Benefits of e-books

By Jamie Guillaume

As teachers we tend to love books and understand the direct connection of becoming a lifelong learner and reading.  Teachers also tend to be most comfortable with books in print.  However we should not ignore the use of e-books in the classroom and should actually encourage the usage of e-books for many reasons. 

Students nearly always have a tech tool in hand whether a smartphone, iPod, e-reader, etc.  Each of these tools has the capability of housing e-books, which begs the question, if this tool is always in hand, why not teach students how to use their favorite tech tool to read?!

The e-reader I use is the Kindle app on my iPhone and my favorite feature is the imbedded dictionary.  The dictionary allows the user to simply touch the unknown word and the pronunciation and definition instantly appear!  All e-readers have a similar dictionary feature. The benefit of this feature is obvious because when reading a book in print, students are less likely to take the time to look up a word in which they are not familiar. 

As teachers we also encourage students to mark the text when reading.  Unfortunately this is not possible with most print books as these books are rented from the school or checked out from the library.  E-readers have highlighting and text marking features that allow students to mark key text components and then the e-readers house the text makings for easy accessibility. 

Other features within e-readers are being able to quickly navigate the book through the touch screen, the e-reader not losing the page you are currently reading, and of course the portability of books.  Many times the price of e-books versus books in print is also cheaper because the cost of production is lower.   Other benefits include, the availability of free books to download and libraries also have e-books that are accessible. 

Now of course the teacher in me understands the question, how do we make sure students are reading their e-book and not surfing the web or playing a game on their e-reader?   Last year was the first year I welcomed e-reading in my classroom and it went great, but of course guidelines had to be set to ensure success. Much like anything else that begins in a classroom, routines and procedures are needed.  I conducted mini-lessons with my students on e-reading.  We discussed how to find and download books, using the electronic dictionary, practicing digital citizenship, and any other topic or issue that surfaced. 

My main goal as a reading teacher is to inspire the love of reading and reading for most 21^st Century students is going to involve some type of e-reader.  Therefore as teachers instead of worrying that students are not going to use devices appropriately, we should allow these devices into our classroom and teach students how to appropriately use them in a school setting.