Digital Books Attract Young Readers
Many parents and teachers fear that more and more children today are reading less and less because of the plethora of available digital entertainments. But can electronic devices be used to encourage reading? Possibly, says a new study released by publisher Scholastic, according to the New York Times. It found that most youngsters want to read digital books and say they would more often read for fun it they had access to them.
The results come from a survey of 2,000 children ages 6-17, and their parents. Twenty-five percent of kids say they have already read an e-book, and 57 percent of 9- to 17-year-olds say they’re interested in doing so, the Times reports. Eighty-three percent of parents say they would allow or encourage the use of e-books, though only 6 percent currently own a digital reader.
Francie Alexander, chief academic officer at Scholastic, tells the Times she was surprised at how quickly kids had embraced digi-reading technologies. “They see them as an opportunity to read.” Some parents might take some convincing. One Texas mother told the study that her 15-year-old daughter “can’t stop texting long enough to concentrate on a book.”
Filed under: K-12 Education News
Tags: Technical Communications, Technology, Technology for Learning
