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Surveys in this study were structured based on Hoppe et al. (1995) and Lankshear (1993) and were conducted to investigate Jordanian children’s ability to use digital programs, and to develop design requirements for a proposed website, as well as to compare between reading from printed books and e-books.

A. The following survey’s procedure was carried out to investigate children’s ability to use digital programs:

1. A quantitative questionnaire of close-ended questions was designed according to Jewitt (2006; Metiri Group, 2008) and the variables were illustrated according to Henk and Melnick (1995); Gould and Lewis, (1985); SUMI (1993–2000); and Kirsch et al. (2012) (Appendix 5):

a) Website design (feature, design and colour, structure, and software content)

b) Website usability

c) Website multimodal features d) Home/school culture

e) Website attractiveness, children’s engagement and enjoyment. 2. The sample group was 356 children of 8–12 years old; they were

distributed between four children’s cultural centres: 29 children from Zaha centre, 16 from Haya centre, 33 from the Children’s Museum, and 41 from RuwwadJo. Also, 118 children from three mixed private schools, two classes from each: 44 children from the National Orthodox School (class 1: 20, class 2: 24), 33 children from the International Amman Academy (class 1: 18, class 2: 15), and 41 children from Amman National School (class 1: 22, class 2: 19). In

addition to (119) child from two public schools, two classes from each, where (60) children from Ibn Al Bitar for boys (class 1: 28, class 2: 32), and (59) child from Abu Alanda for girls (class 1: 30, class 2: 29). 3. A visit was done to the location of all target groups, where the six

websites: 'Club Penguin', 'PBS Kids', 'A Story Before Bed', 'Baraem', 'Storyline Online', and 'Raneen', were presented to children on a data show with a brief demonstration. Each website is described as the following:

• ‘Club Penguin’, is a virtual world where children can play games, have fun and interact, created by Disney (clubpenguin.com, 2012).

• ‘PBS Kids’, is a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) brand including children’s programming and reading games, which is aired in the United States (U.S.) and was found in 1993. Full access to the website is only available in the U.S. But only has limited access to Reading Games in several countries including Jordan (pbskids.org, 2013).

• ‘A Story before Bed’, is the first and only service that allows parents, grandparents, friends, and children themselves to audio-video record a children’s book online. Children can play back the recording as often as they like on PC, iPad, or iPhone (astorybeforebed.com, 2012).

• ‘Baraem’, is the first pre-school Arabic online television service for children aged (3-6) years old, offering a range of programmes specifically designed for them. Although the target audience of the study is from 8 to 12 years. 'Baraem' is the only Arabic website that is interactive and has useful activities for children (baraem.tv, 2013).

• ‘Storyline Online’, is a streaming video program featuring famous people reading children's books aloud (storylineonline.net, 2013).

dramatic audio Arabic stories for children aged (5-16) years old, thus working to develop listening skills and strengthening the Arabic language of children (raneenmedia.org, 2013).

4. Focus groups of four or five children were set, one child of each group was nominated by his colleagues to experience one selected website out of six in accordance to the method illustrated by (Teoh, 2008; Naranjo-Bock, 2011).

5. A total of 77 questionnaires were distributed among focus groups. Each group filled one questionnaire with the aid of their teachers. 71 questionnaires were returned completely.

B. The following survey’s procedure was carried out to compare between reading from printed books and e-books:

1. A quantitative questionnaire of close-ended questions was designed according to (Nielsen, 2010) includes the following categories (Appendix 6):

a) The most preferable features b) Usability

c) Multimodal usage.

2. A sample group of 70 children aged (8-12) years old were distributed between, four Children’s Cultural Centres: Zaha centre, Haya centre, Children’s Museum, and RuwwadJo, in which five children from each centre were chosen, and 30 children from two classes of three mixed private schools: National Orthodox School, International Amman Academy, and Amman National School, in which five children were chosen from each class. In addition to 20 children from two classes of two public schools: Abu Salma for boys, and Ibrahim Al Mazini for girls, in which 5 children were chosen from each class.

3. A visit was done to the location of all sample groups, in which a story named ‘The little prince’ was distributed in two forms, printed

and electronic were given to each child in order to read the first page of each form for ten minutes.

The story is about a pilot stranded in the desert who meets a young prince fallen to earth from a tiny asteroid. It makes several profound and idealistic observations about life and human nature. It was first published in 1943, and it is the most famous work of the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery, the novel was and still is the most read and most translated among French books, is was also voted the best book of the 20th _{century in France, and was} translated into more that 250 languages besides Braille (Shattuck, 2005; Mun-Delsalle, 2011).

4. A total of 70 questionnaires were distributed among children. Each child filled one questionnaire with the aid of instructors. 64 questionnaires were returned completely.

3.2.3.1 Measuring Data Validity and Reliability for a Two-Item scaled Questionnaire

Cronbache’s coefficient Alpha is the best reliable statistic, and the most frequently reported to many researchers for the two-items they use to measure. Meanwhile some other researchers think that the two statistical are unreliable and worthless in the two-items scale, suggesting the coefficient of Pearson Correlation measuring reliability, as it is presented by SPSS software and equivalent for the two-item measure (Eisinga et al., 2012).