current development in technology-assisted education, p. 170-174. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.138.1350
This article focuses on four key areas of digital text: Nonlinear hypertext, multiple-media text, interactive texts and online communication text. Inferential reasoning and context clues are needed when reading this nonlinear text. Hyperlinks can carry you away, do you want to go there? Can you find your way back? Students get to control their own destiny when Internet searching. Next, students will encounter graphics, pictures, animation, ads (lots of ads), icons, audio clips, video clips, and text of all different sizes, color and shapes quite different from black print on white page. Can students take in all these multiple-media texts? Will their attention be diverted from what is important to what is entertaining? Students today get to interact with what they are reading through blogs, wikis, discussion boards, glogs---they read, they can respond and they can create. Tough part of all of that is “self-monitoring” do they understand the author and how to appropriately responding? Lastly, the online communication networking text IM’s, chats, phone texts are they self monitoring, can they decipher a new casual type of text, do they know how to read the “affect” of the author. Do students know how to respond when they barely know how to read face to face nonverbal language? Many questions arise when we switch from print to screen text.
Cohen (2006) lists eleven behaviors that are displayed often when children are Internet researching:
1. Preference for browsing rather than entering a keyword, and conducting a
search.
2. Difficulty in formulating keywords for a search.
3. Limited exploration; much use of well-known websites.
4. Little patience.
5. Difficulty with large amounts of text.
6. Tendency to focus on collecting factual knowledge than answering more conceptual
abstract questions.
7. Tendency to search for one correct answer.
8. Little attention to reading and processing of information.
9. Tendency to change the search questions when literal answer is not found.
10.Difficulty assessing the relevance of information found on the Internet.
11.Difficulty in assessing reliability of information found on the internet.
These behaviors are seen in elementary through college students. So these are the behaviors that need to be addressed in order to develop good digital readers.
Reflection: What is really great about this article is that it not only talked about the differences between print and digital text reading and behaviors often demonstrated by student but it also looked at solutions.
This author feels that digital reading strategies need to be taught. Strategies like:
•Graphic organizers--help students construct knowledge
•Write out their “essential question”—look at each sites relevance to their question
to help keep students on track
•Navigation skills—young students may need help how to navigate through everything
that is visible on their screen
•Pre-read strategy—first can they read and understand the information? Skim over
the headings and decide if you can tell what the main idea of the website is
•Post-read strategy—can you summarize what you read?
•“Synthesizing: The student must not only identify the main idea but generate new
theories of how this information applies to their topic” (2006).
I think this article hit the nail on the head for me! The behaviors that the author listed are exactly what I have witnessed with 7th and 8th graders at my school! What am I going to do about it? I need to break down these behaviors into classes or mini-lessons that focus on strategies for reading on the Internet.
Reference:
Cohen, V. (2006). Strategies for comprehending electronic text in digitally mediated times. Current development in technology-assisted education, p. 170-174. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.138.1350
Sunday, August 8, 2010
A-literacy and E-literacy is there a difference?
There was a catchy title to this article and so I decided to check it out and once again there are scary statistics in this article I just can’t pass up! This article points out that young adults of today are not reading for pleasure and books are not the choice way to get information. Then what is to become of the profession that I am just now entering---Media Specialist?
The New Bibliphobes, a chapter written by Mark Bauerlein (2010) states that, “a-literacy is defined as knowing how to read, but choosing not to” is catching on amongst young adults. He quotes a study done in 2002 that only 43% of 18-24 year olds had read any “work of poetry, fiction or drama in the preceding year.” This is a 17% drop from the same study done in 1982 (2010). Bauerlein feels there are more “diversions” than in previous years. Young adults are spending more time on computers, video games and phones than ever before. The amount of time on social networking is a staggering 9 hours per week (2010). He feels they have a quicker attention span and they are multitaskers which take very little time to just sit down and read a book for a couple of hours. E-literacy has taken over but that it is just the quick fix for instant answers without having to remember anything because you can just pull it up again when you need it! Therefore, even though they are “reading more” digitally their knowledge and skills have not risen accordingly “(2010). A Strong American Schools Report shows, that 43 % of 2-year college students and 29 % of four-year college students end up in a remedial class in reading, writing or math”(2010).
Reflection: So what we need among young adults is a change of attitude. They need to embrace books, reading for pleasure and capitalize on what print resources have to offer. I suspect that although they may be reading a lot on the internet—they are like my 7th and 8th graders—just superficial knowledge. So maybe a-literacy and e-literacy are one in the same!
