National Geographic Offers a Reading Level Selector for Its Content
The Internet has become a standard part of today's classroom. This is true in elementary and high schools as well as in universities. Teachers can easily add course content from respected publications. Some of those publications are even making it easier for their content to be targeted to specific reading levels.
National Geographic has introduced a reading level selector that allows students to adjust articles to their own reading ability. This has wide-reaching applications which could serve to eliminate the gap between students with exceptional reading ability and those who struggle.
Clearly, this type of website element could help to remove the stigma associated with reading disability. All students can share in the National Geographic articles and discuss them intelligently after reading.
Web design for educators is at its best when it incorporates elements such as this reading level selector. As web development becomes more advanced we may begin to see more interactive and intuitive developments of this nature.
In the case of the National Geographic articles, code is used to produce multiple versions of the same article. The coding leaves the meaning of the article intact, and the wording is not changed in a way that distorts the message. Only things like individual words and sentence length are altered. This makes it easier for some students to read.
There may come a day when this type of technology is applied to classic literature that children are required to study in school. This could pose an ethical concern among those who believe the style of writing used in a novel is just as important as its thematic elements.
In the meantime all educators can agree that removing learning barriers of any sort is beneficial to schools today. It may become even more beneficial among schools that have been forced to transition to home-based learning due to the effects of the COVID-19 global health pandemic. For more information click here https://i.redd.it/h6foky4eiwc51.jpg.
