EDUC 630 e-Books

Pick any latest tech trend (ebooks, augmented reality, cloud computing, social networking) and discuss how you feel about it in personal societal use/ educational use as a teacher.  This is your feeling about it.  Don't go all research on this. :) 

 Personally, I like e-books.  I am an avid reader!  I love to read and always have, from the time I was in early elementary school.  In fact, I'm a reader who can read three or four books (for pleasure) at the same time.  When I don't get enough pleasure reading, I can tell a difference in my mood and attitude.  My favorite genre is Christian fiction, especially historical Christian fiction.   Even though I love to read, I find some of my "required" reading to be less than pleasurable.

What does this have to do with e-books?  Well, books are expensive.  I check out books from the public library, but I go to town so rarely now, that it becomes a pain to return them.  I hate overdue fees!  This brings me to e-books, a newer discovery of mine.  

For a long time, e-books were inaccessible to me because I did not have a Kindle; I still don't have one.  Yet, I found the Kindle for PC reader and installed it on my laptop.  There is also my app to read e-books from ChristianBook.com.  The cost of e-books can be an issue, but I steer clear of paying for any e-books if I can avoid it.  There are a lot of free titles available out there.  Once I purchase the e-book, I go ahead and download it so I'll have it.  Then, it's just a matter of getting it on the device I am using, whether my smartphone, tablet, or laptop.  I find the tablet is usually my best pick for reading an e-book.  The screen is a good size (although you can zoom in to increase text size) and I don't have to fumble with pages.

With the many capabilities of the e-book, I think this is a good tool for different ages with differing needs.  Those with impaired vision can zoom in to help them see the text - without a magnifying glass.  Child Evangelism Fellowship has a wordless e-book that can be used as an evangelism tool; the pages are different colors (black for sin, red for the blood of Christ, etc.).  So many people grew up with an aversion to traditional books.  One of my co-workers shared with me her concerns that we would get away from young people experiencing reading a "real" book.  I feel this is another great tool for getting our students to read.  My questions are, "What are the main purposes of reading a book?  Are we concerned with students smelling the smell of a new or old book, feeling the pages, turning pages, or what?"  For me, the main purposes are literacy, reading comprehension, and helping students become lifelong readers.  The tools we use are important, but so are the outcomes.  E-books can help us improve literacy, increase reading comprehension, and develop life long readers.