Reference: Bauerlein, M. (2010). The new bibliophobes. The dumbest generation: How the digital age stupefies young Americans and jeopardizes our future. Retrieved from Educational Horizons, Infohio Database, EBSCO Host.
The New Bibliphobes, a chapter written by Mark Bauerlein (2010) states that, “a-literacy is defined as knowing how to read, but choosing not to” is catching on amongst young adults. He quotes a study done in 2002 that only 43% of 18-24 year olds had read any “work of poetry, fiction or drama in the preceding year.” This is a 17% drop from the same study done in 1982 (2010). Bauerlein feels there are more “diversions” than in previous years. Young adults are spending more time on computers, video games and phones than ever before. The amount of time on social networking is a staggering 9 hours per week (2010). He feels they have a quicker attention span and they are multitaskers which take very little time to just sit down and read a book for a couple of hours. E-literacy has taken over but that it is just the quick fix for instant answers without having to remember anything because you can just pull it up again when you need it! Therefore, even though they are “reading more” digitally their knowledge and skills have not risen accordingly “(2010). A Strong American Schools Report shows, that 43 % of 2-year college students and 29 % of four-year college students end up in a remedial class in reading, writing or math”(2010).
Reflection: So what we need among young adults is a change of attitude. They need to embrace books, reading for pleasure and capitalize on what print resources have to offer. I suspect that although they may be reading a lot on the internet—they are like my 7th and 8th graders—just superficial knowledge. So maybe a-literacy and e-literacy are one in the same!
Reference: Bauerlein, M. (2010). The new bibliophobes. The dumbest generation: How the digital age stupefies young Americans and jeopardizes our future. Retrieved from Educational Horizons, Infohio Database, EBSCO Host.
People of the Screen
Okay, this article does not have much to do about digital literacy, regarding how we read, but it was extremely entertaining and amusing, so I have included some great facts that really do matter to digital literacy.
Kevin Kelly (2010) states in his article, From Print to Pixels, “as digital screens proliferate, people are reading a whole new way” the written word has moved off the printed page and on to all kinds of screens. In today’s world people are reading from somewhere around 4.5 billion screens (2010). These screens are on televisions, cell phones, computers (laptops, iPads, netbooks), gaming systems, and music devices. “Right now ordinary citizens compose 1.5 million blog posts a day” and “young people around the world collectively write 12 billion quips per day from their phones.” That is a lot of reading and writing!
The author does a great job at looking at the history of the written word and how it has changed our lives but no print sources have infiltrated our lives like screen reading. There are screens in many rooms of our houses, throughout our schools, and mobile screens that we carry around with us where we go. Even billboards have been replaced by screens on highways, sports arenas and on the sides of buildings.
Kelly states, “Books were good at developing a contemplative mind. Screens encourage a more utilitarian thinking” (2010). The world is at our fingertips 24/7. It is a different way of reading—print is coming off the page but a screen is hitting you with all kinds of hypermedia in all different directions.
Kelly concludes, “Last year alone, five quintillion transistors were embedded into objects other than computers” and “screens will be the first place we will look for friends, for news, for meaning, for our sense of who we are and who we can be” (2010).
Reflection: Well hang onto your hats and get ready for the ride of your life! Digital reading is going to be essential for being a literate adult. Students will need, at a very young age make sense of what they see and what they read because it will not be in a book that they carry around with them it will be on screens everywhere they look.
Reference:
Kelly, K. (2010). From print to pixels. Smithsonian, 41(4), 122-128.
Kevin Kelly (2010) states in his article, From Print to Pixels, “as digital screens proliferate, people are reading a whole new way” the written word has moved off the printed page and on to all kinds of screens. In today’s world people are reading from somewhere around 4.5 billion screens (2010). These screens are on televisions, cell phones, computers (laptops, iPads, netbooks), gaming systems, and music devices. “Right now ordinary citizens compose 1.5 million blog posts a day” and “young people around the world collectively write 12 billion quips per day from their phones.” That is a lot of reading and writing!
The author does a great job at looking at the history of the written word and how it has changed our lives but no print sources have infiltrated our lives like screen reading. There are screens in many rooms of our houses, throughout our schools, and mobile screens that we carry around with us where we go. Even billboards have been replaced by screens on highways, sports arenas and on the sides of buildings.
Kelly states, “Books were good at developing a contemplative mind. Screens encourage a more utilitarian thinking” (2010). The world is at our fingertips 24/7. It is a different way of reading—print is coming off the page but a screen is hitting you with all kinds of hypermedia in all different directions.
