ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the different approaches that can be used to evaluate digital literacy tools along with a comparison of stand–alone and integrated approaches to digital reading programmes. It presents different types of digital reading tools, their implementation and the methods used to evaluate them. An important distinction to be made in the field of online literacy is between programmes that are used as a stand-alone programme and those that are integrated into ongoing teaching. The future of web-based learning lies in creating systems that fully enable the development of successful students from diverse backgrounds and initial abilities. Such approaches are likely to attempt to support learner’s socio-emotional needs as well as their cognitive ones, in an integrated intelligent system. The chapter provides a review of the research evidence available to assess the quality of digital aids used in early reading acquisition.
