In the last decades, the world of publishing has changed a lot due to the introduction of digital supports, and so has the field of education. The use of tablets and interactive blackboards has expanded the ways of learning traditional subjects such as maths, literature, science, history and so on. At the same time, these tools have been subject to skepticism, the risk of reduced concentration and the eye damages being pointed out by those who rely on physical books.
Let’s see why and how digital tools can be successfully introduced inside the classroom and what their benefits are.
Towards a “biliterate brain”
In 2018, the American scholar Maryanne Wolf published “Reader Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital Word”. This book represents a fundamental step in the research on the use of digital tools and its consequences on the human brain’s development, especially that of children and adolescents.
Wolf (2018) states that reading is not a skill that humans developed from a genetic base, like vision or language (“human beings were never born to read”), but it’s something they have learned to do over the course of evolution. The way reading has affected the brain development, leading to complexity, empathy and critical thinking in life, is a unique and unrepeatable experience in world’s history.
“What we read, how we read and why we read change how we think, changes that are continuing now at a faster pace.”
(Wolf, 2018)
Secondly, reading has these effects as long as it is a deep reading. Deep reading is a status of complete concentration which enables us to immerse ourselves into a story and get the best from it in terms of self-understanding and critical thought. It’s not only about decoding what we are reading, it’s about making further connections between new information and what we already know.
Thirdly, this capacity is not fixed, but it must be trained and learnt. The creation of new neuronal connections, due to the brain’s plasticity, is influenced by both natural and environmental factors, including the medium we use for reading.
Digital tools have completely changed our mode of reading, making it more superficial and faster. In fact, screen-reading follows a F- or Z-shaped pattern. The F-shaped pattern consists of reading the upper part of the text with a horizontal movement and then scanning the left side of the text with a vertical movement. The second, the Z-shaped pattern, consists of reading only the beginning and the conclusion in a linear manner and quickly skimming the rest of the text.
By doing this, however, we “reduce time allocated to deep reading processes. In other words, we don’t have time to grasp complexity, to understand another’s feelings, to perceive beauty, and to create thoughts of the reader’s own” (Wolf, “The Guardian”, 2018). This also affects concentration and attention skills that are fundamental in the learning process.
What will happen to today’s children, who not only are less and less accustomed to reading physical books, but they are also increasingly exposed to digital instruments?
Wolf’s proposal goes in the direction of an integrated reading mode that allows people to continue to benefit from deep reading without giving up the potential of the digital world. In a few words, today’s children should develop a biliterate brain that is able to switch from different reading and learning modes without losing any capacity or advantage from both of them.
Why using e-learning tools a school
The point, in fact, has never been to ban the technology a priori, but using it consciously and actively. Participation and engagement is what makes the difference in the use of digital tools for an educational purpose.
It is also fundamental to adapt different types of learning to the students’ age. According to the neurologist Judy Willis (“The Guardian”, 2015), “during early school years, the brain is focused on getting to grips with the world around us. Memories and understanding grow when new information can be linked to things we already know. Homework that helps with this recognition can build literacy and numeracy skills.” On the contrary, “When students reach adolescence […] learning goals are more likely to focus on reading for content and comprehension, revising, report writing, solving problems, investigating and independent or group work”.
Considering all these needs, the advantages of using digital tools in education are several:
- Thanks to their “liquid” nature – that is not tied to a single support – digital contents, in particular the EPUBs, are flexible and easy to share because they can be read by different tools (tablets, computers, mobile phones, e-readers and so on);
- They guarantee inclusiveness and accessibility since they can be adapted to the fruitor’s needs, for example by using a text-to-speech engine for blind readers, by choosing a different size/ shape of the font or a different colour/orientation for the text. Dyslexic readers can be helped by using fonts specifically designed for them;
- Ebooks can be enriched by multimedia and interactive contents. This is especially the case of the EPub 3 format, which is useful for educational purposes because it allows the insertion of video, audio, exercises, graphics and image galleries that make the contents more impactful and engaging;
- Digital books are generally more affordable than paper books because they don’t incur the same printing and distribution costs as physical books;
- They can improve creativity. There are several online sites that allow students and teachers to build interactive stories and customised lessons for every need an learning level.
How to create your own digital lesson
To make digital tools suitable for students, teachers and educators must have the instruments to create them.
Here are three online resources that can be used to create interactive books and lessons:
BookCreator is an online tool for the creation of ebooks (interactive stories, digital portfolios, science reports and so on), easily accessible by everyone. Users can add pictures, diagrams, images, audio and video contents to your text. The free version allow to create a single library with a maximum of 40 volumes inside.
H5P is a program that make it easy to create, share and reuse HTML5 interactive contents – such as videos, branching scenarios, lessons and presentations – by providing a range of tools for various needs.
Twine is an open-source program for the creation of interactive fiction through hyperlinks. It allows plot crossroads, following the model of book games and text adventures. Users can add not only links, but also images, sounds and various special effects. It is also possible to develop adventure games with scenarios, objects, combats, dialogues and points to explore freely. You can download the program to your PC or use the online version. You don’t need to have any special programming knowledge to use Twine.
Sources:
“The Future of the Reading Brain in An Increasingly Digital World”, conversation with Maryanne Wolf on the radio program “On Point” (2018) :
https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2018/08/21/reader-come-home-maryanne-wolf
Gottwald, S., Is screentime really dangerous (or bad) for children?, “Curious Learning” (2020): https://www.curiouslearning.org/essays/2020/10/9/is-screentime-really-dangerous-or-bad-for-children
Miller, L., Just Read the Book Already, “Slate” (2018):
https://slate.com/culture/2018/08/reader-come-home-by-maryanne-wolf-reviewed.html
Troeger, J., Building an accessible ebook, “Medium” (2019): https://medium.com/@jens.troeger/building-an-accessible-ebook-2c3e04891902
Willis, J., The science of homework: tips to engage student’s brain, “The Guardian” (2015): https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2015/feb/23/science-homework-students-brains-learning
Wolf, M., Skim reading is the new normal. The effect on society is profound, “The Guardian” (2018) : https://www.cswe.org/CSWE/media/Diversity-Center/Pedagogical-Resources.pdf
Wolf, M., Reader, come home. The reading brain in the digital world, Harper Collins (2018): https://www.google.fr/books/edition/Reader_Come_Home/Hlg_DwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover