The Digital and Traditional Storytimes Research Project: Using Digitized Books for Preschool Group Storytimes
Lauren Collen
Picture books for children are now available in digitized format, and questions arise as to how, when, and by whom these digital books will be used. Librarians, who already evaluate print, audio, and video materials for children, will need to begin evaluating the use of digitized books in programming for young children.
Questions to consider include whether this new computer-based technology can become an accepted educational tool; what, if any, differences might occur when using a digital book versus a traditional book; and, whether a new type of group storytime can be created - a digital storytime - and how that can be conducted in a library or preschool setting.
The Digital and Traditional Storytimes Research Project attempts to provide some answers to these questions and is a first look at the differences or similarities that occur when preschool children listen to and view digital picture books from the International Children's Digital Library (ICDL) versus a print copy of the same picture book during group storytime [1].
On November 20, 2002, ICDL launched a Web site that made hundreds of children's books available online, full-text, for free. This digital library is a five-year research project of the University of Maryland and the Internet Archive, funded through grants from the National Science Foundation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. It is located online at www.icdlbooks.org or www.childrensbooks.org.
To date, ICDL has collected children's books from around the world and currently houses 1,562 books in 37 different languages [2]. The ultimate goal of ICDL is to host a collection of 10,000 digitized childrens books in 100 languages, a virtual Alexandria created just for children.
Picture books are used every day in preschools and libraries during group storytime readalouds for three- to five-year olds. Now, in addition to the traditional tools of early childhood - toys, games, and books - children have computers. For those of us who work with young children, some of the important questions we face are how to best deploy technology and, in particular for young children, how best to use computers and digital technology to increase learning and literacy during the preschool years.
Research that looks at using books in new formats or in new media is in its infancy. Picture books as e-books (or books on CD-ROM) have interactive components that allow children to deviate from the story sequence by clicking on hyperlinks or hotlinks that activate games, music, or other interactive features. The results of one recent research project suggest that when picture books are either retrofitted as interactive e-books or are "born digital " - coming into existence as interactive electronic books they are less supportive of learning about story content than traditional picture books [3]. However, the results of another recent research project suggest there is no difference in story memory between the interactive and noninteractive versions of the same picture book [4].
The books in ICDL are neither born digital nor are they interactive - all of the books on ICDL were first created as traditional, hard-copy books. The only added features on the ICDL Web site are part of the enhanced version of the site, where the pictures can zoom in and out (from smaller to larger format); a "whooshing" sound activates as the zooming occurs. However, there are no interactive or audio functions that accompany the actual presentation of books on the ICDL Web site. The books on ICDL have been reproduced in digital form exactly as they exist in hard-copy form. There is no voice on the ICDL site that reads the book for the viewer, there is no automatic pageturner that advances the book independent of the viewer, and there is no alteration in any form to the books as they exist for the viewer in the non-digital world.
Thus far, it appears that no one has looked at the learning potential for using digitized books, such as those available on ICDL, with young children during group storytimes. The existing storytime research on traditional books supports the proposition that how a storytime is conducted affects learning. In a recent article, early literacy specialist William Teale stated that
"both new technologies and new applications of existing technologies are providing fresh opportunities for introducing readalouds into early childhood classrooms and are inviting innovative research efforts that will help us understand how those practices affect young children and their teachers." [5].
Because digital storytimes are new for teachers, librarians, children, and researchers, ICDL chose a qualitative model for this study to extract as much information as possible about the technology and storytimes. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to observe the patterns, themes, and issues that emerge when using digitized books for group storytimes in a library or preschool setting; future research may begin to quantify these similarities and differences.
The Research Project
A private school in suburban Chicago agreed to allow its four-year–old preschool classes to participate in this research (written parental consent was obtained for all participating children, as well as verbal assent from the children just before the storytime sessions). The 32 children who participated in this study were randomly placed into two groups, creating groups of equal size (16 children in each). The children who participated in the study ranged in age from 49 to 62 months. The mean age of the first group was 57.18 months; the mean age for the second group was 56.87 months.
Two age–appropriate picture books from ICDL were chosen for this study; the same books were obtained from a library in hard-copy, print format. The two books were Axle the Freeway Cat )Harper and Row, 1981) and The Hunterman and the Crocodile: A West African Folktale (Scholastic, 1997). According to the preschool teachers, these books were not previously known to the children.
