Digital Books Digital Books in the Content-Area Classroom Cynthia M. Okolo Michigan State University The research reported in this paper has been supported by the National Center for Supported Electronic Text under funding from the U.S. Department of of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (Award # H327R050005). Journal of Special Education Technology, 21(4) 1 Digital Books 2 Digital Books in the Content-Area Classroom As I’m writing this manuscript, I’m sitting aside my 11-year old son who is doing his homework. As a 6th grader in a public middle school, my son is reading Crispin: the Cross of Lead (Avi, 2004). According to the author: Thirteen-year-old Crispin, has no parents, no home, no name. Yet he is being pursued, and his life is threatened. As he seeks to find out why, he must first learn who and what he is. We tend to think of medieval times in terms of castles, knights, kings and queens. And surely, they were there. But that’s not the way most people lived. What you’ll find here is an accurate depiction of those times from the point of view of an ordinary person (Avi, 2006). This book is one of those read in my son’s language arts class during a unit about historical fiction. He has nightly assignments to read book chapters, which are then discussed in class. He also completes worksheets related to the book’s vocabulary and answers written comprehension questions. At the conclusion of the unit, he’ll have to write a report about the book. My son is an average reader and, with consistent effort, he is able to read and comprehend the story. Even so, the book is a difficult one, full of unusual vocabulary (e.g., caterwaul, scabrous, palpable) and dense with cultural and historical references that are unfamiliar to today’s middle schoolers. What about those students who cannot read the text? What about students who, even if the text was read to them, cannot decipher all the unfamiliar and difficult vocabulary and concepts? What alternatives are available to help a poor reader participate with her class as it reads a book like Crispin; a book that is typical of the types of tradebooks middle school students encounter in language arts and other content area classes? Digital Books 3 Gone are the days when volunteers read a book into a tape recorder in order to create an audiotape those students could use to compensate for poor reading skills. Electronic technology makes many more options available for assisting students with literacy-related problems as they participate in the general education curriculum. In this column, we will examine issues related to the use of digital text as an alternative to content-area tradebooks and textbooks. What is Digital Text? I have chosen the term digital text to refer to printed text that is converted to a digital format. Some versions of digital text are not much more than print information available in a digital form. Digital text “separates the content from the display,” offering a much greater degree of flexibility (Boone & Higgins, 2003). The content stays the same, but the display itself can be provided through tactile or auditory means. The display also can be tagged so that individual or collective elements of the text can be delivered in different formats (e.g., Braille, sign) and associated with learning supports, such as definitions or explanations (Rose & Meyer, 2002). These additional features, or supports, (Anderson-Inman & Horney, 2000) can extend readers’ experience with and understanding of the text. Digital texts are available through publishers, libraries, agencies that serve individuals with disabilities, online services, and schools or school districts. They also be can be created from print-based text with a scanner and optical character recognition software. Digital Versions of Tradebooks Let’s return to the book, Crispin. If I wanted my son to have a digital copy of this book, where would I find it? A plethora of free and commercial sites have sprung up to offer K-12 teachers and students digital text that can be read online, downloaded to a computer, played on an audio CD, Digital Books 4 or accessed on an MP3 player. These sites vary considerably in the range and type of books they offer, the formats in which those books are available, and the requirements for accessing books. Table 1 displays a partial list of sites that provide digital versions of literature (available at the time this column was written) and their features. The sites on which I could find the book, Crispin, are prefaced by an asterisk. As you will see, this commonly used middle school tradebook is available on more than half of these sites. Table 1: Web Sites with Digital Tradebooks Site Simply Audiobooks; www.simplyauditobooks.com Purchase options Purchase or rental Project Gutenburg www.gutenburg.com Free Audible www.audible.com Yearly membership or purchase of individual titles *Amazon; www.amazon.com.gp.reader Book must be purchased from Amazon, online reader is an upgrade to printbased book Purchase of individual titles and school program purchase plan *eReader; www.eReader.com Types of books Includes children’s & young adult books and literature Mostly books for adult readers/interests Comments Books can be read on computer or stored in MP3 files or CDs Includes children’s books, young adult, and literature Books can be read on Palm OS, Pocket PC handheld, Symbian Smartphone, or Books are in public domain, or authors have granted copyright for single use Includes a young Books in proprietary adult collection format that requires free software to be loaded onto computer to manage audiobooks; can uploaded to many (but not all) audio players, or stored on CD Selected books Books can be read from Amazon’s online, highlighted, catalog and annotated Digital Books collections *Google Book Search; Books.google.com Free access to out-of-copyright books; limited access (e.g., a page) to copyrighted books Includes children’s books and literature AudioToGo; audiotogo.com Monthly membership fee Includes catalog of juvenile fiction *Bookshare; bookshare.org Yearly individual and institutional subscriptions; users must provide proof of disability Includes children’s and popular literature