Colin Harrison's presentation to the international United Kingdom Literacy Association conference, Glasgow, 2017.

1. UKLA Conference: Glasgow, July 1, 2017
Digital Literacies in Education SIG symposium
Are new technologies a boon or a barrier for the
weaker reader?
Colin Harrison, University of Nottingham, UK
colin.harrison.ac.uk

2. Who are the ‘weaker readers’?
Let’s agree to use the term in two ways:
1. For a student who has a reading problem
related to poor alphabetic and/or
phonological coding
2. For any student who is judged to have a
major problem with reading, writing
and/or spelling

3. What is the root of the weaker reader’s problem?
- Working memory and the phonological loop
Working memory and executive control (Baddeley, 1996)

4. Snowling’s two types of dyslexic:

5. Voca
b
Reading
speed
Compre
-hension
local
Text
Integration
Comprehension
Final
(sources: Baddeley, 1996; Snowling 1997; Stanovich, 1980; Kintsch, 1998)
High
Low

6. What are some of the particular problems for
students who are weaker readers in online learning?
- The level of the course material is likely to be very
challenging, even if the course is multimedia
- The volume of reading in the course material is
likely to be very challenging, even if the course is
multimedia
- Lack of group interaction and learning with and
from peers
- Lack of social interaction and emotional support

7. What are some of the possible advantages for
students in online learning?
- Students can learn at their own pace
- No humiliating exposure of weaknesses in front
of peers
- Access to additional resources:
- Extra tutor support
- Asynchronous peer support
- Online/offline tools:
- Text-to-speech; speech-to-text
- Glossing/summarising/abstracting tools
- Podcast/video material
- Text reformatting options

8. What are some of the possible advantages for
students in online learning?
- Students can learn at their own pace
- No humiliating exposure of weaknesses in front
of peers
- Access to additional resources:
- Extra tutor support
- Asynchronous peer support
- Online/offline tools:
- Text-to-speech; speech-to-text
- Glossing/summarising/abstracting tools
- Podcast/video material
- Text reformatting options
“But the pace is
always too fast!”

9. What are some of the possible advantages for
students in online learning?
- Students can learn at their own pace
- No humiliating exposure of weaknesses in front
of peers
- Access to additional resources:
- Extra tutor support
- Asynchronous peer support
- Online/offline tools:
- Text-to-speech; speech-to-text
- Glossing/summarising/abstracting tools
- Podcast/video material
- Text reformatting options
“Yes there is- I
have to post
online!”

10. What are some of the possible advantages for
students in online learning?
- Students can learn at their own pace
- No humiliating exposure of weaknesses in front
of peers
- Access to additional resources:
- Extra tutor support
- Asynchronous peer support
- Online/offline tools:
- Text-to-speech; speech-to-text
- Glossing/summarising/abstracting tools
- Podcast/video material
- Text reformatting options
“But my tutor can’t give
me all the help I need!”

11. What are some of the possible advantages for
students in online learning?
- Students can learn at their own pace
- No humiliating exposure of weaknesses in front
of peers
- Access to additional resources:
- Extra tutor support
- Asynchronous peer support
- Online/offline tools:
- Text-to-speech; speech-to-text
- Glossing/summarising/abstracting tools
- Podcast/video material
- Text reformatting options
“My classmates have
their own anxieties!”

12. What are some of the possible advantages for
students in online learning?
- Students can learn at their own pace
- No humiliating exposure of weaknesses in front
of peers
- Access to additional resources:
- Extra tutor support
- Asynchronous peer support
- Online/offline tools:
- Text-to-speech; speech-to-text
- Glossing/summarising/abstracting tools
- Podcast/video material
- Text reformatting options
Text-to-speech is
difficult to understand
if you’re a poor reader.