Axle is a realistic fantasy about a cat that makes a new friend. Axle and his friend, Little Cat, are the only characters in the book, and the plot is a simple one - with Axle fixing Little Cat's car when it breaks and causes a traffic jam. After Axle fixes the car, the two of them take a ride in Little Cat's fancy red car; they share dinner in Axle's home (a broken-down car); and, they play some music together.
On the other hand, Hunterman is far more complex and originates from a West African folktale. There are seven main characters, one secondary character, and one implied character - the hunterman's wife - who is never seen in the pictures. Some of the main characters travel from one location to another, and the end of the story presents a complete plot twist and introduces the implied character. Hunterman is full of assumptions and concerns that each character has about others (whom you can trust and why), and any understanding of the story arises from paying attention to the reciprocal help and hindrances that each character gives the others.
The group storytimes were conducted at the preschool in October 2004 on two separate days in the preschool's library. On each day, both groups of students heard one story, presented either in a digital or traditional format. The first day of the study consisted of two readings of Axle the Freeway Cat. On day two, The Hunterman and the Crocodile was read to the children. There were three teachers present during each of the storytimes on both days; however, the teachers were observers and not participants.
On each of the storytime days, I first conducted the digital storytime, and all of the technical equipment was set up and in place when the children entered the preschool's library. Once I completed the digital storytime, I removed the projection screen, laptop, and projector from the reading area, and I conducted the traditional storytimes without any of the technology from the digital storytimes in view of the children. All storytimes were videotaped with two video cameras in a fixed position. For the traditional storytimes, one video camera was behind me (conducting the storytime) and fixed to record the children; the other video camera was behind the children and was fixed to record me. For the digital storytimes, both video cameras were fixed on either side of the group to record both the children and me.
For the traditional storytimes, the children sat in a semicircle on the floor of the preschool's library, and I sat in a chair at the front of the semicircle, held the picture book with my left hand, and turned the pages with my right hand. I briefly introduced myself, asked the children whether they were ready to hear a story, and introduced the book. I also told the children that they would have time after the story to ask questions and talk about the book.
During the storytime, I faced the children; the picture book was open to each page as I read the story, and each page spread remained open and faced the children during the entire reading so all the children could see the pictures. I showed the children, in the following order, every component of the complete hard–copy book: front cover, front jacket flap, end-papers, front matter, the story, back matter, end papers, end-flap, and back cover. For each of the traditional storytimes, I read expressively and did not stop the reading to talk about the story. After I finished, the children and I discussed the story in detail.
For the digital storytimes, the children sat on the floor of the preschool's library facing a four-by-foury-foot projection screen. On a table at the back of the room (approximately twelve feet from the screen) were a laptop computer and a projector. Even though the books on ICDL can be used "live" off the Web site for digital storytimes, ICDL generously made a digital file available to me for each of the books, so that potential telecommunication line problems or ISP interruptions would not interfere with the research. The digital books on ICDL include every component of the hard–copy book; the children in the digital groups were shown the front cover, front jacket flap, end-papers, front matter, the story, back matter, end papers, end-flap, and back cover.
There are three different "book readers" available on ICDL: standard, comic book, and spiral. For the study, I used the comic book reader, which initially displays all pages for the picture book in sequential order, similar to a comic strip. When you click on a page in this format, the book is displayed as double-page spreads in exactly the same format as the hard-copy books (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: the comic book reader format.
The comic book reader format on ICDL has a zoomable interface, and as I "turned the pages" at the end of each comic strip, the pages did, momentarily, zoom in and out. The "whooshing" sound of the zoomable interface was not activated for the digital storytimes.
Every page of each picture book appears within a "picture" frame that is part of the ICDL interface. These frames, whose predominant color is green, contain the navigation icons that advance the pages, change page spreads from double to single, change the background color, and enlarge or close the page. For the digital storytimes conducted as a part of this study, both Axle and Hunterman appeared within the ICDL navigation frames (see Figure 2).
Figure 2: Double–page spread with ICDL navigation icons or “Picture Frame.”
