Learning to Love Reading in the Digital Age

Further Resources

Resources and guides, including how the audioreader devices were set up, useful links, and ethical & copyright considerations.

The Audioreaders

The first four iPhones (2 x iPhone 4s and 2x iPhone 6) came from my personal stash of no-longer-used electronics at home.

The fifth iPhone (iPhone 5) was donated by one of the participating teachers, as it had languished in her family's own discarded electronic box for many years.

(I attempted to purchase new cases for all the devices, but these proved very difficult to track down. For example, several of my case purchases had to be refunded by various TradeMe retailers when they couldn't find the product in their warehouse. The phones have ended up either without a case or just using the old ones they still happened to be in upon excavation.)

It is likely that many other old smartphones could be acquired through an appeal to a school community for donations; the requirements are:

they are still largely functional, i.e. can turn on and stay on without glitching, and can hold some charge in the battery
the screen is usable
they still have a working charger cable (or it's easy to purchase a replacement)
they have a headphone jack.

It is still possible to use newer phone models without headphone ports, but additional adapters (e.g. 3.5mm jack to a lighting connector for Apple iPhones 7-14) would need to be purchased.

How I set them up:

I created a new Gmail account, which I then used to create a new Apple ID. Each phone was factory reset, using instructions that are available online from the manufacturer. (Passcodes were not required.)

In order to register the new Apple ID, I needed a mobile phone number that wasn't already associated with another Apple account. Therefore, I purchased a "burner SIM", which cost about $35; $5 for the SIM and $30 prepaid data/text/minutes. I then resurrected an old Nokia phone to receive the various One Time Passwords and codes required to set up these accounts.

Once the first iPhone was set up, it was a matter of deleting as many apps as possible and setting up maximum "Screen Time" restrictions to prevent users from being able to change any settings or to use any function of the phone except for the Books app.

The process was repeated on each phone, and the same passcode and Screen Time PIN was used for each. This is kept secret from the students, but the main passcode is shared with the teacher.

How I created the audiobook library without inputting my personal financial information OR adding a credit card to the device:

I chose to use the Apple Books app, rather than an app such as Audible, for several reasons:

it didn't require a subscription
it didn't require additional accounts to be made (the existing Apple ID is used instead)
it still functioned on the phones (some apps no longer support older operating systems)
it was subject to the content restrictions and controls available in the device's native settings.

To acquire the audiobooks, I used my personal Apple account to buy each title as a gift purchase. The recipient name and email was the Gmail address I used to set up the smartphones as audioreaders. Because this is the same user email for the phones' login, it was then merely a matter of logging into the app, accepting the gift, and downloading it to the device. Repeat on each phone, as they are all logged into the same account. (Please see a discussion of the ethical considerations of this at the bottom of this page.)

Once all phones had all the purchased audiobooks downloaded to the device, each phone was set on airplane mode with wifi and bluetooth functions switched off.

Thus, each phone has the exact same set of audiobooks, without any internet connection or logging in required, and no device can sync with or interrupt the others during playback. They are entirely independent, and there is no possibility of a student being able to make additional purchases should they somehow manage to get access to the app store.

The other advantage of airplane mode, and deleting all other apps, is that the batteries are now lasting quite a long time, despite their age.

The Fidget Supplies

The fidget toys and Blu-Tack were purchased from The Warehouse. Similar products are available at other large department and toy stores. The total cost for the various fidgets, including the tack, was under $75 (the most expensive were the fidget cubes at $8 each). Others, such as the pop-it strips and the mini plastic coils, were part of a bulk party favours pack.

The pencil cases and colouring pencil packs were also purchased in bulk from The Warehouse (again, such products are available from many retailers). The pencil cases used in this study were partly chosen because they were neutral in colour and design, and were on clearance at about $1 each.

The colouring page designs were found through a Google Image search and printed using the department's budget and resources.

The Headphones & Splitters

Why headphones instead of speakers?

As you might notice in the photos below, I initially purchased a set of small Bluetooth speakers (on special), one for each audioreader. Unfortunately, it was just too annoying having multiple speakers going at the same time, even in different corners of the room, and one wasn't loud enough on its own for a whole class to hear.

Headphones also have the advantage of blocking out other distractions for the listener. The wired sets (and the splitters) are also quick & easy to plug into students' personal approved devices (i.e. laptops/netbooks/Chromebooks, and not phones). No syncing or charging required.

The Splitters

I chose to purchase this brand: Belkin Convenient Rockstar: Amazon.com.au: Electronics (please note I am in no way affiliated with Amazon or the vendor of this product). I had purchased one some years earlier from a local retailer for use in my own classroom for UDL purposes, and so I knew it was a fairly robust brand. Reviews of other cheaper versions of the same product suggested that sound quality could be unreliable, or the audio volume decreased with each additional headset plugged in, so I decided to invest in a better quality product. Thus far, the splitters are holding up under frequent use.

The Headphones

Similarly to the splitters, I didn't buy the cheapest options available as I had concerns about longevity and quality. Some headphone packs had purchaser reviews (usually teachers) complaining that many sets didn't work upon arrival, or quickly broke.

At the time I was shopping for the equipment, the product and vendor with the best compromise between good reviews and price was this listing: Ladont 20-Pack Kids Headphones Bulk ... 3.5mm Jack (10 Color): Amazon.com.au. At the time of purchase, it cost approximately AU$120 for the set, or AU$6 each.

