1. What Are the Effects of Using Technology in Reading Comprehension?
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
Rationale Over the decades ago, Seymour Papert (1980) wrote Mindstorms and advocated a revolutionary philosophy in which technology was as seen as a fulfilling two major roles in education: (a) a heuristic role in which the presence of the computer was seen as a catalyst of emerging ideas and (b) an instrumental role in which the presence of the computer would carry ideas into a world larger than the research centres where they were incubated. When the Children’s Machine was published, Papert (1993) looked back over the decade since Mindstorms and asked question, “Why through a period when so much human activity has been revolutionized, have we not seen comparable change in the way we help children learn?” Technology’s exponentially increasing power, decreasing costs, portability and connectivity have gone beyond what it have been started. Yet, inside classrooms across the country, there is such a problem on how technology is being used for the enhancement of reading comprehension. It is not the unavailability particularly of computers but how they are being used in the classroom discussion. In teaching reading, technology is one of the available effective approaches. However, the use of technologies to enhance reading instruction is still its infancy. This reflects that the technological capabilities that are known to have potential in helping children to read, such as computer, have only become sufficiently affordable and available in widespread use. Even though it can support students, effective instruction needs to be interactive. This is
Chapter 2
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Related Literature This chapter looked into the literature and studies about the effects of technology in enhancing reading comprehension. Only few that related to the present study are presented in this section. There are researchers’ standout positive effects of technology in education most especially in the improvements of reading comprehension. Some
INTRODUCTION
Rationale Over the decades ago, Seymour Papert (1980) wrote Mindstorms and advocated a revolutionary philosophy in which technology was as seen as a fulfilling two major roles in education: (a) a heuristic role in which the presence of the computer was seen as a catalyst of emerging ideas and (b) an instrumental role in which the presence of the computer would carry ideas into a world larger than the research centres where they were incubated. When the Children’s Machine was published, Papert (1993) looked back over the decade since Mindstorms and asked question, “Why through a period when so much human activity has been revolutionized, have we not seen comparable change in the way we help children learn?” Technology’s exponentially increasing power, decreasing costs, portability and connectivity have gone beyond what it have been started. Yet, inside classrooms across the country, there is such a problem on how technology is being used for the enhancement of reading comprehension. It is not the unavailability particularly of computers but how they are being used in the classroom discussion. In teaching reading, technology is one of the available effective approaches. However, the use of technologies to enhance reading instruction is still its infancy. This reflects that the technological capabilities that are known to have potential in helping children to read, such as computer, have only become sufficiently affordable and available in widespread use. Even though it can support students, effective instruction needs to be interactive. This is
Chapter 2
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Related Literature This chapter looked into the literature and studies about the effects of technology in enhancing reading comprehension. Only few that related to the present study are presented in this section. There are researchers’ standout positive effects of technology in education most especially in the improvements of reading comprehension. Some