Before the digital storytimes began, I briefly introduced myself, asked the children whether they were ready to hear a story, and explained the computer technology in the following way:
Today, I’m going to read you a book but it's inside my computer. It's a real book, but I have it inside the computer, and we're going to look at it on the screen. You’re going to start to see the book, and I'm going to use this [showed handheld wireless mouse]. It's a special clicker I can use to make the pages change.
When the digital storytimes began, I sat on the floor with the children, facing the screen and used the handheld wireless digital mouse to advance each frame of the digital file to turn the pages of the digital books. During the digital storytimes, I did not face the children or have eye contact with them while reading the story. Because I used the wireless digital mouse, I could sit with the children - and be a part of the audience for the story along with them - and I read the text of the story off the screen while advancing the pages.
For each of the digital storytimes, I read expressively and did not stop the reading to talk about the story. I did not use the hard-copy of the book during the digital storytime nor did I refer to any other written supplemental text. After the storytimes finished, the children and I discussed the story in detail.
What Happened
After I conducted the storytimes, I reviewed the videotapes and made transcripts that corresponded to the dialogue and behavior of the children during the storytimes. I evaluated and coded the transcripts, looking for movement by the children during the storytimes; talk by the children before, during, and after the storytimes; external noise that occurred during the storytimes; teacher comments, if any, during the storytimes; my questions and comments before, during, and after the storytimes; and, the children’s questions before, during, and after the storytimes. Table 1 contains the codes used for analyzing the movement and talk during these storytimes.
Table 1: codes for interpreting data.
| Table 1: Table 1: codes for interpreting data. | |
| Code | Description |
| CQS | Child question-story related |
| CQSH/T | >Child question-story related-higher level/test-based |
| CQSH/P | Child question-story related-higher level/picture-based |
| CQNS | Child question-not related to story |
| CSS | Child statement-story related |
| CSSH | Child statement-story related-higher level |
| CSNS | Child statement-not related to story |
| CMID | Child movement-looking at investigator/wireless mouse during "page turn" |
| CMB | Child movement-looking away from book during traditional reading |
| CMS | Child movement-looking away from book during traditional reading |
| CMF | Child movement-laying down on floor during story reading |
| CMC | Child movement-interaction w/another child/children during story reading |
| CMPL | Child movement-looking at projector/laptop during discussion |
| IQS | Investigator question/story related |
| IQSH | Investigator question/story related higher level |
| IQNS | Investigator question/not related to story |
| ISS | Investigator statement/story related |
| ISSH | Investigator statement/story related higher level |
| ISNS | Investigator statement/not related to story |
| EXTN | External noise/hallway |
| TSN | Teacher statement/not related to story |
| TSS | Teacher statement/story related |
Questions and statements from both the children and me fell into two different categories: those directly related to the story content that relied completely on information contained in either the pictures or the text; and those related to the story that addressed content or ideas outside of the literal text and pictures, requiring some element of inference or speculative reasoning. This second type of questions and statements, whether by me or by the children, was coded as higher-level questions and statements. Additionally, the higher-level questions fell into two distinct categories: they were either text-based questions or picture-based questions, and the coding (CQSH/T and CQSH/P) reflects this distinction.
The Time Factor
For the digital storytimes, Hunterman took three seconds longer to tell than the traditional version, and Axle took 34 seconds longer than the traditional version. In addition, the prestory discussions for the digital storytimes were longer than their traditional counterparts (by approximately one minute in each instance) because the introduction to the digital storytime included a short discussion of the technology used to tell the story, including showing the children the wireless digital mouse that would be used to advance the pages.
As can be seen in Table 2, the actual reading time of the digital stories was consistently slightly longer than for the traditional stories; this slight difference did not appear to have any effect on the attentiveness or distractedness of the children during the storytimes.