Kelly concludes, “Last year alone, five quintillion transistors were embedded into objects other than computers” and “screens will be the first place we will look for friends, for news, for meaning, for our sense of who we are and who we can be” (2010).
Reflection: Well hang onto your hats and get ready for the ride of your life! Digital reading is going to be essential for being a literate adult. Students will need, at a very young age make sense of what they see and what they read because it will not be in a book that they carry around with them it will be on screens everywhere they look.
Reference:
Kelly, K. (2010). From print to pixels. Smithsonian, 41(4), 122-128.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Maybe it’s all about vocabulary?
Vacca & Vacca (2005) in their book, Reading in the Content Areas, state, “There is a strong connection between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. So when students are reading text with no understanding of the concepts they will not be able to fully understand what they are reading.
This chapter in the book focused on how teachers can use concept mapping, OPIN, magic squares, word exploration, brainstorming, list-group-label, word sorts, concept circle and modified cloze passages to help with the concepts. Teaching vocabulary words also helps students to make connections to what they already know to what they will encounter as they read/research.
Reflection: This was like a light bulb moment for me! How often do we give students a research project to which they really know nothing or very little about? Perhaps we need to give some basic vocabulary first so that as they encounter these new words they will be able to make better sense of what they are reading. The other thing that comes to mind is when they are internet searching how many times are they reading articles way above their reading level (especially if the content is new to them!) This I have known for a long time and this is a frequent complaint by students! If it is too hard they just keep moving from one article to the next. When I start off an Internet Project with students I tell them they should start off in the databases available to them. We have Destiny Online Library Catalog that has a WebExpress feature. So if students are searching for sharks they will only get the ones swimming in the ocean and not the loan sharks. The websites are all looked at by educators and have either K-5, 6-9 or 10-12 grade level next to the article so students can make sure they will be able to read the article. Some databases such as INFOhio allow students to search by grade level and some are even lexiled.
So vocabulary is important---for many reasons but especially when students are reading digitally!
Reference:
Vacca, R. & Vacca, J. (2005). Content area
reading: Literacy and learning across the curriculum. New York, NY:
Prentice Hall.
This chapter in the book focused on how teachers can use concept mapping, OPIN, magic squares, word exploration, brainstorming, list-group-label, word sorts, concept circle and modified cloze passages to help with the concepts. Teaching vocabulary words also helps students to make connections to what they already know to what they will encounter as they read/research.
Reflection: This was like a light bulb moment for me! How often do we give students a research project to which they really know nothing or very little about? Perhaps we need to give some basic vocabulary first so that as they encounter these new words they will be able to make better sense of what they are reading. The other thing that comes to mind is when they are internet searching how many times are they reading articles way above their reading level (especially if the content is new to them!) This I have known for a long time and this is a frequent complaint by students! If it is too hard they just keep moving from one article to the next. When I start off an Internet Project with students I tell them they should start off in the databases available to them. We have Destiny Online Library Catalog that has a WebExpress feature. So if students are searching for sharks they will only get the ones swimming in the ocean and not the loan sharks. The websites are all looked at by educators and have either K-5, 6-9 or 10-12 grade level next to the article so students can make sure they will be able to read the article. Some databases such as INFOhio allow students to search by grade level and some are even lexiled.
So vocabulary is important---for many reasons but especially when students are reading digitally!
Reference:
Vacca, R. & Vacca, J. (2005). Content area
reading: Literacy and learning across the curriculum. New York, NY:
Prentice Hall.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
It's All About Plasticity!
The Reading Ready Brain (2009) mainly focused on how to help struggling readers. The correlation was made between poor reader’s drop-out rate and behavior problems. Which is not really any new information but the article focused on a technology program called Fast ForWord, a reading intervention software package from Scientific Learning, that allowed students of any age to build cognitive skills.
Again this article focused on the brain’s plasticity. The brain has the capability to learn at any age, so that if students miss out in elementary school there is still time to learn at the secondary level because they brain continues to learn throughout our entire lives.
This software is based on 30 years of neuroscience research and focused on building the following cognitive skills: memory, attention, processing rate and sequencing. These skills not only help when reading but learning as well. This software developed “computer-based brain fitness exercises” (52) which not only improved their reading but their motivation, attitude and behavior changed as they had success in reading.