13. What are some of the possible advantages for
students in online learning?
- Students can learn at their own pace
- No humiliating exposure of weaknesses in front
of peers
- Access to additional resources:
- Extra tutor support
- Asynchronous peer support
- Online/offline tools:
- Text-to-speech; speech-to-text
- Glossing/summarising/abstracting tools
- Podcast/video material
- Text reformatting options
But poor comprehenders
are poor at judging the
trustworthiness of
sources

14. What are some of the possible advantages for
students in online learning?
- Students can learn at their own pace
- No humiliating exposure of weaknesses in front
of peers
- Access to additional resources:
- Extra tutor support
- Asynchronous peer support
- Online/offline tools:
- Text-to-speech; speech-to-text
- Glossing/summarising/abstracting tools
- Podcast/video material
- Text reformatting options
But can I trust it?
And can I cite it?

15. What are some of the possible advantages for
students in online learning?
- Students can learn at their own pace
- No humiliating exposure of weaknesses in front
of peers
- Access to additional resources:
- Extra tutor support
- Asynchronous peer support
- Online/offline tools:
- Text-to-speech; speech-to-text
- Glossing/summarising/abstracting tools
- Podcast/video material
- Text reformatting options
Yes- this can help: but it
takes time to do, and not all
sources that I have to read
can be reformatted….

16. What are some of the possible advantages for
students in online learning?
- Students can learn at their own pace
- No humiliating exposure of weaknesses in front
of peers
- Access to additional resources:
- Extra tutor support
- Asynchronous peer support
- Online/offline tools:
- Text-to-speech; speech-to-text
- Glossing/summarising/abstracting tools
- Podcast/video material
- Text reformatting options

17. What are some of the possible advantages for
students in online learning?
- Students can learn at their own pace
- No humiliating exposure of weaknesses in front
of peers
- Access to additional resources:
- Extra tutor support
- Asynchronous peer support
- Online/offline tools:
- Text-to-speech; speech-to-text
- Glossing/summarising/abstracting tools
- Podcast/video material
- Text reformatting options

18. So are there more disadvantages than advantages for
dyslexic students in online learning?
“… social computing tools, while
supporting different learning
paces and cognitive styles in
some cases, are at the same time
producing close to
insurmountable barriers to
students with cognitive
disabilities in general, and
dyslexia in particular.”
(Redecker, 2009)

19. Finally- what are the moral issues
in supporting higher education
students who have a learning
difficulty?
• “The purpose of an exam is to
find out what a student can do in
three hours. If we gave everyone
two weeks, every student would
get 100%.” (University professor)

20. Finally- what are the moral issues
in supporting higher education
students who have a learning difficulty?
We are comfortable helping the L+ student…
… but are there equity
ssues a issues in how much
help support we we give to the L-
student? give to the L- student?

21. • Dyslexia
recognised by
University; free
assistive software +
training; extra
exam time
• Face-to-face course
• Coloured paper
handouts, overlays
• Weekly tutor
support for
planning tasks,
organisation,
drafting
• Student gained
degree

22. • Dyslexia recognised by
University;
• Multimedia blended
learning online course
• Student sent tutor
independent report:
At age 16-
•“IQ=105;
•Reading age = 12.5”
• Skype tutor support
• Text-to-speech tools
• Severe difficulties in
meeting M-level goals

23. • More opportunities for informal and dialogic learning
(Vygotsky – обучение: learning/teaching/education/nurture)
• Encouraging more reading practice to speed up word
recognition and vocabulary, which will free-up capacity for
comprehension
• Better text-to-speech software to support reading while listening
• More guided support to develop Critical Internet Literacy skills
• Assessing relevance
• Assessing trustworthiness (Harrison, in press)
• Generating better search terms
• More collaborative/social learning
• More guidance in using intelligent writing support tools such as
Dragon, Claro, Ginger and Co-Writer
The Future:
What are the most urgent needs
of the online student?

24. UKLA Conference: Glasgow, July 1, 2017
Digital Literacies in Education SIG symposium
Are new technologies a boon or a barrier for the
weaker reader?
Colin Harrison, University of Nottingham, UK
colin.harrison.ac.uk
Harrison C. (2016).
Are Computers,
Smartphones,
and the Internet a Boon
or a Barrier for the
Weaker Reader?
Journal of Adolescent
& Adult Literacy,
60(2), 221–225
Harrison C. (in press)
Defining and seeking
to identify critical
Internet literacy: a
discourse analysis of
fifth-graders’ Internet
search and evaluation
activity.
Literacy