How to Use Digital Tools to Support Literacy

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“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” (Nelson Mandela), and “literacy is the most basic currency of the knowledge economy” (Barrack Obama). If we’re going to raise children who will change the world, we must first help them to become literate adults.

Teaching children basic literacy skills can be challenging at times. In the tech age, we have a new secret weapon – digital tools. Surveys have demonstrated the powerful role that technology can play in education. We have also written about the interesting ways that technology has been used to further education in our previous posts:

How to Use Digital Tools to Support Literacy

Digital Resources for Supporting Literacy

Inviting Authors into the Classroom through Youtube

One of the easiest ways to bring an author into the classroom is to use youtube or skype. Scan through youtube and you will find any number of videos of authors reading their own books.

You can also access videos with interviews of favourite children’s authors, like the following one with JK Rowling:

Tablets and Digital Books

Technology makes reading so easily accessible with digital books (like Amazon Kindle), read-along storybook apps, and audio stories. You can literally carry a library in your bag!

There are also digital resources that can help children develop reading skills in a way that is both fun and educational, like Reading Eggspress:

Encouraging Children to Write

Writing is another challenging area to help children develop. The following digital resources are just a handful of ways we can encourage the reluctant writer:

The invasion of technology into our lives is often viewed in a negative light. Instead of lamenting our grievances with it, we should harness its power instead.