It used to be that it was only in sci-fi films that we saw people strolling around the city with high-tech mobile libraries in their hands. But e-readers have been a reality for some years now and as technology has been moving forward faster and faster, it’s been hard to keep up with all the new resources. The educational world in particular has yet to fully explore the potential of these new devices for boosting reading and literacy in general.
A lot of ink has, or should I say keystrokes have, been spent on discussing how e-readers like Amazon’s Kindle can be effectively used for teaching English. Kindle’s essential advantage is the mind-blowing access it offers to thousands of books. No library check outs, no book swapping, just a few clicks and hundreds of formerly-bulky books can fit into the palm of your hand.
Education undergoing transformation
There are many promising benefits of using Kindle for teaching English, though the idea of each student having their own handheld library is a concept some people find hard to fully grasp. Knowledge and information have never before been so readily available, and that’s an exciting prospect and a wealth of potential.
Many educational experts argue that learning English can become a much easier and a more widely available option than ever before with this digital, at-your-fingertips library. If all students have equal access to the technology, when put to proper and efficient use in educational contexts, English language learners can only benefit from using e-readers.
Kindle usage benefits in education
Reading has always been recommended for sharpening and boosting language knowledge and with devices like Kindle, the process of learning English is becoming shorter and more enjoyable thanks to these mobile, digital libraries. The nature of e-readers also promotes speed reading, allowing those interested to absorb information much faster than is the case with standard paper-book reading.
When technology and education are combined the results are always surprisingly positive; reluctant readers suddenly become voracious readers, and for the rest of us bookworms, simply discovering the endless wealth of reading material is definitely a positive development – although it means we may never go to sleep again!
The potential is there, but careful research is needed
The potential of mobile learning hasn’t been fully explored. The ability to learn English faster thanks to gadgets like Kindle is one aspect that needs thorough research before implementing. The advantages of such an educational implementation touch upon many issues, including ecology and economy. In the future, it’s realistic to envision schools that are paper-free, entirely replacing books with e-readers.
But as with every innovative new technology there has to be a clear mission, a genuine motivation, and proper, expert guidance to fully unveil its potential for English language teaching. We’ve seen many incidents where technology has actually impeded productivity and learning and promoted instead mindless clicking through websites, wasting time – just look at the statistics on the average employee’s usage of social media during work hours. There’s also the issue of whether conventional paper book reading allows the reader to retain much more information than when reading the same copy on a screen, especially given the distractions of web page links.
Many aspects of this technological innovation need to be addressed before we seriously think of ways to promote English learning by taking advantage of Kindle’s educational potential, but it’s something that we need to keep in mind.
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