Table 2: length of storytime sessions.
| Table 2: length of storytime sessions. | ||
| Axle the Freeway Cat | ||
| Digital Storytime Group I | Digital Storytime Group II | |
| Prestory | 1:47.88 | 57:57 |
| Story | 5:01.86 | 5:35&.24 |
| Poststory | 9:11.66 | 5:35.24 |
| Total Time | 16:01.39 | 15:34.76 |
| The Hunterman and the Crocodile | ||
| Digital Storytime Group II | Digital Storytime Group I | |
| Prestory | 1:25.25 | 23:82 |
| Story | 7:27.33 | 7:22&.65 |
| Poststory | 4:28.09 | 9:09.13 |
| Total Time | 13:23.47 | 16:55.60 |
Listener Attentiveness and Movement
Both times I read Axle, the total movement of the children during the two types of storytimes differed. There was more total movement during the digital storytime versus the traditional storytime. However, I observed two different types of movement during the digital storytimes - one type of movement occurred when the children looked away from the screen and toward me when the digital wireless mouse was used to turn the pages. This looking away, which was momentary, did not occur while the story was being read but when I finished reading the text on each page and was in the process of advancing to a new page on the screen. While I turned pages, there was no story reading going on.
The other type of movement I observed - what I would call "fidgety preschooler" movement - included looking away from the screen or the page during the actual reading. There was far more of this type of movement during the traditional storytime than there was during the digital storytime. In fact, as illustrated in Figure 3, the movement looking away from the book versus looking away from the screen during the reading of Axle is more than double during the traditional storytime.
Figure 3: Axle the Freeway Cat - Looking away from book/screen during storytimes.
I observed exactly the same difference in attentiveness to the reading during the two Hunterman storytimes - when subtracting the momentary glance at me as the digital pages were turned, there was much more movement during the traditional storytime. This movement and attention difference during the Hunterman storytimes is illustrated in Figure 4.
Figure 4: The Hunterman and the Crocodile - Looking away from book/screen during storytimes.
Location of the Reader
In the traditional storytimes, I sat in front of the children in the usual manner for read–aloud storytimes. In the digital storytimes, I sat with the children, rather than in front of them. The traditional position of storyreader in front of the children required that I turn my eyes away from the children to actually read the text on the pages of the storybook; during the digital storytimes, I faced the screen along with the children and never had to avert my eyes completely away from them — although I was looking at the backs of their heads, I could see that they were attentive to the story. This new position of storyreader sitting with the children did not interfere with the story experience for the children, and the children actually appeared to be more attentive — and far less fidgety — during the digital storytimes.
Story Understanding
The poststory discussion for each book was intended to encourage the children to ask questions that allowed me to assess whether they had a basic understanding of the story and its elements. However, the poststory discussions were not intended as formal tests of story memory and thus not a quantitative measure of it. I also asked questions designed to probe specific textual or pictorial components of the stories. Each set of my questions grew out of the actual discussion with each group of children; therefore, I asked different questions and a different number of questions with each group.
Axle the Freeway Cat
During the Axle digital storytime, the children sat quietly and attentively for the entire story - there was only one comment made while the story was in progress. After I finished reading the Axle story, I closed it on the computer and asked the children whether they liked the story (there was a chorus of "yeses" to this question, with one child asking for another story), and I then asked whether they had any questions about the story. The children generated four distinct questions about the story, and talk about these questions threaded its way through the entire poststory discussion. The children asked no questions and made no statements about the navigational picture frame that is part of the ICDL interface.
I coded four questions asked by the children as higher-level - none of them could be definitively answered by looking at the literal text or pictures. Of the four questions, three of them addressed pictorial elements of the story.
The children asked:
- How did this story have a cat that stood on two legs, when most cats are small and square on four legs?
- Where did Axle keep his food?
- How did Axle make his food?
One question addressed a text-based element of the story.
- Why didn't Axle use brakes to stop Little Cat's car from crashing?
I did not attempt to provide direct, specific answers to the children's questions; rather, I encouraged the children to speculate on the answers to the questions, and a lively discussion among the children ensued.
I asked the children seven questions about the story.
- What was Axle's job?
- What was Axle's "best" piece of trash?
- What instrument did Little Cat play?
- Did Little Cat have a name?
- Does Axle have a kitchen?
- Why did Axle have a harmonica?
- Do you think Little Cat likes music, too?
In answering my questions, the children in the digital storytime, as a group, were able to respond with accurate answers.
When the children in the traditional Axle group entered the preschool library for their storytime, they asked why there were video cameras. I explained that the cameras were being used so I could remember everything about the storytime when I went home, then I introduced the book. One child said, "I don’t even know what the story is." When the storytime began, most of the children sat quietly and attentively, but one child interrupted my reading once the story began, first stating, "Excuse me, excuse me," and then asking "Why, why does it not be fixed?" - a question related to the fact that Axle lives in a broken-down car that, according to the text, cannot be fixed. This question - about Axle's car - persisted throughout the discussion of this book. Further along in the storytime, the children made multiple spontaneous utterances.
