Reading is always a hot topic and, therefore, it is always good to bring it up from time to time. However, we must repeat the one and only important concept that stood and will continue to stand the test of time, namely, that one reads for the love of reading. If this concept is to be changed, even in the slightest form, it will be a doom both for the authors and for the readers.
In a 2003 meeting with the British Education Minister, five international authors argued that the way their stories were being massacred in order to teach children to read was not accepted any longer (Meetings With The Minister).
It is worth mentioning here a 2003 interview with Philip Pullman (www.guardian.co.uk). He could not find the word "joy" enlisted among 71 verbs when analysing the answers for the question: Why do you read? I think that this is very worrying indeed.
It is true that there is a lot of competition nowadays in relation to what children can do in their free time. In the article Internet Generation Leave Parents Behind (www.guardian.co.uk), it was noted that children are spending at least six hours daily looking at screens such as the computer, the TV and the PlayStation.
However, having other distractions is not an excuse for not reading. The educational challenge is precisely this: to create ways and means to entice children to read, namely, promoting the sole concept of the "love of reading". This entails no forcing, no demanding and, most of all, no testing or analysing stories. If we, as educators, manage to inculcate in our children this love for reading, improvement will come automatically. First and foremost, there must be a high degree of creativity by those who are able to promote reading, namely teachers and librarians. Surely, much leaves to be desired on the part of librarians as promoters of reading in the local scenario.
The eReader is one of the latest gadgets in reading etext (electronic text). There are various types of eReaders with different functionalities. Some of the eReaders that can be found on the market are: bookeen, cellular, epaper, flepia, hanlin, iliad, iriver, readius and papyrus. It is worth mentioning that Sony managed to create a "flexible" and extremely thin screen. Undoubtedly, this is not an exhaustive list of eReaders.
Starting with the simplest one of them all, the Kindle is just an eReader - you download the text and you read it. Other eReaders, such as the 1000s produced by iREX (www.irextechnologies.com/node/163), encompass various functions such as taking notes with the stylus provided and also the possibility of adding a memory card. Additionally, these eReaders are small, lightweight and also have the backlight functionality. They are also designed in such a way that eases reading in broad daylight.
Finally, what is interesting with these eReaders is that, on some models, you have the possibility to read online news and read PDFs because they are WiFi - and also Bluetooth-enabled, which makes possible the receiving and sharing of files.
Without doubt, the eReader will evolve and will come to form part of our daily lives like most of the information and communication technologies that are already in use.
One of the key issues of the eReaders that will surely emerge is that future school workbooks will be digital and, therefore, available on the eReader. Since the eReader can hold thousands of etext, storage is not an issue. With the eReader as a standard reading gadget, our children will not have to carry all those books, which, I believe, is still an issue here in Malta. This I know from my own personal experience with my own children.
The eReader is a wonderful reading gadget with various functionalities.
Also, as has been indicated, it being lightweight facilitates mobility and lessens back injury incidents in children. However, one of the communications media that have to be definitely improved upon are websites.
These will have to be customised to ease the necessary school text downloads. Additionally, all schools will have to have websites (currently this is not the case) where teachers upload the homework or any additional material.
It is useful to mention the importance of both the concept of "networking" and "interoperability" between schools. Students, in turn, will be able to download work when they like and wherever they are. This will be made possible through "public hotspots", which, to date, are not available in Malta. I hope that Malta will move in this direction in its vision of becoming the "Smart Island".