In my initial blog post, I touched on the fact that I was fairly comfortable using and creating digital media due to my previous life as a Design and Technology Teacher (July 2022). This is still somewhat true – however, I do believe that I experienced some “Infowhelm” during my time in the ETL533 course – and I don’t think that I was accurately thinking about how and why I was using the technologies that I had chosen. In the discussion boards ( Facey August 2022) I mentioned that I had already heavily embedded technology into my teaching curriculum however, technology for the sake of technology is never conducive to the effective engagement of students – there needs to be a movement that encourages students to become creators and not consumers of new media. (Wormeli, 2022) in the realm of education, I believe that through my learning in this course I now understand that the multimodal features of digital literature allow students to effectively take ownership of how they learn due to its flexibility, accessibility and interactivity ( Yokota & Teale, 2014) and allowing students to engage more effectively with the content ( Facey July 2022).
The educational landscape is changing, it has been for a long time it has always been a shifting environment, constantly changing to fit the next paradigm shift. (Robinson, 2006) this time, however, I feel it is different – the technological paradigm shift catalyzed during the Covid 19 lockdowns (Sahlberg, 2021) has meant that students will no longer accept the “old ways” of learning. Many teachers are still verbally citing that students feel disengaged from learning and they blame the technology (Patty, 2020) but are they right or are we just not structuring these environments effectively (Facey September 2022)? This is where digital texts can come to shine – they can become a “one-stop shop” for resources and multimodal learning experiences for example a digital textbook ( Facey August 2022) or they can create greater meaning and real-world connections to create empathy ( Facey August 2022). Digital literacies can provide more authentic experiences to our students (Walsh 2010) however, we need to ensure that they are quality products, being able to see past the “flashiness” of digital applications and know how to effectively evaluate digital literature for the classroom is integral to optimal integration. (Yokota & Teale, 2014).
AS teacher librarians, we are well positioned to be not only content creators but mentors to the school community in regard to their technology use ( Facey August 2022) as many teachers are quite reluctant to incorporate new technologies into the classroom (Brooks September 2022) due to being time poor, the use of digital literacies can do so much in regards to time management -if we move towards students being content creators rather than content consumers, we as teachers can hit 21st century learning outcomes on its head! (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), 2015).
The development of my digital story proved to be more overwhelming than I expected, I would not be lying if I wasn’t particularly happy with my result. During assessment two, I reviewed a piece of digital literature called “The Collapse” in which I was critical about how overwhelming the use of different media was in it. (Facey August 2022). In my initial proposal, I was very excited to create something close to my heart – something that was reflected in the comments I received. I still have a strong belief my student’s current information skills are lacking (OECD, 2021) and that the multimodal platform of digital literature is an appropriate way to approach these issues – however, I become very quickly overwhelmed by the amount of media I needed to be able to create as well as the many different licenses and copyright issues I would encounter and reference. Bechoff identifies the gamification of digital literature as an effective way to engage low literacy learners (2019) and I do think that I have achieved this – however as Kurcirkova (2018) and Yokato and Teale (2014) both suggest, even though digital content is exciting and provides many opportunities for learners to experience content, students can become quickly distracted and overwhelmed, impeding on the integrity of the narrative – something I feel, unfortunately, happens in my digital story.
One of my reviewers mentioned that I may have wanted to consider accessibility features for EALD learners. This is the beauty of having a digital product, the accessibility features provided by the software mean that the reading can be adjusted by the student. Students may also use free software such as speechify, however, this software is not approved by the Dept of Education, so I am inclined to not include it due to privacy concerns. Another issue I had in my development was the inclusion of audio – there is no simple way to include Mp3 files in the google site, something I was not aware of when choosing this medium which has also affected the quality of my final work.
Digital literature does lend itself well to the gamification of learning as it provides engaging interaction, instantaneous feedback, student-centred learning multimedia options ( (Bechoff, 2019)- all requirements of quality digital literature (Bozkurt & Bozkurt, 2015). This was my main aim when creating this content 0 to make something potentially “boring” into something engaging (Bechoff, 2019,) and hopefully, I have achieved this!
References
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