Journal of Academic Development and Education JADE Issue 10 | Page 88

ARTICLE #6 | 89
88 | JADE
DIGITAL NATIVE FIRST YEAR LAW STUDENTS AND
THEIR READING SKILLS IN A POST READING WORLD
FABIENNE EMMERICH & ASH MURPHY
Our main conclusion is that we should focus on our students’
development of their reading skills as a craft that necessitates different
tools for different spaces: screen or typographical. We propose that
this entails a three stage approach: first, to have conversations with
students about reading in different spaces, the particular nature
of screen space versus typographical space and the type of texts
that lend themselves to the digital or the physical environment.
Second, to help students develop their skills in working with and
take ownership of academic texts in paper form. To achieve this we
will further develop collective effort reading sessions combined with
a paper reading pack of the key readings that each student will own. 7
And finally, we aim to continue to engage students on their platform,
the digital social technology platform. Experimenting with Twitterfall
and discussing ways to introduce Instagram we are meeting the
students half way. It is our hope that in collaboration we can support
students to develop their reading skills and they can support us to
develop our teaching techniques.
References
Anonymous. The UK is now a smart phone society. 2015 [cited 20th April
2018]. Available from: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/media/
media-releases/2015/cmr-uk-2015.
Colgan D, Wesah D, Papacostantis H. 2017. Change to a Skill-Based LLB
Curriculum: A Qualitative Study of Participants in a Family Law Course.
Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal. 20: 1.
Jeong H. 2012. A comparison of the influence of electronic books and paper
books on reading comprehension, eye fatigue, and perception. The Electronic
Library. 30(3): 390.
Kennedy G, Judd T, Churchward A, Gray K. 2008. First year students’
experiences with technology: Are they really digital natives?. Australasian
Journal of Educational Technology. 24(1): 108.
Hermida J. 2009. The Importance of Teaching Academic Reading Skills in
First-Year University Courses. The International Journal of Research and
Review. 3: 20.
Jewitt C. 2005. Multimodality, “Reading”, and “Writing” for the 21st Century.
2005. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. 26 (3): 315.
Li Liang-Yi, Chen G-D, Yang S-J. 2013. Construction of cognitive maps to
improve e-book reading and navigation. Computers and Education. 60: 32.
Mangen A, Kuiken D. 2014. Lost in an iPad: Narrative engagement on paper
and tablet. Scientific Study of Literature. 4(2): 150.
Murray, R. 2015. Writing in Social Spaces: A social processes approach to
academic writing. Routledge.
7. This may seem like going back in time. Based on our experience it is crucial
to give students physical copies, because many are reluctant to print out the
reading.
Prensky M. 2001. Digital Native, Digital Immigrants. In Prensky M. ed. On the
Horizon. Vol 9 (5). MCB University Press.
Rogers R. 2001. Reflection in Higher Education: A Concept Analysis . Innovative
Higher Education. 26 (1): 37-57.
Rose E. 2011. The phenomenology of on-screen reading: University students’
lived experience of digitised text. British Journal of Educational Technology.
42(3): 515.
Roskos K, Neuman S. 2014. Best Practises in Reading: A 21st Century Skill
Update. The Reading Teacher. 67(7): 507.
Spencer L, Seymour E. 2013. Reading Law: Motivating Digital Natives to “Do
the Reading. Legal Education Review. 23: 177.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Angela Rhead for introducing us to the
structured reading retreats and for her support in the design and
delivery of the structured reading workshop. Her experience and
expertise has been invaluable. We would also like to thank Sen
Raj and Michael Fay for helping us deliver the structured reading
workshop in which 120 students participated. We would also like
to thank Hélène Tyrrell for her very helpful feedback following the
presentation of our paper at the Association of Law Teachers’ Annual
Conference 2018, Keele University, 26.03-27.03.