Tap, Click, Read: Growing Readers in a World of Screens

Chapter 9Why Adults Still Matter Most

The features and functionalities of apps and e-books produce a thicket of possibilities for struggling readers, as do the tools now under development by inventors tinkering away. And with mobile anywhere–anytime access and some apps offered for free, one might think an era of equal access to learning may be at hand. But consider our past experiences with technology in education. Twenty years ago, the arrival of personal computers and laptops led many prognosticators to go gaga with pronouncements about students gaining in achievement because of new access to learning materials not previously available. That promise remains to be realized. Technology has too often been, in the words of a 2001 book by Stanford ...