Collen -Part 10
Effect of Interface Icons on Picture Book Experience
In both of the digital storytimes, the predominantly green-colored ICDL icons and navigational frame surrounded the illustrations when they were projected. For both, there was not a single mention by any child of any element of the interface icons or navigational tools before, during, or after the digital storytimes.
The children appeared to understand that the ICDL interface icons and green-colored navigational frame were not a part of the picture book stories, nor did the icons appear to influence or affect the children in their experience of the story during the digital storytimes.
Technology
When the children entered the preschool's library for the Axle digital storytime, they were very interested in the computer and projector and made such comments as, "Your computer's my computer" and "My dad has one just like yours." When the opening screen shot of the comic book reader of Axle appeared on the screen, the children responded with ooohs and aahs.
When the children in the Hunterman digital group entered the preschool library for their storytime, they also immediately began to make statements about the computer. One child identified the digital, wireless remote as looking like a television remote. As I opened the ICDL book reader on the computer, another child said, "I click, I click, I always click the ‘x’ and then it goes away." When the opening screen shot of the comic book reader finally appeared on the screen, there were many "wow" comments by the children, and one child said, "There’s a hundred stories."
The only children who commented on the video cameras were those in the traditional storytime groups. No children in the digital groups commented on the presence of the cameras; the cameras blended in completely with the other technology components and were "invisible" to the children in both digital groups. The computer technology was familiar to the children, and they appeared completely comfortable with it.
The Importance of Digital Storytimes
The digital storytime is a new tool, one that can easily be incorporated into the early childhood learning environment with technology that is readily available; it is estimated that in the United States, there are computers in nearly every preschool [6].
This study suggests that using digital books for group preschool storytime provides an authentic story experience, one where the children are engaged by the storytelling, are enthralled and visually stimulated by the illustrations, and are able to discuss and deconstruct the story afterward.
Still, some may ask why use a digitized book rather than an actual hard–copy book for preschool storytimes? There are at least four answers to this important question.
First, digital storytimes can be used to incorporate computer technology into the early childhood learning environment in a developmentally appropriate manner. This will benefit preschoolers, by introducing them to learning tools - digital books and computers - that can be accessed in creative ways.
Second, using digital books for preschool storytimes with children may also enhance their understanding of picture books, particularly with those books where the illustrations carry a significant portion of the meaning of the story. "[7]he essence of the picture book is the way the text and the illustrations relate to each other; this relationship between the two kinds of text - the verbal and the visual texts - is complicated and subtle." [7].
Eliza Dresang, a noted scholar in the field of children's literature, says,
"‘Reading no longer means interacting with words on a page alone. In an increasingly graphic environment, words and pictures are merging. ... The importance of words is not questioned, but the significance of a combined presentation using both words and pictures is heightened in the digital age." [8]
Using a digital book and projecting its pages on a screen that is almost three times the size of the original book, without losing pictorial clarity, can give every child attending the storytime an equal ability to view the pictures and text and can enhance the pictorial experience of the storytime and the children's understanding of the stories. "Since picture storybooks that use interdependent storytelling force the reader to consider both the texts and the illustrations, these works are powerful cultivators of imaginative, creative, and critical thinking skills." [9]
The contemporary picture book exploits the power of pictures in storytelling. Picture books are a synergy of words and pictures, and projecting digital books during group storytimes may be able to enhance what one scientist has referred to as our "powerful genetic biases ...for visually presented information," thus deepening understanding of the totality of the story - both words and pictures [10].
Third, using digital books for children may have special importance for children with learning disabilities and special needs. "Digital versions of books are much better for students with disabilities than books offered in a single mode-print on paper." [11]. The large–size format of the screen of a digital storytime can enhance the experience of group storytimes, and create more opportunities to use picture books with children who have limited visual acuity or other disabilities.
Digital storytimes may be one of those technologies that allow children with special needs access to materials otherwise inaccessible to them. "Technology can be a powerful compensatory tool; with adapted materials, young children with disabilities no longer have to be excluded from activities.” [12] A digital storytime, such as those presented in this research study, is precisely the type of adaptive material that can enhance the early childhood educational experiences of preschoolers with disabilities in either a school or a library setting.
Finally, schools and libraries that provide preschool storytimes for children have limited collections of hard–copy books. Digital storytimes can provide expanded access to materials - bringing books that are out-of-print back into use; bringing rare, antiquarian books back into the world of reading for twenty-first-century children;;and bringing books from every part of the world to every and any classroom or library, expanding not only what can be offered as part of a program or curriculum, but also what can be learned about the experiences of other children around the world.
Because so many of the books on ICDL are either bilingual or in languages other than English, digital storytimes can be used to enhance the group storytime experience for children in English Language Learning programs (both English as a Second Language and bilingual) in this country and abroad; they can provide children from throughout the world with access to books and stories in many different languages.
Digital books, such as those on ICDL, are available to all children, anywhere there is a preschool or library with access to the Internet, and this worldwide access provides an opportunity. "We need to start thinking about how and why we can strive to lead poor and isolated children toward literacy through technology." [13]
While the issue of providing technology access to children living in poverty around the world is beyond the scope of this research, there are initiatives, such as One Laptop per Child (OLPC), that attempt to bridge the technology access gap (www.laptop.org). Should access such as that envisioned by OLPC become a reality, then digital books, similar to those used in this study from ICDL, may be more readily available to children living in poverty, everywhere in the world.
Picture books are amazing things and, when used by a children's librarian or preschool teacher, can be an important component of literacy learning and literacy enjoyment during group storytimes in the early years. In her paean to the art, craft, and history of the picture-book form, children's literature specialist Barbara Bader said,
"A picture book is text, illustrations, total design; an item of manufacture and a commercial product; a social, cultural, historical document; and, foremost, an experience for a child. As an art form, it hinges on the interdependence of pictures and words, on the simultaneous display of two facing pages, and on the drama of the turning of the page. On its own terms, its possibilities are limitless." [14]
Those limitless possibilities are not diluted or diffused when picture books are presented in a digitized format for group storytimes. Digitization is a valid and useful tool for presenting preschool picture book storytimes. From what I observed in the behavior of the preschool children in this study, is a new tool that retains the important quality of drama when the digital pages are turned.
In his milestone work on using computers as learning tools with children, Seymour Papert recalled the initial military use of computers and their subsequent evolution as learning tools; he acknowledges that "[t]ime and the growth of ideas are usually needed before the idea of using a new technology to do something that had never been done before can even be conceived." [15]
Similarly, the picture book group storytime - now conducted in conjunction with the computer - has evolved into something that could not have been conceived of previously. In work with children, librarians should take every advantage of the collections of a digital library like ICDL. In using digitized books to enhance preschool storytimes, we can “combine the best features of digital communication with the best features of paper–and–print books." [16] This research suggests that digital picture book storytimes can enhance story understanding, especially that which depends on "reading" the illustrations in a picture book during group storytimes.
In the library or preschool, librarians and teachers use hard–copy picture books, "big books." storytelling, puppets, flannel–board stories, and draw-and-tell stories every day in their work with the children they serve. Now they can add the computer, projector, and wireless mouse to their bag of tricks, to conduct digital storytimes that will engage, inform, and enhance children's early literacy experiences. Digital storytimes can be conducted in preschools and libraries everywhere, because digitized books are now available online, full-text, for free, to children throughout the world.