After the story was completed, I closed the book and, even before I could ask the children whether they liked the story, the child who asked the question about Axle’s broken car, immediately asked this question again. This was one of two child-initiated, higher-level questions that continued throughout the poststory discussion. Both of the questions generated by the children were textual in nature; neither question addressed purely pictorial issues.
The children speculated about many possibilities for the answer to the first question about Axle's car; there were 13 separate ideas generated by the children as to what happened to Axle's car and why it couldn't be fixed. The second higher-level question concerned why Axle helped Little Cat. The children had three speculative answers to this question.
I asked four questions.
- What was Axle's job?
- Did Axle have a kitchen?
- How did he fix his breakfast?
- What was the best piece of trash Axle had found?
In answering my questions, the children in the traditional storytime, as a group, were able to give accurate answers to the questions.
The Hunterman and the Crocodile
During the Hunterman digital storytime, there were many comments and moments of spontaneous laughter made by the children during the storytime session. At the end of the storytime, I closed the ICDL book reader on the computer, shut down the projector, asked the children whether they liked the story (many "yeahs"), and asked whether they had any questions about the story. The children asked no questions and made no statements about the navigational picture frame.
The children in this group generated three higher-level questions about the story; two of the questions were text-based.
- Why did the bunny come?
- Are they going to eat the crocodiles?
One question (Why did the bird come?) was based on a completely pictorial component of the story - a bird that is never mentioned in the story, but that appears in the pictures on nine of the double–page spreads.
The Hunterman and the Crocodile is a complex story, and the children in this group needed my help to speculate about the answers to their questions. The children were confused about the ultimate outcome of the story, thinking that the hunterman did in fact eat the crocodiles, even though the crocodiles were not eaten in the end.
I asked three questions:
- Does anybody know what the word "clever" means?
- How many crocodiles were in the story?
- Were there pictures of other animals that you noticed?
The children in the digital storytime, as a group, gave accurate answers to my questions.
For the traditional Hunterman storytime, the children came into the preschool's library and asked about the video cameras; I explained that the cameras were recording so I could remember everything about the storytime when I went home. As the storytime began, and I was paging through the front matter of the story, one child commented, "That looks scary." One teacher commented, "Oh, nice picture," and a child responded, "Of the crocodile." During the actual reading of the story, the children only made one spontaneous comment. There were no other comments and no spontaneous laughter during this storytime.
At the end of this story, I asked the children whether they liked the story, and there was a chorus of "yeahs!" When asked whether they had any questions about the story, the children responded with five separate high- level questions, all of which were text-based questions (no questions based on purely pictorial elements of the story were generated ).
The children asked:
- How could Donso balance the crocodiles on his head?
- Why did the crocodiles eat the man?
- Why didn’t the animals take Donso out of the river?
- Why do people like to eat crocodiles?
- How can a talking tree be a talking tree?
The children themselves speculated on many answers to these questions. The final question of the storytime discussion - how can a talking tree be a talking tree? - produced not only a discussion about a textual element of the story, but also a high-level discussion about the difference between fiction and non-fiction.
Children: Yeah! (many voices)
Child 2: My dad said nothing on cartoons and books are not real, but they, but there are things like that, there are trees, there's everything in the books and cartoons.
Ms. Collen: So what happens in the story when there's a talking tree? Who has an idea? What's your idea?
Child 2: Because they writed it in the story.
Ms. Collen: They wrote it in the story.
Child 2: And they're pretend!
Ms. Collen: They're pretend. Do you think that if you went to the riverbank a tree would talk to you?
Children: No! (many voices)
Child 2: It's just make believe!
Ms. Collen: It's just make believe.
Child 1: I know that it's not ... I know that it's fiction.
Ms. Collen: It's fiction! What a great word to describe make believe!
Child 2: What's fiction?
Ms. Collen: Fiction is when it's what?
Child 1: Pretend.
Ms. Collen: Pretend. And non-fiction is what?
Child 1: Pretend.
Child 1: Real!
Child 2: Not fiction!
