Kindles

The Kindle is an e-book reader which allows the reader to download and read e-books in a small book-like tablet. Developed by Amazon, kindles are fast becoming a more popular way of reading than traditional paperback books. The Kindle has been reviewed at [] which has differing views on how successful integrating kindles into the classroom will be. Through my research however, I believe that this could be an extremely useful technology, especially for those students with special needs. The new Kindle 3 now comes with a text-to-speech function which can help students who have vision problems, language barriers and lack of reading fluency. This will allow students to hear the text being read and therefore provide them with greater comprehension and understanding. It will also help those with language barriers and lack of fluency to become more familiar with different texts and more fluent in their reading. The Kindle can be used to help students with such special needs, and can also allow students with reading and learning difficulties to read simpler texts than their peers. As students with learning difficulties can struggle with comprehension through reading, the text-to-speech function will be useful for some. By allowing students to read different texts it will also allow for greater improvement in reading levels. Kindles can also be a fun approach to reading which will captivate some students with special needs. During my practical at Canberra High School, Kindles were used, and were especially useful in lower level classes which had students with low literacy levels. I found that students were more comfortable with reading as their fellow students were unable to see what book they were reading or how fast they were reading depending on when pages were turned. This greatly helped students' confidence. I also think that it is necessary to note that Canberra High is a public high school, and they could have the funds to have a classroom full of Kindles. The Kindle is easy to use and is therefore suitable for any age group. A vast number of texts can be downloaded and used throughout the various year groups so is therefore able to be utilised from Kindergarten through to Year 12, depending on what texts are used with the Kindle. Kindles can easily be fitted in school bags and are not bulky or noticeable in a classroom like a laptop or the like would be. In this way, they are easily able to be integrated into the classroom and used when necessary.