All 20 sets worked upon arrival, and (as yet) they are all still working after multiple uses and somewhat tough handling by teen boys. They were also delivered very quickly. The headphone pads are plasticky/rubbery making them more hygienic, and the band size is adjustable.

I also liked the fact that with multiple colours, this offered the students another layer of choice, and it would be quick and easy to spot who had them and to count them back in (making them much less likely to go walkabout). This has been borne out in practice; and the students love being able to choose which colour they want.

(As a side note, and somewhat oddly, the two shades of pink have been among the most popular among the boys; potentially as it is a very performative expression of secure masculinity, but that is a sociological area beyond the scope of this study.)

NOTE: Each headphone set came in an individual resealable plastic bag, which has proven extremely useful for keeping the headphones in as it prevents wires from getting tangled. Do not throw these away!

Other Useful Kit Items

Container - a fairly generic plastic box purchased (in this case) from Briscoes on a 50% off special for $25. Chosen because it was the right size to fit all the headphones, it is transparent, making it easier to keep track of its contents, and because it has the insert tray to keep the small loose items in. Similar products are available from many retailers.

Notebooks - purchased from Warehouse Stationery for about 95c each; again, these are available from many shops, including supermarkets. I chose to colour code and protect them with coloured paper and leftover clear-seal to make it easier to tell them apart for each class (there are other classes at the school using the kit during library, in addition to the two who are taking part in the study).

Multi board or power strip - to plug all the phones in to charge at the same time from the same power point.

Other Comments

Labelling or numbering the devices makes it easier to keep track of who is using what and which have been returned.

Keeping the same number of each item makes it very easy to quickly count each set and know whether anything is missing. Knowing there are 20 headphones (two of each colour) and five of everything else (fidget cubes, pencil cases...) makes counting very quick in the final frantic minutes of the period.

The summary of my ethical / moral reasonings behind this setup are addressed in the yellow box below.

STILL HAVE QUESTIONS? PLEASE SEE THE FAQ PAGE.

A Note on Ethics, Copyright, & Library Licensing

One of the barriers between students and ebooks / audiobooks is the licensing arrangements between libraries, distributors, and publishers.

Unlike, say, commercial licenses for streaming services such as Netflix or Spotify (e.g. at motels or cafes), or even consumer subscriptions for Amazon's Kindle Unlimited and Audible Plus catalogues, libraries and distributors who host ebook and audiobook titles have to negotiate specific types of licenses that are different from book to book, depending on the publishers and popularity of the title. The digital library catalogue is not open to unlimited access by authorised users.

For example, one title for a school library might have a licence for a single copy, available to be "checked out" by one user at a time for up to 2 weeks, for "unlimited" checkouts, for (say) 12 months. No other user can access the title whilst it is "issued", despite its digital nature. At the end of the 12 months, the library must renew the licence to retain the title in its catalogue. Another title might only be licensed for a certain number of "checkouts"; if a student were to "issue" it, read two pages, then decide "nah" and return it, that's one licensed use of the title (and another student's opportunity to read it) gone.

With the current generation's expectations and experience of unlimited on-demand content, and the (quite reasonable) point that the title is digital so there is no practical reason multiple people can't access it at the same (such as a title on Netflix), such barriers seem to reinforce the perception that reading is outdated. It also contravenes the established requirement for accessibility and agency.

On the other hand, and as an author myself, I absolutely appreciate the need and ethical right for authors and publishers to receive financial compensation for their work. When a print book is purchased for a library, it slowly physically deteriorates with use and will eventually be replaced, resulting in an additional payment to the copyright holders. Not so with a one-off digital purchase, especially when I am downloading the single purchase to multiple devices.

So, I spent some time considering the different demands and morals of the situation before proceeding. My justifications for doing so are as follows:

The access to the titles is limited to whoever has the club kit at the time, and it is impossible for the files to be pirated and spread elsewhere
The purchases are only for the purpose of the study, and will not be available after the study concludes
I have also purchased physical copies of the same books, and these are sometimes being read by pair of students simultaneously; it's little different to several students listening to the same audiobook
It is possible for a teacher to purchase a single book and then read it aloud to entire classes of students, over years, and the publisher never receives additional payments
Most (but not all) of the students taking part in the audiobook clubs are reluctant readers, and without the audio option, they are very unlikely to have ever read (let alone purchased) the book anyway
Those students who are keen readers in the audiobook clubs, once they've read the audio copy I provide, are then potentially more likely to go and seek other titles by the same author on their own, of which there are many, because:
The chosen books and titles are of extremely successful and established brands and authors, whose income is not impacted by my purchase of a small number of titles, so the 'harm' caused is negligible
Finally, if the audiobook clubs work, and encourage more teenagers into becoming more frequent readers, then they are more likely to continue reading and buying books in the future.

Should this model show strong promise for converting teenagers into long-term readers, I hope the evidence will help publishers and ebook distributors to continue refining their model that allows on-demand access in such a way that helps library users remain loyal and engaged, whilst still providing appropriate financial compensation to the writers, illustrators, and publishers.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments (my email is at the bottom of the page: The Researcher). I will continue to update this page with additional information and resources as the programme progresses. Happy reading!

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