Developing online reading comprehension: changes, challenges and consequences

Abstract

This chapter explores how the changing nature of literacy in an online environment impacts on the development of students’ online reading comprehension and information-seeking skills and strategies. It seeks to address the challenges presented for students in twenty-first century classroom communities when conducting information searches online. Further, it explores the challenges for classroom teachers in adopting new pedagogies to accommodate a new literacies curriculum. Following this, some of the consequences for classroom curriculum, pedagogies, and conceptual learning with the Internet and other information and communications technologies (ICTs) are presented drawing both on the Dwyer's study and other emerging studies in the field. The study was conducted in three interlinked phases: the baseline phase; reading development and critical web literacy development phase; and the main study phase