Reflection: The two cognitive skills that I was interested in were attention and processing rate. These are two areas that have been identified in many articles so far. This software helped students to focus on information and tasks and ignore distractions (51) to gain better attention. It also addressed processing rate, “the rate at which a student is able to accurately perceive and manipulate information” (51) which is also critical in digital reading. It looks like they have had a lot of success with this program because it does focus on the basic cognitive skills. We know that in order to learn and remember that we need to build on prior knowledge. If students do not have that prior knowledge or skills we are only building frustration when it comes to reading. Again, it all about plasticity!
Reference:
Kolonay, D. & Kelly-Garris, K. (2009) The reading ready brain. Principal Leadership 48-53.
Again this article focused on the brain’s plasticity. The brain has the capability to learn at any age, so that if students miss out in elementary school there is still time to learn at the secondary level because they brain continues to learn throughout our entire lives.
This software is based on 30 years of neuroscience research and focused on building the following cognitive skills: memory, attention, processing rate and sequencing. These skills not only help when reading but learning as well. This software developed “computer-based brain fitness exercises” (52) which not only improved their reading but their motivation, attitude and behavior changed as they had success in reading.
Reflection: The two cognitive skills that I was interested in were attention and processing rate. These are two areas that have been identified in many articles so far. This software helped students to focus on information and tasks and ignore distractions (51) to gain better attention. It also addressed processing rate, “the rate at which a student is able to accurately perceive and manipulate information” (51) which is also critical in digital reading. It looks like they have had a lot of success with this program because it does focus on the basic cognitive skills. We know that in order to learn and remember that we need to build on prior knowledge. If students do not have that prior knowledge or skills we are only building frustration when it comes to reading. Again, it all about plasticity!
Reference:
Kolonay, D. & Kelly-Garris, K. (2009) The reading ready brain. Principal Leadership 48-53.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Anime and WebKinz to evaluate reading?
At first look this article appears to be the perfect match to what I am researching! Only time will tell! This article premise is that if we want to know how to teach digital literacy we first need to understand the difference print and digital text. Authors, Rowsell & Burke (2009) will focus on the multimodal design and the reading path. Their goal is getting best practices for incorporating digital reading into the curriculum. An interesting point is that online reading is student/learner centered. It also describe as other resources have, of the advantages of the collaborative learning approach.
In the literature review, Mary McNabb (2006), from Literacy Learning in Networked Classrooms, describes three curriculum benefits of the Internet:
1) designing Internet-based activities to help meet the diverse of students by engaging them through personal interests, 2) customizing teaching-learning cycles in ways that motivate students, and 3) fostering self-directed learning (107)
These are very 21st century focused advantages of using Internet in the classroom with a focus on motivation and learner centered learning.
The information in this article is based on two case studies one a student who is struggling reader and the other who is very proficient at reading digital text. It is important first to define a couple of key terms that are the focus on this study. First, they define “multimodal” as “…the use of different modes of communication to create an effect” like the actions/gestures in an anime are as meaningful as the visuals and dialogues. “The point is the modes work in concert with one another.” (107) Next, the term “reading path”, which talks about how the reader looks at the text—where are they drawn to first, then where to next and finally where does the reader end up at (107). In printed text the reader can move around on the text but there are no real deviations from the printed page but digitally reading is “constructed” as the reader moves through the site. They also use the term metalanguage and multiliteracies—that we are not just dealing with text anymore but readers have visual modes and audio modes to deal with as well.
This study was conducted while the students were working on their computer. They used “stimulated recall” (108) which meant the students would talk aloud as they moved through websites. The researcher taped the student responses, had a follow-up interview and also interviewed participating teachers.
Peter is a 14 year old special education student who shows a high interest and motivation in digital worlds but who is a loner and is struggling in reading at school. He shared a very in depth knowledge of an anime characters, Yu-Gi-Oh cards and Lego Star Wars that he has gained from the internet. The other student is 13 year old, Patty, who is a straight A student and is very involved at school and in her spare time likes to take care of Webkinz virtual pets.
To analyze their reading they used a Multimodal Framework that included looking at four steps: discourse, design, production and distribution, which allow these authors to analyze and understand multimodal text. (110)
The researchers looked at two websites of the student’s choice. Peter’s website is “Naruto which carries a storyline and can be viewed as a televisual online text or a videogame.” Patty’s is Webkinz “which is an interactive site where users find an online identity and community through their stuffed animal avatars.” (110) Their analysis of Peter was that he “can decode, and he understands plot, setting, characterization. He builds on prior knowledge to understand other, related texts and uses design principles to understand the plot. Peter is a capable reader in this setting, yet he continues to underachieve in his school reading assignments. Patty excelled in site where she can play games, win Kinzcash, design, advertise, build, shop and care for virtual pets. Patty showed frequently how she used prior knowledge and new knowledge to construct her virtual world. (115) The reading that these students did on these websites made reading more real to them, thus engagement. Patty was able to take the knowledge and decision making skills used at her site to apply to real world (probably adult level) situations.
