Parents, despite what your children may tell you, they will never
have to be on their iPad for school purposes for extended periods each evening or weekend! Homework which must be done on the iPads will rarely exceed half an hour and don't forget, you can use a 4-finger swipe (upwards) to check which apps are running at any time. If most of the running apps are games, then chances are homework has not been the main priority in the last little while...
However, one activity that can often be enhanced by a digital device, is READING. Nothing will ever replace the look, feel and smell of a real life hard copy
BOOK. But a few digital enhancements can make reading on the iPad an especially valuable experience, especially for developing readers.
For children who have difficulty reading subject-orientated texts, or website content, the iPad also has a useful
"text-to-speech" function which will literally read any selected text to them. Admittedly the 'voice' is a little robotic and sometimes makes pronunciation errors, but this feature can open up a world of text for children who would normally be dependent on a real life adult to read to them.
To turn on "text-to-speech", go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Speech. Turn Speech Selection ON. You can adjust the speaking rate here as well. With Speech Selection turned on, when you select text in an app (such as iBooks or on a webpage in Safari), you will see a
Speak option (
see sample below).
Screenshot from iBooks
We published the following post about the iBooks app a couple of years ago for our first iPad classes. We're posting the information again here as it has some useful information about
borrowing eBooks from the Brisbane City Council libraries. If you would rather hear about this process in person, staff at any of the Council libraries will be able to take you through it. Our own lovely Teacher Librarian, Mrs Monique Hegarty plans to show the students how to borrow books through Brisbane Catholic Education's Overdrive account. However, they need two (free) apps to access these books:
Overdrive and
Adobe Digital Editions:
The children can also widen their literary experience by listening to
audio books. This is not 'cheating'. It is a valuable experience for students approaching the latter half of their primary years to be able to enjoy a book in an area of interest, even though decoding the text may be beyond their current reading skills.
Using iBooks on the iPad
The built-in iPad dictionary allows young readers to check word meanings within the text with a quick tap (no searching for dusty dictionary volumes) and font size can be adjusted to suit personal preference. If less text on the page is less daunting for your young reader, they can increase the font size and enjoy a more positive reading experience (
see screenshot below).
 |
| Screenshot showing features in iBooks |
Buying eBooks and Audio books can be as expensive as purchasing the printed copies but did you know you can borrow eBooks and eAudio book recordings through Brisbane City Council libraries? Using any BCC Library card, you can log in to the Digital Media site and browse Juvenile and Young Adult titles.
You can borrow titles for up to 21 days at no cost. A borrowed book simply disappears from your shelf once the borrowing period has expired so you will have no concerns about accumulating overdue fees.
Some cautions:
- Due to the wide variety of digital media file types on offer, you may need to install a couple of extra FREE apps to allow you to read or play borrowed files. Follow instructions in the Digital Collection site and be assured that Overdrive and Adobe apps are perfectly safe to download from this site.
- Parents please supervise students and check what they are borrowing. As in any public library, there are many adult titles available. The above link will take you to the Juvenile and Young Adult section but does not restrict access to these sections.
- Finally, a reminder that unfortunately it is not advisable to read eBooks in the bath!