LibriVox; librivox.org Free Some young adult fiction and literature collection *iTunes; www.itunes.com Purchase of individual titles Children’s, young adult, and popular fiction *University of Virginia Electronic Free Text Center; http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks/ Digital Versions of Textbooks Some children’s literature 5 computer; requires eReader software (free) Includes search features for terms within books; offers links to libraries where books are available, or sites where books can be purchased Works like NetFlix; audiobooks on CD or tape are ordered, shipped to you. When you return one title, another is sent. Volunteers contribute books converted to digital format; quality of text differs due to varying quality of scans. Audio versions of books in the public domain; read by volunteers and available as MP3 files Requires free iTunes software; books play on computer or iPod. Books available as HTML files or to download for Microsoft or Palm reader. Digital Books 6 Textbooks remain the primary means of delivering instruction in content-area classes (Bierman, 2006; Meyers & Savage, 2005), and recent research has shown that student access to textbooks is an important variable in helping students achieve and meet state standards (Oakes & Saunders, 2004). Yet, for many students, textbooks pose a formidable barrier to success in the general education classroom. In a previous column (Okolo, 2006), I reviewed the challenges that content-area texts pose for students with learning difficulties and disabilities. Digital versions of textbooks may offer a possible solution. However, digital textbooks are not as readily available as digital tradebooks, and gaining access to digital texts for students who could benefit from them is still a formidable task for schools. Copyright issues are one serious consideration. Publishers are concerned about the distribution of intellectual property, and making materials widely available on standard digital can make it easier for users to subvert copyright laws. The Chaffee Amendment of 1966 eases some copyright restrictions on instructional materials by allowing authorized entities, such as the National Library Service for the Blind and the Physically Handicapped, to reproduce and distribute copies of previously published literary works (with some exceptions) in specialized formats for people with visual impairments and other print disabilities. The act has been interpreted cover teachers and other volunteers who are agents of a school system. Hence, by extension, special educators have permission to make available to students alternative versions of printed text (National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, 2006). This legislation was an important step in ensuring that individuals with disabilities would have access to accessible texts. Yet, there is much room for improvement. Many teachers or districts still produce their own digital versions of texts by scanning individual pages of the book and then storing the digital Digital Books 7 version on a computer or central server (in the case that multiple teachers will access the text). However, this is a time consuming process and, depending on the manner in which books are purchased and used, may violate copyright laws (Kerscher & Fruchterman, 2002; Strangman & Hall, 2003). However, educators, parents, and lawmakers are exerting their economic and legislative powers to improve the quantity and quality of digital texts. The availability of digital versions of texts is an important factor in school districts’ deliberations about textbook adoption (Perl, 2002). For example, in a district in which our research is situated, teachers chose their new social studies series because it offers an online version of its text that can be accessed by any student from his/her home computer and “read” by a screen reader. Furthermore, the text is accompanied by interactive digital activities designed to engage students with the content and improve their comprehension. In this district where over 75% of the students report access to a home computer, teachers view the series as not only a benefit for their students with disabilities. They also are excited about its potential for students with poor attendance, who can now access the text and associated learning materials from home. Most major textbook publishers already offer students and teachers online activities or resources to support and expand the use of a textbook. A slowly growing number also offer digital versions of text with the adoption of a textbook series. Many states have enacted some form of legislation related to the use of textbooks in their schools and the expectations for publishers to provide digital versions of those texts. Policies vary, but include giving preference to publishers who provide alternative versions of their text, requiring publishers to provide alternative formats “to the extent feasible” or upon request, and the creation of a central repository or clearinghouse for digital books to improve accessibility (Perl, 2002). For Digital Books 8 information about relevant legislation in your state, see: http://nimas.cast.org/about/resources/statessurvey.html With increasing pressure from state and federal legislation, and the adoption of consistent standards for the production and dissemination of digital text (see below), special educators can be optimistic that more students will be able to benefit from alternative versions of the textbooks used in their general education classrooms. Standards for the production of digital books. Another serious impediment to the production and dissemination of digital books is the variety of file formats that publishers use when creating digital material. The lack of a common format makes it difficult for agencies or teachers to create accessible text that meets the needs of their students. This challenge is akin to the difficulties consumers face when confronted with different formats for home entertainment, such as VHS versus Betamax, or more recently, Bluray and High Definition (HD) DVD. Different methods of storing and playing digital information are not compatible—and one cannot easily transfer information from