Reading competencies in a digital age: new directions and challenges of digital approaches to support reading

This paper synthesizes insights from a scoping workshop funded by the Volkswagen Foundation that focused on reading competencies in the digital age. The purpose of the workshop was to discuss the current state of research, identify actionable next steps and outline considerations for future work in the context of learning to read in a digital world. The conference brought together German researchers with a wide range of backgrounds and expertise in reading research including computer science, psychology, language processing and educational science. Presentations and discussions during the conference centred broadly on potentials and challenges of learning to read and reading support in the context of digitalization—focusing on issues related to artificial intelligence and app-based learning. Results of the workshop and subsequent writing sessions include a synthesis of key considerations and core questions for the field of research on digital approaches to support reading. Findings highlight the need for the field at large to identify and develop digital tools for diagnosing readers’ abilities and providing them with the support they need, and to do so with increased interdisciplinary collaboration, open science practices and communication among scholars.