by Katie Lowry
Many aspects of the digital publishing age completely enthrall me, but there is one aspect in particular that I believe could be helped or hindered by the growth of e-books: Censorship.
For my undergraduate honors thesis, I argued there are two types of censorship: private and public. Private censorship is an acceptable form of censorship because it is when one parent bans his or her OWN child from reading material, not the entire school. By contrast, public censorship is not acceptable as it is when someone challenges a book to the point where it is removed from school shelves altogether, and is therefore not accessible for anyone.
If e-readers are used as a primary source of information in schools, teachers and parents will be able to control students’ settings and stop students from searching for and reading material they find controversial. They will be able to immediately track reading habits and decide whether or not the material is suitable for students to read. However, they can do this on an individual level, which is why I support the change to e-readers in schools. Parents who don’t find material controversial to their children, or in fact welcome the controversy in order to further their children’s’ education, are still able to obtain the material because it has not been removed from a physical shelf.
On the other hand, e-readers could make it easier for parents/school boards to control material on ALL student e-readers, therefore making it even more impossible for students to obtain certain material. If e-readers are going to be handed out in schools, one would assume schools will use a standardized software that gives them control over students’ access to e-books. If this is the case, students will be no better off than trying to get material from their school library. Unfortunately, if schools are changed to an e-reader environment, they will more than likely have to be distributed by schools, unless their prices are dropped and they become more obtainable for all families.
I am not sure whether or not e-readers will become the main source of material in schools, but I believe it will be beneficial if they do. E-readers will not only be a cheaper way for students to buy books, but they will also allow censorship to be geared to an individual level instead of applying it to an entire school district. Of course, this is assuming schools allow parents to individually monitor e-readers and not control them for the entire student body. We can’t know what the future of e-books and publishing will hold, but we can hope books will become more available to everyone.
For further information, here is an interesting piece about using e-readers in classrooms.
Many aspects of the digital publishing age completely enthrall me, but there is one aspect in particular that I believe could be helped or hindered by the growth of e-books: Censorship.
For my undergraduate honors thesis, I argued there are two types of censorship: private and public. Private censorship is an acceptable form of censorship because it is when one parent bans his or her OWN child from reading material, not the entire school. By contrast, public censorship is not acceptable as it is when someone challenges a book to the point where it is removed from school shelves altogether, and is therefore not accessible for anyone.
If e-readers are used as a primary source of information in schools, teachers and parents will be able to control students’ settings and stop students from searching for and reading material they find controversial. They will be able to immediately track reading habits and decide whether or not the material is suitable for students to read. However, they can do this on an individual level, which is why I support the change to e-readers in schools. Parents who don’t find material controversial to their children, or in fact welcome the controversy in order to further their children’s’ education, are still able to obtain the material because it has not been removed from a physical shelf.
On the other hand, e-readers could make it easier for parents/school boards to control material on ALL student e-readers, therefore making it even more impossible for students to obtain certain material. If e-readers are going to be handed out in schools, one would assume schools will use a standardized software that gives them control over students’ access to e-books. If this is the case, students will be no better off than trying to get material from their school library. Unfortunately, if schools are changed to an e-reader environment, they will more than likely have to be distributed by schools, unless their prices are dropped and they become more obtainable for all families.
I am not sure whether or not e-readers will become the main source of material in schools, but I believe it will be beneficial if they do. E-readers will not only be a cheaper way for students to buy books, but they will also allow censorship to be geared to an individual level instead of applying it to an entire school district. Of course, this is assuming schools allow parents to individually monitor e-readers and not control them for the entire student body. We can’t know what the future of e-books and publishing will hold, but we can hope books will become more available to everyone.
For further information, here is an interesting piece about using e-readers in classrooms.