An Exploratory Study on Elementary School Teachers’ Perception of E-books in South Korea

Purpose: This paper is intended to explore the aspects of elementary school teachers use of e-Books and to identify teachers perceptions through them. e-books with various technologies are being developed in line with the evolution of the Fourth Revolution. This change in publishing culture is expected to drive changes in elementary reading education fields. However, it would be an empty echo if it does not alter the perception of teachers using it. Therefore we have to inquire how elementary school teachers use e-books on a personal and educational level in order to analyze the potential of e-books as an effective teaching materials for elementary school teachers for the future. Method: The subjects of this study are six elementary school teachers working in Seoul metropolitan area. They are focused unit who are interested in Korean language education. They also were recruited using snow sampling and were interviewed in-depth by individual unstructured groups. The extra data were collected from participants’ emails, auto-ethnography in order to understand their e-book experience in depth analyzed through the daily lives and activities of elementary school teachers who guide literacy, the cultural perception embodied in them. By discovering their perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs about e-books, it would set their direction and goals for educational activities, and to identify what beliefs, motivations, and strategies would become an educational culture for e-books. Results: Elementary school teachers percept that e-books should be taken as a form of books in the course of the times. In particular, people in their 40s and 50s show the attitude that have to actively accept personal intimacy for future education, even if it was slow. However, they recognized e-books as “electronic books” or “electronicized books” rather than as unique publications, which were not fully acquired by young learners. In addition, e-books were understood as an interest-oriented reading style rather than a sanction for perusal. They also feel satisfied when they looking at students who read paper books than e-books. Conclusion: Elementary school teachers explained that there were some people who actively use e-books on a personal level, but there was a limit to the actual application on education. Ironically, however, most positively suggested that e-books should be used in the field of education, but no agreement has been reached on the specific context of applying them and there are still concerns that e-books will act as a deterrent to text acquisition. Therefore, delicate approaches to the educational use of e-books are required by educational materials, professor-learning situation, and learner s age.