Posts made by Deirdre Bonnycastle

I initially got into technology because I worked with a lot of students and my own children who had learning issues. Many of my students gave a tremendous sigh of relieve when first allowed to compose documents on a computer (spell checker, lack of fatique from handwriting for people who had dysgraphia, ease of reading computer text, coloured text is easier for some dyslexics to read).

My daughter is severely learning disabled and her first computer allowed her to write stories and screen plays that astounded her classmates and teachers who had viewed her up to that point as stupid. Today she is a film maker who reads voraciously but still prefers to do it online. Her 2 year old daughter recently was given her own iPad because her parents were tired of sharing their's with her. She moves freely between her iPad books and her paper books.

So based on my unscientific observations, e-books may make reading more accessible to those who find reading difficult.

You reminded me of my favourite children's E-book Harold and the Purple Crayon which gives toddlers several options for reading/drawing. My 2 year old grandaughter reaches for my iPad on long car trips and happily "reads" for about 1/2 hour before dropping off to sleep.

Your comment about an audience had great resonance for me. When I published in journals, I rarely knew if people were reading what I had written. Now that I only publish in openly accessible online locations, I have traffic stats and a constant stream of people at conferences and on twitter commenting on what I write. I love the feedback positive and negative because I feel like I'm making a difference in medical education.

I love writing/creating. My favourites recently have been my wiki http://medicaleducation.wetpaint.com/ where I get 1000 readers a month and my paper manual for our two day teaching wksp. I recently received over 300 requests for the manual from universities North America wide, so yes I have been thinking about e-publishing. Smile!