Tuesday, September 28, 2010

DIGITAL TEXTS



How I feel about it:

I am a supporter of any method or medium from which students can get information. For example, I have heard many talk about comic books and newspapers as lower literature. However this table (Reutzel, et al.)shows the number of new words kids can learn from reading such “trash.” Yes, perhaps Superman isn’t the “classic literature” that Jane Eyre is, but if it gets kids reading then who cares? I feel the same way towards the digital text form. If it works in getting people to read, then use it. Isn’t that what we want?

Why do we want students to read in the first place? Our goal is to help them become productive citizens in the community of the world. To do that, they need to be able to read to some extent in order to function and they need to be able to obtain information. There are multiple ways of obtaining information such as listening, conventional reading, reading Braille, looking at pictures, and watching sign language. It shouldn’t matter which way is used. At the same time I would not refer to all of those as “reading.” I, personally, find this confusing because it does not fit my own schema of what reading is which is something I can change. However, I find it unnecessary to refer to all of them as reading in order to make them equal. People who can listen to a book and cannot read it still CAN’T read even though they can listen. Therefore they are different. Distinguishing the two and keeping them separate does not automatically make one inferior or superior than the other. They are just different.


Looking to the Future:

Digital text lines up with the movement towards being eco-friendly. As a student, I love saving money by not having to buy books or print everything out. After all, ink is the most expensive liquid on the planet, supposedly. These are just a few reasons why digital texts are becoming so popular and will potentially replace hard copies.

I think printed materials will still be widely used for another generation or two as the older generations adjust to technology and/or die out. I’m not even referring to the elderly exclusively. I am in my twenties and I still prefer buying printed novels over reading them on a kindle. However, I would rather read my academic articles on the computer. That is simply my level of adjustment at this point in my life. A few of my friends have a kindle and even read them at the beach. Others of my friends refuse to buy one. In the end, I see the possibility for a certain amount of printed materials always being needed. At the same time, I definitely see them dying out just as much as vinyl records are antiques.