Title: The use of e-books in New Zealand primary schools

Authors: Katie Bainbridge; Brenda Chawner

Addresses: School of Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington, P.O. Box 600, Wellington 6140, New Zealand. ' School of Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington, P.O. Box 600, Wellington 6140, New Zealand

Abstract: The meaning of literacy is changing. It is no longer limited to reading, writing, listening and talking, but now includes the ability to cope with multimodal texts. One tool that can help achieve these new literacy goals is the e-book. The shift in what is meant by literacy has led to discussions on whether school curricula should be reshaped to reflect the growing technological sophistication among students and how this can be done. Given this important evolution, this study examined the extent to which e-books are being used in New Zealand primary schools, what influences teachers to use them, and what obstacles prevent their use in this context. The findings of the study show that survey respondents are very interested in using e-books, but only 30.3% (23) are actually using them. The main impediments to use identified by respondents were a lack of awareness of e-books and how to acquire them, the need for more training in using e-books, and the need for better quality materials which support the curriculum and include lesson plans.

Keywords: e-books; e-picture books; primary schools; New Zealand; new literacies; technology use; classroom technology; children; teaching; reasons for use; e-books usage; obstacles to use; picture books; electronic books; learning technology.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLT.2012.046865

International Journal of Learning Technology, 2012 Vol.7 No.1, pp.41 - 57

Published online: 04 Sep 2014 *

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