It was concluded that digital reading is very complex—decoding may be the same for both but educators need to “understand the design inherent in digital texts, one comes closer to bridging the gap between the digital realm of literacy and the traditional.” (117)
Reflection: Okay so this wasn’t the perfect article but it does draw my awareness that students have to take in a lot more than just text when they read online. These websites, although they were games and an interactive site, show me the huge impact that students are not just reading anymore they are doing constructing of new knowledge on many levels. I don’t think this is happening to the same degree when reading text. Another important point I take away from this article is that the level of understanding and motivation is very high using digital text.
Reference:
Rowsell, J. & Burke, A. (2009). Reading by design: two case studies of digital reading practices. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53(2) 108-118.
In the literature review, Mary McNabb (2006), from Literacy Learning in Networked Classrooms, describes three curriculum benefits of the Internet:
1) designing Internet-based activities to help meet the diverse of students by engaging them through personal interests, 2) customizing teaching-learning cycles in ways that motivate students, and 3) fostering self-directed learning (107)
These are very 21st century focused advantages of using Internet in the classroom with a focus on motivation and learner centered learning.
The information in this article is based on two case studies one a student who is struggling reader and the other who is very proficient at reading digital text. It is important first to define a couple of key terms that are the focus on this study. First, they define “multimodal” as “…the use of different modes of communication to create an effect” like the actions/gestures in an anime are as meaningful as the visuals and dialogues. “The point is the modes work in concert with one another.” (107) Next, the term “reading path”, which talks about how the reader looks at the text—where are they drawn to first, then where to next and finally where does the reader end up at (107). In printed text the reader can move around on the text but there are no real deviations from the printed page but digitally reading is “constructed” as the reader moves through the site. They also use the term metalanguage and multiliteracies—that we are not just dealing with text anymore but readers have visual modes and audio modes to deal with as well.
This study was conducted while the students were working on their computer. They used “stimulated recall” (108) which meant the students would talk aloud as they moved through websites. The researcher taped the student responses, had a follow-up interview and also interviewed participating teachers.
Peter is a 14 year old special education student who shows a high interest and motivation in digital worlds but who is a loner and is struggling in reading at school. He shared a very in depth knowledge of an anime characters, Yu-Gi-Oh cards and Lego Star Wars that he has gained from the internet. The other student is 13 year old, Patty, who is a straight A student and is very involved at school and in her spare time likes to take care of Webkinz virtual pets.
To analyze their reading they used a Multimodal Framework that included looking at four steps: discourse, design, production and distribution, which allow these authors to analyze and understand multimodal text. (110)
The researchers looked at two websites of the student’s choice. Peter’s website is “Naruto which carries a storyline and can be viewed as a televisual online text or a videogame.” Patty’s is Webkinz “which is an interactive site where users find an online identity and community through their stuffed animal avatars.” (110) Their analysis of Peter was that he “can decode, and he understands plot, setting, characterization. He builds on prior knowledge to understand other, related texts and uses design principles to understand the plot. Peter is a capable reader in this setting, yet he continues to underachieve in his school reading assignments. Patty excelled in site where she can play games, win Kinzcash, design, advertise, build, shop and care for virtual pets. Patty showed frequently how she used prior knowledge and new knowledge to construct her virtual world. (115) The reading that these students did on these websites made reading more real to them, thus engagement. Patty was able to take the knowledge and decision making skills used at her site to apply to real world (probably adult level) situations.
It was concluded that digital reading is very complex—decoding may be the same for both but educators need to “understand the design inherent in digital texts, one comes closer to bridging the gap between the digital realm of literacy and the traditional.” (117)
Reflection: Okay so this wasn’t the perfect article but it does draw my awareness that students have to take in a lot more than just text when they read online. These websites, although they were games and an interactive site, show me the huge impact that students are not just reading anymore they are doing constructing of new knowledge on many levels. I don’t think this is happening to the same degree when reading text. Another important point I take away from this article is that the level of understanding and motivation is very high using digital text.
Reference:
Rowsell, J. & Burke, A. (2009). Reading by design: two case studies of digital reading practices. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53(2) 108-118.
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