Technology and Reading for Pleasure
Reading for pleasure is now recognised as a crucial consideration in developing reading literacy and life skills for adults. Acknowledging the increased amount of time people spend online, on mobile phones and iPods, technology should be recognised as an increasingly important medium for reading.
In this section, we demonstrate some ways in which technology can be used to attract and support new and emergent readers.
Tools such as e-books, iPods, blogs and wikis are often mentioned in the popular press. We suggest some ways for learning facilitators to utilise these tools to promote reading for pleasure.
The 'How to...' Guides tools and technologies are based on either their ability to bring a social aspect to reading for pleasure (recognising the potential this has for building both confidence and enthusiasm) or based on their popular image and convenience (such as the iPod). Our practical examples use specific websites and products but we believe that principles can usually be transferred with small adaptation to other resources.
The three teaching and learning resources demonstrate:
- easily integrated use of technology
- opportunities for sharing and collaborating in the reading experience
- accessible sources of 'new' reading material
How to Guides
How to set up a reading blog (PDF)
How to set up a wiki for collaborative story-telling (PDF)
How to set up an online book group (PDF)
How to read books on your iPod (PDF)
Teaching and Learning Resources
These resources are provided in a Word version for learning facilitators to amend and revise as required.
Reading Digital Fiction (PDF)
Reading Digital Fiction (Word)
Text Type (PDF)
Text Type (Word)
If you want to find out more, try this book
Screens and Pages
Technology and reading for pleasure
Sal McKeown, Mary Moss and Tracy Slawson
£10.95
This book introduces technology such as blogs, wikis, RSS feeds and social networking sites and shows you how they can enhance and enrich reading for pleasure.
