Kindergarten is a time when children develop their basic reading, writing, and math skills. They also develop fundamental skills like emotional, social, and problem-solving capabilities.
To develop these skills, children have to follow a curriculum. However, with children being very easily distracted, keeping their attention can be challenging with mere paper-based books.
To combat their dwindling attention span, designing a study plan or material that’s engaging, interactive, and can thus hold their attention is key. This is where eBooks come into play.
With digital advancements, eBooks and eBook creation platforms like KITABOO have emerged to improve children’s learning experience. With their interactive elements, eBooks can capture children’s attention and improve learning outcomes.
This blog will delve into why eBooks are better for children than traditional textbooks.
Table of Contents:
I. Why are eBooks Better for Children Than Paper Books?
- Degree of Interactivity
- Integration of Multimedia Elements
- Capability for Personalization
- Level of Convenience
- Incorporation of AI, VR, and AR
- Options for Interactive Assessments
II. The End Note
Why are eBooks Better for Children than Paper Books?
As per latest research, when eBooks are chosen and utilized properly, children develop literacy abilities just as well—and sometimes even better—than with print books.
Let’s explore this more by understanding how eBooks are better than paper-based books for kindergarten.
1. Degree of Interactivity
Paper books provide a severely limited degree of interactivity with the content. In contrast, eBooks offer a relatively higher degree of interactivity. eBooks have several features and tools that make the learning experience engaging for children. These tools and features include the following:
- Read-aloud: Children can listen to the page-by-page content of the eBook, improving their pronunciation and diction. The read-aloud feature also makes it possible for children with dyslexia and visual impairments to develop their early literacy skills.
- Highlight: This feature highlights the words as the children read them or as the narrator reads them, enabling children to understand the connection better between text and speech.
- Search bar: This tool makes it easy to search the eBook and locate the chapter or paragraph they want to read, saving children from the laborious task of flipping through the pages.
Dictionary: Children only need to click on the word they find difficult to understand, and this tool will provide them with a child-appropriate definition of that word.
Also Read: Best eBook Creation Softwares
2. Integration of Multimedia Elements
The only multimedia elements that paper books contain are graphical elements, such as images, charts, tables, etc. On the other hand, eBooks not only include fun graphic elements but a host of other multimedia elements. These elements promote multisensory learning with the help of:
- Videos and animations: These two components visually represent the content and enable the story to play out in front of the children. Videos and animations add an interesting and captivating element to the learning experience. They also foster a better understanding of concepts and improve their retention and recall among children.
Sound effects: This component gives a fascinating touch to the learning experience. Sound effects enable music and audio to play out according to the theme of the chapter. This allows the children to better connect to the story and compels them to hear the eBook to its end.
3. Personalization
Unlike paper books, eBooks come with an increasing capability for personalization. In eBooks, kids can adjust the font size and color of the words to their preference.
With an emphasis on adaptability, eBooks make an allowance for different learning styles, such as:
- Auditory
- Visual
- Aural
- Verbal
- Kinesthetic
- Logical
The multimedia elements in eBooks enable children to study per their preferred style and pace. This is especially beneficial for children with learning disabilities. eBooks, thus, make the learning experience customized and inclusive for all.
4. Level of Convenience
Paper books need to be carried and lugged around, in addition to requiring a lot of storage space. eBooks, however, do away with all this and provide a comparatively higher level of convenience in the following ways:
- Easy accessibility: eBooks can be accessed on smartphones, tablets, and laptops. Some eBooks also come with offline accessibility, enabling children to access them without an internet connection.
High portability: eBooks can be stored digitally on any smart device. Thus, when outside or traveling, kids only need to carry a smart device instead of a bag of books to access and enjoy the learning experience.
5. Incorporation of AI, VR, and AR
Paper books have no means of incorporating advanced technologies. Whereas eBooks can include the following technologies to build children’s creativity, decision-making, problem-solving, and critical-thinking skills:
- Artificial intelligence: AI can track students’ progress and provide instant feedback to them and their teachers with useful suggestions and resources for improvement.
- Virtual reality: VR enables kids to go on virtual field trips, allowing them to explore and experience new places virtually through a 360-degree lens.
Augmented reality: AR can gamify learning with engaging simulated scenarios, enabling kids to become the primary drivers of their learning experience.
6. Options for Interactive Assessments
Paper-based books don’t allow the incorporation of interactive assessments. On the contrary, eBooks can integrate interactive assessments between chapters and at the end. eBooks can incorporate a wide range of exercises and assessments, such as:
- Quizzes
- Multiple-choice polls
- Case studies
- Word clouds
- Memory Matrix
- Two truths and a lie
- Know, want to know, learnt (KWL)
These activities and assessments evaluate children’s knowledge and enable teachers to understand their level of comprehension and areas needing improvement. They further make it possible for teachers to modify the curriculum easily to bridge their learning gaps.
The End Note
eBooks enhance the learning experience of kindergarteners by making it engaging, interactive, and immersive. Owing to the increasing importance and benefits of eBooks over paper books, the eBook market is projected to grow at an annual rate of 2%, resulting in the market being valued at $15.33 billion by 2027.
Considering today’s digital age, it’s high time to invest in and incorporate eBooks into your educational institution. If you want to save time and money doing so, leveraging eBook creation services like KITABOO is a great idea.
A top-level digital publishing platform, KITABOO allows you to create interactive eBooks with add-on multimedia and tech elements. You can publish and distribute mobile-friendly eBooks securely among kindergarteners. As a firm believer in providing great eBook experiences, KITABOO is the trusted preference of 15 million users across 30 countries.
To know more about eBook solutions, get in touch with us today.
Contact our expert team to learn more.
To know more, please write to us at KITABOO@hurix.com
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