To follow my previous post about the effects of kids’ texting on education, I’m expanding the topic and would love to hear your responses. Do you think E-books will replace physical page turners?

I happen to love the feel of a book in my hand. I love the smell of books, the sound of turning pages, and their portability (no battery required.) On a cold, rainy day there is nothing better than curling up with a cup of hot cocoa, a cozy blanket, and an eager child itching to turn the next page. I adore an opportunity to have a book autographed by the author. I can’t imagine a home void of spines with promising titles and book marks poking out like traffic cones. For these reasons, I can’t wrap my head around the idea of an exclusively digital reading world.

What would happen to our book shelves? What would I do with all that space currently occupied by stacks of books? Okay, so maybe that last example isn’t helping my pro-book argument.

Leave it to my brilliant teenage son, an avid reader, to point out the advantages of e-books. The world has changed. The ugly truth of the matter is that book production creates a negative impact on the environment. Equally as glaring is the fact that our children today are digital learners. This new generation of kiddos is tech-savvy. Technology is inspiring them to do more than dial a phone or punch game controller buttons. Kids are creating films, designing robots, building video games, and writing stories on electronic devices.

Screens have replaced paper in so many aspects of a child’s entertainment and learning, so why didn’t we see this trend coming twenty years ago? Or, was I just not paying attention? What I do know is that, when my own books are published, I want to sign a few that will proudly rest on readers’ shelves.

Anyway, I’d love to hear your thoughts about e-books and children as digital learners.

Quote for the Day: “I am a part of all that I have read.”—John Kieran