one format to another. Furthermore, one has to make a decision about which technology to purchase. A Bluray disc cannot be viewed on a HD DVD player, and vice versa. In 2001, Congress passed the Instructional Materials Accessibility Act. This legislation was designed to establish a common file format that all publishers can use when creating digital material. The National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standards (NIMAS) are under development with leadership from the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) (see: http://nimas.cast.org/index.html). Stahl (2003) predicts that a common file format will benefit publishers, agencies, and individuals charged with producing accessible texts. Schools also will benefit by being able to obtain digital texts from publishers in a much more expeditious manner, Digital Books 9 and in a format that will not be restricted to one specific type of technology. Another agency, the National Center for Accessible Media (http://ncam.wgbh.org/ebooks), is focusing on standards for making multimedia elements used in digital books accessible to individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind, or visually impaired. By using the same standard, publishers and users can more easily add navigation, audio, and other multimedia elements to digital text, making reading much more responsive to individual needs and differences. Do digital texts help students with disabilities learn and succeed in content-area classes? Let’s return to my son. If he had access to a digital version of Crispin, would he understand the book better or learn more? A growing body of research speaks to this question, and the short answer is: it depends. First, one has to consider the technology on which a student reads and/or listens to digital books and second, the interface through which the book is accessed and manipulated. For example, if a student wishes to read along while listening to a digital book, then readability of the text display has to be a consideration. This is less of an issue when books are “read” on a computer than it is when accessing books on a hand-held device. Newer display technology, such as that available in the Sony Reader (products.sel.sony.com/pa/prs/index.html?DCMP=reader&HQS=showcase_reader) and the iLiad (www.irextechnologies.com/home) have “paper-like displays” that offer a clear contrast between background and text from any angle. The also offer additional features, such as support for MP3 files and annotation, that can aid text comprehension and usability. Both products link to online bookstores for easy acquisition of digital books. However, one must weigh the cost of specialized readers (which cost around $400) against the cost of more general purpose technology such as laptop computers. Digital Books 10 Interface matters, too. Although I am hooked on audiobooks for their portability and ease of use in a variety of situations, I still fumble with the interface for playing books on my iPod. Although the iPod has a highly graphical interface, it is difficult to move around in the book. I often turn up the volume by mistake while looking for my place in the book, and the delay in adjusting features like reading speed can be frustrating. As all users of consumer electronics probably know, interfaces are rarely standard and are seldom intuitive (Norman, 1993). More than three decades of research has shown us that merely putting text in a digital format for display on a computer or other electronic device does not have an appreciable effect on students’ understanding of that text. As Twyman and Tindal (2006) caution: “It is unlikely that technology will have much of an impact if it is only used to support typical textbooks” (p. 6). It is how we use the opportunities afforded by digital text, or the enhancements added to it, that may have the greatest impact on learning. It is clear that digital text offers extremely important access benefits for students with disabilities. But benefits for learning are less certain. If students can’t understand text, even when it is read to them by digitized or synthetic speech, it is unlikely they will learn much from that text. But, if students are fluent readers with strong background knowledge, audio presentation of text may actually interfere with their comprehension (e.g., Higgins & Raskind, 1997). What about other enhancements, such as online dictionaries or animated explanations? Some learners may benefit greatly from these types of additions to text, whereas others may find such enhancements too difficult to use, unnecessary, or distracting. Anderson-Inman (2006) sums up the state of our knowledge by reminding us that, “we must find out what the right options are, how to present them to learners, and how to instruct learners to use the options available to improve their learning of academic content” (p. 9). The National Center for the Digital Books 11 Study of Supported Electronic Text (NCSeT; http://ces.uoregon.edu/) has undertaken a systematic five-year program of research to investigate the effectiveness of nine types of e-text support for five disabled populations through a rigorous program of experimental research (Anderson-Inman, 2005). Results from this project, along with efforts of other researchers, should expand our knowledge of how to enhance digital texts so that students can maximize their learning in the content areas. Until then, the important lesson for teachers is to not make assumptions that digital texts, or any combination of features within digital texts, will benefit all students in the classroom. It is important to consider both interface and instructional issues, and to evaluate what your students are learning from their experience with digital texts. As I finish this column, it is well after 11 pm, and my son still has to read four more chapters of Crispin before school tomorrow. His eyes are drooping, so I offer to read aloud to him. As I read, he keeps drifting off to sleep, and I keep gently shaking him to wake him up. In our high-tech world, we’re not yet at a place where digital books can give our children all they need to succeed in school. 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