Digital Native First Year Law Students and their Reading Skills in a Post Reading World

Emmerich, Fabienne and Murphy, Ashley ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2913-7679 (2018) Digital Native First Year Law Students and their Reading Skills in a Post Reading World. The Journal of Academic Development and Education (10). pp. 82-89. ISSN 2051-3593

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Abstract

In this paper we draw on our reflective experiences of introducing and facilitating reading development exercises in a first year Administrative Law module. We argue that students of 2018 can be understood as digital natives who display an almost exclusive preference for digital reading. We build on the emerging literature that challenges the assumption that (law) students do not need support with their reading skills. Our main conclusion is that we should support our students’ development of their reading skills as a craft that necessitates different tools for different spaces: screen or typographical (paper). We propose that this entails a three stage approach: first, to have conversations with students about reading in different spaces, the particular nature of screen space versus typographical space and the type of texts that lend themselves to the digital or the physical environment. Second, to help students develop their skills in working with and take ownership of academic texts in paper form. To achieve this we will further develop collective effort reading sessions combined with a paper reading pack of the key readings that each student will own. And finally, we aim to continue to engage students on their platform in digital social technology.