The imposition and superimposition of digital reading technology: The academic potential of E-readers

Abstract

While rapid growth in e-reader use is receiving much attention in industry and academia, the use of e-readers for academic reading remains understudied. This qualitative study investigates how graduate students accomplish their academic reading and integrate an e-reader into their reading practices. Our work represents the first long-term study of e-reading on a production device (the Amazon Kindle DX). In this paper we contribute new knowledge to the discussion of the academic potential of e-readers by analyzing the meta-level relationship between reading tasks and associated reading techniques, students' compensation for the limitations of e-readers, and the hindrance of the human ability to construct cognitive maps of texts when using e-readers. Copyright 2011 ACM.