online article and study: Boys and eReaders

Boys Value Reading More with Ereaders
The Digital Shift, April 6, 2012 By Lauren Barack 

and 

Middle school boys who are reluctant readers value reading more after using e-readers
Public release date: 27-Mar-2012
Margaret Allen (mallen@smu.edu)
Southern Methodist University
 

count: 2 pages

Using Kindles specifically, researchers from SMU in Dallas recently began a 3-part study examining e-readers with middle school students to determine if that use would affect state test scores in reading. There was no such effect, but the study did find that boys rated reading more valuable as an activity after two months of using an e-reader. 

Classroom time spent using e-readers produced a positive attitude in boys in reading improvement classes at an urban middle school. However, the researchers from Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas found the opposite result in girls. 

The study was not intended to be gender-related, but "as the authors began to look through the results, they noted differences between how girls and boys responded to the Kindle experience." Researchers intend to follow up with the students to find out more about what might be influencing the shift in value.

In the study results, comments gathered from students indicated "they liked not having to carry a lot of books; they liked other students not knowing their reading level or choice of book; and they liked that the book they were reading was always available and hadn't been removed from the classroom."