Yesterday I was home sick and, consequently, watched way too much television. One specific commercial kept bothering me; even when it wasn't playing, I found myself cursing it.
Here it is:
Should "reading" be that fun?
There are a few positive concepts I do like about the Vtech Reader — it does start kids reading off at an early age and I think it does get kids excited about reading.
But, does it give kids (and, subsequently, students) a false expectation about reading? Does it set young readers up for failure? By this I mean, when I get them as Freshmen and I tell them they need to actually open a book (with, gasp, no pictures!) and read it, I already get groans and this consistent push against reading. It's something I've really struggled with in only the few months that I've been teaching. I constantly have to prove that reading isn't "lame" or "dorky" and that reading can, oh I don't know, be fun and beneficial.
Yes, I believe we need to use technology to our advantage and not shun away from it. I have a few students who bring in Nooks and Kindles (oh the jealousy!); I completely support this because they still have to do the reading. It seems that this Vtech Reader is more like watching an interactive movie than reading; it doesn't take any effort.
I do think it could work with the right amount of parental cooperation; like in the commercial, if a parent actually sat down with the child to "read" with the Reader and asked the student to sound out the words they knew — then it could work. But the majority of parents, I feel, would simply give the Reader to their children and say, "Go read." If you were actually going to take the time to "read" with your kids, pick up an actual book!
A few weeks ago I had a student announce to the entire class that "Reading is pointless and a waste of [this students'] time. When I need to find information I'll Google it, watch it on YouTube, or rent the movie." I fear that this sort of animated, interactive reader supports this particular ninth grader's educational "plan of attack."
Kids have been trained that if they wait long enough, there will be some sort of technology to do the work for them. Teachers have to fight this battle every day and I really don't support this "Once upon a time there were books" concept. There are still books and when children become kindergarteners, fifth graders, ninth graders, High School graduates, College graduates (etc) they will be expected to do the work for themselves by reading these "old guard" books.
