Reading has always been a useful skill. And with reading becoming more digital, educators should start looking into how they can teach this important skill to the students.

With the development of social media, students are connecting more with written language than ever before. This should be a success up to a point. But the reading they do does not always bring good reading skills or challenge its readers with new words. The National Literacy Trust found that students who use social media held a more positive (积极的) view on reading and writing. Educators need to make use of this new reading culture.

One way this can be achieved is by using digital libraries. Students as young as three are being encouraged to read online. Epic! is a good place to start. It is an eBook service that offers readers under 12 chances to read about 20,000 books. Similar apps allow students to read books they like. Educators need to understand that giving students the freedom to choose books that are attractive to them is important. If students enjoy what they. read, they will see reading as a good way to get information.

There are ways that digital technology can be applied into teaching reading. Educators can use tools to check the way students read. By understanding students’ reading habits and speeds, educators can know where the problems lie. Then they can change their teaching to best suit the needs of their students.

This was very difficult to judge before, and educators had no tools but to make their students read out loud. The digital age is giving students control their own reading and allowing teachers to teach according to the students’ needs.

Microsoft has developed a new smartphone app that interprets eye signals and translates them into letters, allowing people with motor neurone disease to communicate with others from a phone.

The GazeSpeak app combines a smartphone’s camera with artificial intelligence to recognize eye movements in real time and convert them into letters, words and sentences.

For people suffering from ALS（渐冻症）, also known as motor neurone disease, eye movement can be the only way they are able to communicate.

“So we created GazeSpeak, an eye-gesture communication system that runs on a smartphone, and is designed to be low-cost, robust, portable and easy to learn.”

The app is used by the listener by pointing their smartphone at the speaker. A chart that can be stuck to the back of the smartphone is then used by the speaker to determine which eye movements to make in order to communicate.

The sticker shows four grids of letters, which each correspond to a different eye movement. By looking up, down, left or right, the speaker selects which grids the letters they want belong to. The artificial intelligence algorithm is then able to predict the word or sentence they are trying to say.

Online educational learning games is an effective way with endless option for teaching kids of all age groups, and children are also able to operate the computer without much help. Parents who become familiar with operating the computer find it easier to teach kids through these programs.

Children are not willing to learn math tables or difficult words at school. They find it fun to sit in front of a computer and learn language and solve mathematical problems. In this age of computers, computers are becoming an important part of the child’s daily curriculum (全部课程) with parents opting to teach these children new things each day with the help of online educational games.

Computers are also known to improve the motor skills in children. In addition, the level of these games can be adjusted according to the level and learning ability of the kids. The makers of the games keep the kid’s interest in mind while designing them so that their interest is maintained. Another advantage of these games is that you can find free online games and do not have to invest (投资) in these expensive products. Other activities that are available on the Internet include online coloring games. This is also a constructive way that children can use to pass their leisure time.

Moreover, the children can stay in the comfort of their homes. Kids who are fond of playing on the computer can spend their time learning educational material instead on video games that teach violence.

Parents have to keep an eye on their kids and make sure that they do not spend their time on the computer playing games that could be harmful for them. It is essential to direct the kids to educational sites that have beneficial games and are known to help the progress of these children.