Ms. Collen: Real. That's right. That's such a good thing to notice. Such a good thing to notice.
Child #1: It's not real, they just wrote it.
I asked three questions during the poststory discussion.
- How many crocodiles did the hunterman have on his head?
- Did you see any other animals?
- Do you think the crocodiles and the hunterman were friends at the end of the story?
In answering my questions, the children in the traditional storytime, as a group, gave accurate answers to the story-related questions. However, this group was also confused about what happened with the crocodiles and the man at the end of the story.
Based on the poststory discussions for all groups, there did not appear to be a difference in story understanding between the digital and traditional storytimes. The children in both groups engaged in a lively discussion about the stories, generated high-level questions about the stories, and generally answered my questions about the stories. While there was a misunderstanding about the ending of the Hunterman story, the children in both the digital and traditional storytimes had the same misunderstanding, suggesting that the story itself - and not the format of the storytime - caused the misunderstanding.
Impact of Size of Pictures on Story Understanding
The size of the picture books when projected on the screen during the digital storytimes was almost triple the size of their hard-copy counterparts (see Table 3).
Table 3: Hard-copy versus Digital Image.
| Table 3: Hard-copy versus Digital Image. | ||
| Axle the Freeway Cat | ||
| Screen Image | Hard-copy of book | |
| Double-page Spread Size | 3" X 4" | 9" X 16" |
| The Hunterman and the Crocodile | ||
| Screen Image | Hard-copy of book | |
| Double-page Spread Size | 3" X 4" | 10" X 20" |
In the questions generated by the children in the poststory discussions, there was a distinct difference between the types of questions the children asked, depending on whether they attended the digital or traditional storytime. After both of the digital storytimes, the children in both groups asked questions that raised both text-based and picture-based issues about the stories; in the traditional storytimes, children in both groups asked only text–based questions. Table 4 sets forth the number and types of poststory questions asked by the children.
Table 4: Picture- and Text-Based Questions in Digital and Traditional Storytimes.
| Table 4: Picture- and Text-Based Questions in Digital and Traditional Storytimes. | ||
| Picture-based Questions | Text-based Questions | |
| Axle-Digital | 3 | 1 |
| Axle-Digital | 0 | 2 |
| Hunterman-Digital | 1 | 2 |
| Hunterman-Traditional | 0 | 5 |
One element - the size of the picture-book illustrations when projected on the screen - may be the reason that the children in both digital groups generated questions that addressed completely visual components of the books; none of the questions asked by the children in the traditional storytimes addressed visual components of the stories.
That children in the traditional storytimes asked no picture-based questions and children in both digital storytimes did ask picture-based questions suggests that the larger–format presentation of the stories' pictorial components in the digital storytimes may have resulted in an enhanced understanding of the story, based on an enhanced visual experience.
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.
Acknowledgements
This project would not have been possible without the mentorship and guidance of Karen Brown of the School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University. Additionally, Ann Carlson Weeks, director for Collection Research and Use of the ICDL at the Human-Computer Interaction Lab and professor of the practice in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland provided significant insight, feedback, and encouragement. Special thanks are extended to Ann Rose, who designs and manages the database that holds the books in the ICDL collection, for her expert and timely technical support. Finally, this project would never have happened without the support and inspiration of Allison Druin, project director of ICDL at the Human-Computer Interaction Lab and assistant professor in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland.
This paper is reprinted from Children and Libraries: The Journal of the Association for Library Service to Children, Winter 2006 (volume 4, number 3) with the kind permission of the American Library Association.
Notes
[1] The Digital and Traditional Storytimes Research Project was created by the author as an Independent Study project in Fall 2004, while in her final semester as a student in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University, River Forest, Illinois.
[2] These numbers are current as of 24 September 2006.
[3] Maria T. DeJong and Adriana G. Bus, "Quality of Book–Reading Matters for Emergent Readers: An Experiment with the Same Book in a Regular or Electronic Format," Journal of Educational Psychology 94, no. 1 (2002): 145-55.
[4] Christine M. Ricci and Carole R. Beal, "The Effect of Interactive Media on Children's Story Memory," Journal of Educational Psychology 94, no. 1 (2002): 138-44.
