Some Research About E-Readers and Digital Text

There has been research done in schools using e-readers, and finding more recent studies and articles was definitely easier using the GMU Library resources than searching on Bing or Google. I was specifically looking for any research to refute or support Nicholas Carr’s concerns about comprehension suffering due to distractedness. Through the results that I found, it is clear that people have repeatedly confirmed a few of the other observations I discovered on my general Google search. Most of the studies I read confirmed that student motivation is initially increased (Brown, S., 2016; Ciampa, 2015), though the groups sampled were very small. I am not surprised that elementary and middle school students would be excited to read on a digital e-reader compared to traditional paper books. I have seen how excited my third graders and my own children at home get when I say we can use “technology.”

Another article confirmed that reader engagement and interaction increased as the functions of the e-readers or e-books increased. (Ketron, 2016) This is also not surprising, as paper books don’t have a lot of interactive features built in, though teachers can help foster an interactive experience around printed books in the classroom. One finding that Ketron and his team did find, though, is the reader’s connection to an e-book is not as strong as to a paper book. In an interesting twist, this study actually discussed the idea of community built around books and e-books, comparing the online community where people rate and share book reviews versus the book store, where people would gather together to browse and discuss books. I would consider these communities of interest.

One article I found that actually focused on reading ability concluded that there was a potential increase in reading comprehension and reading ability in middle school students, but it was not a statistically significant difference or could not be attributed to the use of e-readers themselves.  In their reflection, they said they sampled a small number of students, and one of the concerns of the researchers was that there was not a wide range of reading abilities in the sampled class, so it may not be a generalizable result. (Brown, H.Q. 2016)

The last article that I’ll mention on comprehension confirmed what one of Nicholas Carr’s cited articles  stated: reading comprehension and fact recall is better with print reading than digital reading. (Singer & Alexander, 2017). The Shallows cites a 2012 study by Norwegian researcher Anne Mangen, who found that students scored better on comprehension tests when presented in printed text rather than digital text. In the 2017 study, high school students stated whether they felt more comfortable with digital or text reading, and then were randomly assigned to one or the other. Regardless of personal preference, students who completed the printed text task outperformed the digital task.

One thing I noticed about all of these studies is that they investigate a relatively small number of subjects, and in some cases, the populations are relatively particular, meaning the results may be not be generalizable. Most of these studies confirm what we notice in our classrooms - students get more excited about reading digital books. I wish I found more studies that really focus on elementary students’ reading comprehension or reading level progress, the things that we really focus on in an elementary school.

One big question I now have is what implications might these studies have on standardized testing. If students’ reading comprehension is potentially lower with online or digital reading, what does this mean for our state SOL tests? They are all given online now. Specifically, what aspects of digital reading potentially lower reading comprehension? I recognize that reading and literacy instruction must include how to interact with text, both printed and digital - these are not necessarily innate understandings. Are programs that are using e-readers explicitly teaching how to interact or focus with the texts as we have been doing with print text for years? What do you think? How does your school use or teach e-readers?

References:

·         Sally Brown (2016) Young Learners’ Transactions With Interactive Digital Texts Using E-Readers, Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 30:1, 42-56, DOI: 10.1080/02568543.2015.1105887

·         Katia Ciampa (2016) Motivating Grade 1 Children to Read: Exploring the Role of Choice, Curiosity, and Challenge in Mobile Ebooks, Reading Psychology, 37:5,665-705, DOI: 10.1080/02702711.2015.1105337

·         Seth Ketron (2016) How e-readers have changed personal connections with books. Qualitative Market Research.  19 (4), p. 433 - 452.

·         Lauren M. Singer & Patricia A. Alexander (2017) Reading Across Mediums: Effects of Reading Digital and Print Texts on Comprehension and Calibration, The Journal of Experimental Education, 85:1, 155-172, DOI: 10.1080/00220973.2016.1143794

·         H. Quincy Brown (2016) Examining the Effects of School-Provided E-Readers on Middle School Students’ Reading Ability, Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 44:4, 404-410, DOI:  10.1177/0047239515623050