I was going to simply Tweet this latest video and ask my question, but felt that since I haven’t blogged here in such a long time, and the fact that I am sitting here not doing much of anything, and since my post revolves around the idea that words are powerful, I thought I would write a few more than 140 characters. Take that Twitter! Blogging is not dead.

I found this link from the Huffington Post on one of my wandering journeys of the Interwebs, and I was not sure how I felt about the video below. Please watch and come back for some thought sharing.

The article says that:

Some of these content creators have taken advantage of Apple’s new platform better than others, incorporating colorful, interactive, video, and web elements into their e-versions.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the App is stunning, and I think my daughter would love to play with it, but the question I was left asking as a father, educator, and of lover of words was:

Is this reading?

Are we so committed to re-inventing reading that we lose site of what it is really about: The power to transform ourselves and our realities through the simple act of sitting quietly by ourselves and absorbing, consuming, being transformed by words? Sure media is fun, as are games, movies, and now iPhone Apps, but I am left wondering if we are doing our kids and students a disservice by not getting them to love to read the old school way first.

I see how my daughter interacts with books. She is not yet four, but she is slowly, through a lot of hard work on my part, falling in love with the idea of stories and words. We have begun to read books without pictures and she can keep up. She is constantly asking me to tell her “Nikka” stories. Nikka is a fictional character that does everything she does. I tell her these stories at breakfast, in the car, every second it seems, but I am excited and proud that it is in the story, the narrative that Kaia is learning to love reading not in the Flash. (Sorry I know the new iPad doesn’t have Flash; you know what I mean) So would something like this make our old books seem boring? Will she not care about Nikka unless there is some App attached to it?

So what do you think? Do we need to inspire reading with cool apps and gadgets, or can we simply rely on the  art of reading and the magic of stories to improve literacy. I am open to any ideas and hope this proves to be a good conversation. Go!

As I was cross pollinating this post on Twitter injenuity sent me this great link:

Forcing me to rethink my ideas of literature and literacy all together. Will let thoughts and comments stew a bit before moving forward, but I urge you to contribute.