[5] William H. Teale, "Reading Aloud to Young Children As a Classroom Instructional Activity: Insights from Research and Practice," In: On Reading Books to Children: Parents and Teachers, Anne van Kleek, Steven A. Stahl, and Eurydice B. Bauer, eds. (Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2003), 133.
[6] Douglas H. Clements and Sudha Swaminanthan, "Technology and School Change: New Lamps for Old?" Childhood Education/span> 71, no. 5 (1995): 275-81.
[7] Lawrence R. Sipe, "How Picture Books Work: A Semiotically Framed Theory of Text-Picture Relationships," Children's Literature in Education 29, no. 2 (1998): 97.
[8] Eliza T. Dresang, Radical Change (New York: H.W. Wilson, 1999), 65 97.
[9] Denise E. Agosto, "One and Inseparable: Interdependent Storytelling in Picture Storybooks," Children’s Literature in Education 30, no. 4 (1999): 277.
[10] Bruce Perry, "Bruce Perry Discusses the Effects of Technology on the Brain," Scholastic Early Education Today 13, no. 6 (1999): 37.
[11] June Behrmann, "Digital Learning Materials Are Better than Books Printed on Paper: Electronic Materials Can Be Important for Students with Disabilities," Teaching Exceptional Children 34, no. 2 (2001): 87.
[12] National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), tant for Students with Disabilities, Technology and Young Children - Ages 3-8, a position statement of the NAEYC (Washington, D.C.: NAEYC, 1996), 3.
[13] Gloria Skurzynski, "It's a Wired World after All: Children, Books, and the Internet," Theory into Practice 38, no. 3 (1999): 183.
[14] Barbara Bader, American Picture Books from Noah's Ark to the Beast Within (New York: Macmillan, 1976), frontispiece.
[15] Seymour Papert, The Children's Machine (New York: Basic Books, 1993), 185.
[16] Skurzynski, "It’s a Wired World after All," 183.
References
Additional Resources
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Jane Davidson and June L. Wright. "The Potential of the Microcomputer in the Early Childhood Classroom." In: Young Children. Wright and Shade, eds. Washington, D.C.: NAEYC, 1994.
Bernadette Davis and Daniel D. Shade. Integrate, Don't Isolate! Computers in the Early Childhood Curriculum. ERIC Digest - ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education, ED 376991, 1994.
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Maria T. DeJong and Adriana G. Bus. "How Well Suited Are Electronic Books to Supporting Literacy?" Journal of Early Childhood Literacy 3, no. 2(-2003): 147-64.
Baba Wague Diakité. The Hunterman and the Crocodile: A West African Folktale. New York: Scholastic, 1997, contributed to ICDL by Scholastic.
David K. Dickinson. "Book Reading in Preschool Classrooms: Is Recommended Practice Common?" In: Beginning Literacy with Language. David K. Dickinson and Patton O. Tabors (editors). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Pub. 2001, 175-203.
David K. Dickinson and Miriam W. Smith. "Long–Term Effects of Pre-school Teachers' Book Readings on Low-Income Children's Vocabulary and Story Comprehension." Reading Research Quarterly 29, no. 2 (1994): 105-22.
Eliza T. Dresang and Kathryn McClelland. "Radical Change: Digital Age Literature and Learning." Theory into Practice 38, no. 3 (1999): 160-67.
Elfrieda Hiebert and P. David Pearson. "Building on the Past, Bridging to the Future: A Research Agenda for the Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement." Journal of Educational Research 93, no. 3 (2000): 133-44.
Thacher Hurd. Axle the Freeway Cat. New York: Harper & Row, 1981, contributed to ICDL by Thacher Hurd.
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Ellen Wartella and Nancy Jennings. "Children and Computers: New Technology - Old Concerns." Children and Computer Technology 10, no. 2 (2001) 31-43.
About the Author
Lauren Collen has a bachelor of fine arts degree in painting from Wayne State University and a master's degree in library and information science from Dominican University; in 2005 she was awarded the C. Berger Entrepreneurial Promise Award. She is a youth services librarian at the Niles (Ill.) Public Library District outside of Chicago, where she does storytelling, creates and conducts programs for babies, preschoolers, and school-age children, and does graphic design and mural displays as the artist for the youth services department. She is at work on her first picture book.
© 2007 Lauren Collen.