Technological Benefits for Reading

While reading the article, I was particularly interested by some of the technological adjustments that were possible when using the Kindle. Things like the text adjusting the text font size, text-to-speech functions, and especially having access to the built in dictionary struck me as being incredibly useful.

The text size adjustment strikes me as excellent because it makes the students more comfortable while reading and, therefore, would also hopefully make the experience more pleasant for learners. On top of that, it might be fun for the students to be able to actually use the function, although I worry that the students might spend too much time toying with the system rather then really using it to just adjust the font size, but as long as the students were well acquainted the program so that it was just a tool to reach a certain goal rather then a fun toy and the students understood the purpose of the function then I don't think that would that big an issue. It's probably still important to keep to potential issue in mind, but I doubt that it's a terribly serious problem in the long run and the potential benefits seem to outweigh the potential concerns.

The text-to-speech feature is also interesting and potentially useful. It also brings to mind something else that I've read about text audio recordings and their usefulness because it brings up a lot of the same benefits. This allows students to hear the way a word should sound, so, if a student is having a lot of trouble sounding out a particular word, then they can listen to it. This provides students with the opportunity to have a bit more control over their own education because they don't have to go running to someone else to find out what the word that is giving them trouble sounds like.

But it was the dictionary function that really caught my attention, especially when it comes to helping students improve their comprehension because this allows the students to look up words that they don't know without having to go very out of their way to find the answer or relying on others to find the answer. This also allows students to take charge of their own learning. If they run into words that they don't know then they can make use of the tool in front of them and look it up, so that they can better understand the text. This function also has the benefit of being useful in helping students decode words.