Digital Literacies And Features Of E-books

By Author: Jordon
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Contemporary transformations in digital technologies have prompted a reassessment of what literacy means; hence, the definition of what constitutes "text" is rapidly changing (Kress, 2003). Traditionally, text has been perceived as written messages and symbols in the forms of books, magazines, and newspapers. Today, text is recognized as much more than written words or images. Evans (2005) described a text as a unit of communication that may take the form of something written down but also a chunk of discourse, for example speech, a conversation, a radio program, a TV advert, text messaging, a photo in a newspaper, and so on. (p. 8)

As teachers and researchers consider the need to expand the definition of text, we should remember that today's readers are immersed in multimodal experiences and, consequently, have a keen awareness of the possibility of combining modes and media to receive and communicate messages. This awareness results in an urgent need for teachers and researchers to address Tag Heuer Replica Watches the discrepancy between the types of literacy ...
... experiences students encounter at school (paper, pencil, and print texts), and those they practice in their daily lives outside the school environment (Web 2.0). One way to bridge such incongruity is to expand the types of texts students are exposed to and engaged with at school by turning attention to electronic books, or e-books.

E-Books have been available for over a decade, but researchers have only recently begun to evaluate the quality, benefits, and possibilities of this form of reading (Shamir & Korat, 2006). These books are available in forms ranging from toy-inspired books, CD-ROM storybooks, online texts, and downloadable books and documents. Much like traditional books, the electronic versions embrace print and illustrations but are viewed on desktop computers, laptops, or handheld reading devices. To explore various types of e-books, visit the websites presented in Table 1.

Many e-books employ multimodal features—such as video, audio, and hyperlinks—as well as interactive tools. Such tools invite readers to physically interact with the text through inserting, deleting, or replacing text; marking passages by highlighting, underlining, or crossing out words; adding comments by inserting notes, attaching files, or recording audio comments; and manipulating the page format, text size, and screen layout. Search features allow the user to Cartier Pasha Replica Watches locate specific words or phrases within the text or access a particular page. Although research on the use of this medium is in its infancy, the results appear promising in supporting electronic texts as a means to foster literacy development and, in particular, reading comprehension (Larson, 2007, 2008).