Digital books for early years and primary school aged children

Natalia Kucirkova

University College London

This MESHGuide has been designed to provide evidence on effective use of digital books with early years and primary school-aged children.

The Guide is based on an extensive literature review (see Evidence column) and set out in a way to allow you, the reader, access to the areas of most immediate interest to you, providing links to some of the key publications and research where you can explore the topic in as much depth as you wish. It includes information on criteria for evaluating children’s digital books, the learning outcomes these might support, as well as guidance on using digital books in a classroom.

The guide was developed to provide practical guidance to teachers and is very much intended to serve as a community resource. If you are aware of new evidence relevant for this area or would like to update the guide in a different way, please get in touch with the author.

The MESHGuide provided here draws on many years research in this area. More research is now needed to determine the impact of specific characteristics of digital books and how they influence the different contexts of reading.

Transferability – T2 rating **

.The editors give this Guide a T2 rating – more research is needed in different contexts to strengthen the evidence base for practice.

Translational Research- levels used for MESHGuides

With thanks to Professor James O’Meara President International Council on Education for Teaching (www.icet4u.org):

—T1 – Local findings that translate no wider than the setting investigated

—T2 – Local findings that translate to comparable settings in the same/similar region(s)

—T3 – Local findings that translate to a comparable setting in another international region

—T4 – Local findings that translate to a comparable settings (3 or more) in one or more international  regions

Source : May 9th 2013 Minutes MESH Chief Ed. Group

Join the Special Interest Group “Children’s digital books and literacy apps”, convened by United Kingdom Literacy Association: https://ukla.org/cpd/sig/details/childrens-digital-books-and-literacy-apps.