Since the emergence of the internet and personal laptops and gadgets, the way people learn, consume and produce knowledge has changed drastically. Educators are now required to produce learners that can understand and interpret meaning through texts, images, sound, graphs and diagrams, and such.

Learning by sitting through lesson after lesson consuming knowledge from a textbook is no longer the trend. Learning now can involve different senses such as visual and auditory. Technology has made it possible for learners to engage with the learning material and produce artifacts of their knowledge using different media. This has made multimodal learning important. When students are asked to produce a presentation of their knowledge on a particular subject, they no longer only write a two-page report. They can write about what they learn, add images, include a video clip, or even play an audio recording.

When we talk about eLearning and digital tools, we often associate them with learners who are more mature or older. While the tools and media for young learners (let's say preschoolers) are not as varied and wide-ranged as they are for more mature students, there are still significant changes in the early years setting.

One of these changes is the use of smart pens or reading pens. In one of the preschools I worked in (in Hong Kong), the learners were all given a set of textbooks - Get Set Go! Oxford English. Along with the textbooks was a digital pen. This pen is not an ordinary pen for writing. After all, who can expect young children to write so soon? This pen is called the Oxford Reading Pen. It is a thick blue pen with a few buttons at the top. Once the child turns on the pen by pressing the power button at the top, he or she simply needs to point the tip to a part of the textbook to hear an audio recording specific to the image, text, character, or symbol.

(Image source: https://www.baby-kingdom.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=21868409)

The reader can adjust the language setting by pressing and holding one of the buttons. There are three languages to choose from; English, Cantonese, and Mandarin. The pen allows the reader to adjust the volume as well as record voice notes. The set of textbooks are mostly colorful with full-page images and some texts. Readers not only can point and listen to the audio recordings for each page, they can also play games such as spot-and-point activities.

These texts and the pen are not meant for learners to use in the classroom. They are for home learning. They are marketed as learning tools for beyond the classroom. The idea is that the learner can learn anywhere outside of the classroom. It is taking the idea of a traditional textbook and putting a digital twist to it. There are QR codes and links to an online platform that parents can access at home, on their phones, or tablets. They are meant for parents to engage their children in learning English using digital media wherever and whenever they have time.

The reason these reading pens are popular here is because of the demand for learning English is high, but parents or carers are either not always available to practice with their child at home or they are not confident in their English language skills to do so. By simply pointing and listening to the audio recording, learners are able to hear the correct pronunciation of a word and practice that without the presence of a teacher.

When we think about how to produce students who can interpret meaning through different modalities, it is also important to look at how this applies to different age groups. Whether such technologies are effective or suitable for such a young age group is a whole different debate.

References:

https://www.oupchina.com.hk/en/elearning/ebook-n-assessment#orp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WIA9TPWSOY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcNJw9gIa60

https://www.ascilite.org/conferences/sydney10/procs/Sankey-full.pdf

https://academics.uafs.edu/academic-success/visual-learning-strategies