As students progress in the education system, they are faced with complicated, lengthy texts that they often have trouble comprehending. Students find themselves reading these complex academic texts and realize that, without knowing it, they have sped through four pages and did not absorb any of the information. As digital technologies have started to overtake print, our attention spans have shrunk and become “a limiting, scarce resource” (Hayles 16). Everyday we read and write in short-form through digital technologies, like texting, tweeting, etc. We no longer have the attentiveness to read and comprehend extensive texts (Kirschenbaum 6). Because of this, I am proposing an application that connects to e-readers to reduce distraction and encourage focus and comprehension while reading, called the Comprehension Coach. When opening an academic text on the Comprehension Coach, all that can be seen is the first chapter. In order to see the next chapter, the reader must “unlock” it by answering critical questions about the content of the first chapter. The application will be accessible through students and teachers. This way, the teachers can compose the questions and guide them toward the information or topics most relevant to what they are teaching in class. The questions would be answered in short sentences and would be gaged correct or incorrect by if they include key phrases originally input by the teacher. If a student answers incorrectly, a summary of the chapter, also inputted by the teacher, will pop up. The student must verbatim type this summary to unlock the next chapter. In order for students to be sure they have the questions that correlate to their teacher, there would be a drop down menu on the homepage that have them put in the name of their school and then gives them a list of teachers.
Much of this application is built upon the current technologies of gaming and Quizlet. In video games and smartphone game applications, the next level is not accessible until you get through the current level. Why should reading be different than this? If a student cannot get through to the next chapter without finishing the current chapter, this forces them to fully focus their attention so that they can completely understand the content of what they are reading. Although it is common for authors to have critical thinking questions at the end of a book or text and for teachers to hold class discussions, these questions and discussions always come after the completion of reading. These questions and discussions would be much more beneficial if students had something of the like while actually working on the reading. Having questions at the end of a chapter not only focuses the student, but further engages them in the reading. The Comprehension Coach is also built upon Quizlet in how it gages whether an answer is correct or incorrect. In the “learn” function on Quizlet, students type the answer that they think is correct and if they get part of the definition, or a key phrase, correct, Quizlet highlights that phrase. If they get it wrong, the website has them type the definition word for word before they can move on. This heavily inspired the logistics of how to unlock the next chapter.
The Comprehension Coach would be useful for students and teacher starting in elementary school, however it would be extremely useful for university students and professors. In this day and age, university students have many other time commitments besides their classes and often try to equally focus their attention on all of them. This application would compel them to comprehend and concentrate on what they are actually meant to be reading, rather than allowing them to skim through it. It would also let professors guide the reading in the direction most suitable for what they are teaching.
While this application could be beneficial to all students, it would be particularly beneficial to students with attention problems, whether this means an actual learning disability or just someone who gets distracted easily. Because our society has become so technical, the products of our society need to recognize the way this changes human cognition and makes us less attentive (Hayles 86).The application has the text and questions in one place so that there is no need to turn from the text, creating distractions. Because it makes you think about what you are reading while you are actually reading the text, rather than completely after the fact, you are more likely to absorb the material.
Logistically, the Comprehension Coach would connect to e-readers through an email account. The application would be downloaded on a smartphone, tablet, or laptop and you would need to create an account through an email address. The e-reader would have a login section that makes the application directly accessible. In order for this to work, either Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Apple would have to be willing to collaborate to use the application on either the Kindle, Nook, or iBooks. Then, a technician from one of those companies will embed two versions of the application into the e-reader: one for educators and one for students. The one for educators will allow them to simply upload questions and key terms for each chapter while the one for students will just allow them to answer the questions.
This product would be marketed towards students, teachers, parents, schools, and any other institute of learning or education. Since the point of this application is to promote attentiveness and it does this through “locking” chapters of a text, I have come up with the slogan of “unlock your attention”.
Advertisements will be placed on websites catered towards students, like Sparknotes, Schmoop, and Gradesaver. Students gravitate toward these websites when they do not understand what their reading, but with the Comprehension Coach they will not need these websites.
Works Cited
Hayles, Katherine. How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2012. Print.
Kirschenbaum, Matthew. Track Changes, A Literary History of Word Processing. N.p.: Harvard UP, 2014. Print.