Children Using E-books a Growing Concern for Some

Status
Not open for further replies.

ianj14

Distinguished
May 21, 2011
8
0
18,510
The articles, both this one and the NYT one, are misleading. This isn't about e-books (which is a way books are delivered) but about interactive books, or 'i-books', if you can get past the Apple-sounding term. Interactive books have to be delivered as e-books by definition (whether on an e-book device or an ipad or a PC, etc), but not all e-books are interactive and using that name in the title of the articles gives a very bad impression of what the articles are really about.
 

greenrider02

Distinguished
Dec 18, 2010
34
0
18,580
I don't see the point. There's no evidence cited. There's no studies mentioned. No proof citing a relationship between e-book use by children and shortening attention spans.

Maybe that's because the people concerned are parents who suck and dinosaurs who can't embrace new technology. Better a computer teaches your kid than someone bad or no one at all. If you want your kid to learn to read from an adult, than that's your job, and you can choose that option.
 
G

Guest

Guest
From the title ant ilustrting photo it seems as if the e-books for Kindle and the like are discussed, when actually it's about some interactive "books" for kids.
 

DjEaZy

Distinguished
Apr 3, 2008
338
0
18,930
... Children Using E-books a Growing Concern for Some... yeah... ve dont need children hu can reeding... why they r reedinging 4? whi r33d when yu can plai game on a cumpoter...?
 

alidan

Distinguished
Aug 5, 2009
1,681
0
19,730
The opposition of children using e-books believes that this interaction is doing nothing but eroding the attention span of children. Another possible negative of this change is the replacing of adults in teaching children to read.

i thought myself how to read, with no adult help, because they were lazy, i thought my self to read through nintendo powers, and through game instruction books.

Some see this this interaction as replicating video games.

i tought myself advanced math skills in 2nd grade, to the point my (very crappy) teacher threatened to suspend me because i had to go to the computer to even be engaged in what was being tought... you know what its like teaching yourself math to the point the first time school teaches you anything is when you hit an elective coarse of trigonometry?

id say interactive media tough me more than school did, teacher can make history interesting, get a d or f average. cant teach me math... well im not putting the hours into doing 2-300 problems of repetitive crap (our assignment at one point was 1000 problems, due in 2 days) ill take an f on homework but get that A+ on every single one of your tests. i didn't have a single boring science teacher till 7th grade, 7th grade though... when you have a hood 400 square feet of chalk board, and you insist on droning on and on, and covering the whole damn thing... cant be bothered to deal with it, ill take the f on taking notes, and get the a on test and homework (the notes grade was almost more heavily weighted than homework and tests together)

point being give the kids a reason to learn to read and they learn.
 

alidan

Distinguished
Aug 5, 2009
1,681
0
19,730
[citation][nom]greenrider02[/nom]I don't see the point. There's no evidence cited. There's no studies mentioned. No proof citing a relationship between e-book use by children and shortening attention spans.Maybe that's because the people concerned are parents who suck and dinosaurs who can't embrace new technology. Better a computer teaches your kid than someone bad or no one at all. If you want your kid to learn to read from an adult, than that's your job, and you can choose that option.[/citation]

its an argument about people who read pretentious "intellectual" books, over a fun read.
 

memadmax

Distinguished
Mar 25, 2011
538
0
18,940
I have two daughters, aged 5 and 3....
I gave my oldest one a older Toshiba laptop that no one was using and told her to "have at it" basically...
Originally, I had win7 on there with an account for me and her(user for her). With firefox and upped security and all that....
She learned how to read, basic math, etc at a much accelerated rate... and at some point she figured out how to reinstall windows and wiped it so that she could get admin... She prolly learned it by watching me.
But, I don't care, she makes me proud....
 
G

Guest

Guest
Its not about these tech things being a generally bad thing, it is about reducing attention span.
And although i was longtime biased that this cant be the case, cause tech things made me so smart and now do my children, it is a FACT that games, widgeds/gadgets or whatever they are called now, DO reduce the time kids can focus today. You can measure that. It is in the nature of these things, that you dont need to focus long to make them work and also it doesn't take long 1 thing gets boring so you switch apps, games etc very fast.
But this isnt the danger of the tech, parents simply shouldnt give the kids the gadgets and let them play the whole time, there is a thing called education and if people care about their kids and use the time to do "traditional" things with them, they could combine the advantages of traditional education and the learning effects of tech-stuff
 

amk-aka-Phantom

Distinguished
Mar 10, 2011
653
0
18,940
This is a load of horsecrap. I can't see a difference between reading on an e-book reader and a physical book; I read on an e-book reader since I'm 14 and I barely touch physical books anymore; there's just no point. It's simply a bunch of morons opposing progress. Parents, don't listen to them.

Many believe that this change is for the worse and will further shorten the attention span and affect the literacy of children.

Yes, it WILL affect the literacy of the children. For the better. It won't shorten the attention span - instead, it will get the kids to quickly drop boring books and read interesting stuff instead. When you have an access to thousands of books (let's face it: who the hell buys e-books? :D), you won't waste any time on boring crap - kids will only read what's interesting and not what's forced by school, etc.

E-books engage children by adding a new level of interaction between the child and story. Some see this this interaction as replicating video games.

And what's so bad about that? I've learned more from video games than an average obsolete "parent" can imagine.

Another possible negative of this change is the replacing of adults in teaching children to read. With interaction integrated into e-books, an adult is not needed to engage the child.

Not all skills require a teacher to be taught efficiently. In fact, some are better learned on your own. That's how I mostly learned to read. I didn't need an adult buzzing over my shoulder the whole time; nothing wrong with that. Basically, adults are simply afraid that kids will learn faster than they want them to.

Emperor, what an outrageous bunch of crap. I swear, the only toys my kids will ever get will be tons of computer hardware and software to play around with; who the hell wants to waste time with anything non-digital? I remember myself as a kid - once I was able to start messing with computers, I was not interested in any crappy "toys" that kids are supposed to play with (toy cars, etc) - in our age, learning can be MUCH faster if not artificially slowed down by crappy media which forces kids to watch retarded non-educational cartoons and "shows" and convinces them to waste their time staying away from tech. I never had any kind of Internet access restriction, "safe for kids" devices or whatever modern hypocritic media overflows with. Give the kids space and opportunity to experiment and develop, remove negative outside influence of the "media", and they'll pleasantly surprise you.

/rant over
 

Th-z

Distinguished
May 13, 2008
9
0
18,510
Without parental guidance and restrictions, these pads might be too interesting and addicting for children. Besides myopia, they may know very well on how to interact with these devices but don't now how to interact with real people face to face. Even older generations have that problem right now.
 

shqtth

Distinguished
Sep 4, 2008
184
0
18,630
If a kids only reason something becuase its interactive, then hes screwed, becuase reading can be boring. And sometimes doing boring things is needed, to help improve your attention span to boring tasks.
 

shqtth

Distinguished
Sep 4, 2008
184
0
18,630
Although interactive books may make children retain/remember more information, and may allow them to digest more information, making them learn faster. But if learning is not interactive they will stumble.
 

demonhorde665

Distinguished
Jul 13, 2008
802
0
18,930
one of the things i've noticed through out my life is the number of people coming out of high school that hate reading, it's a chore they'd rather not do and unlike myself many people in my generation certainly don't read for liesure.

me personally I have always enjoyed reading , I read history , political books , religious texts , sci-fi and fantasy novels , horror novels and the occasional crime novel. To top it all off I also inhale every school book in my college that I get thrown at me.

in short order I don't see how ANYONE can see a new tech device that promotes kids reading as a bad thing.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.