Digital literature experiences
Having read and reviewed a variety of digital texts in various formats for primary school students, I’ve re-worked and shifted my definition of what makes a good digital text. Digital literature, as opposed to digitized literature, should be text based, created with computer software, and intended to be read on a device (Heckman & O’Sullivan 2018; Bouchardon, 2016). I’ve now broadened this definition, when considering the purpose and audience of digital texts.
While different formats serve different purposes, essentially, the purpose of digital literature is as a platform for communicating content, and making connections and meaning. Connecting readers with their world and interests can be for leisure or learning. As Lamb (2011, p.17) emphasizes, the content of any text is still the core part of the reading experience that provides value for the individual. Therefore, I’ve included texts that are digitized literature, or print-born, if they also embed enhanced digital features, which provide a multimedia text experience, and maintain the integrity of the story. The enhanced app, War Horse (2012) is an example of such a text. Texts which are digital-born, but which also exist as printed forms, are also included in my expanded definition, if the digital version has components which enable the reader to interact with digital enhancements to make meaning or connections, such as hyperlinks and participatory reader culture, as in The Tea Dragon Society (2016).
Another feature of digital literature I’ve grappled with, is in relation to the concept of digital text being algorithmic. Heckman and O’Sullivan (2018, p.3) stated that digital literature should include text that changes as the reader engages with it. While this is an innovative and exciting feature of digital literature, it is not always suitable for primary school aged children, who are still consolidating their foundational literacy skills, and who may become disorientated by non-linear text structures (Lamb, 2011, p.15). Consequently, I now consider that quality digital literature includes texts which employ effective literary devices and themes, supported by technical features and smooth digital functioning which enhance the text. Walsh (2013, p.187) refers to this integration of features as an “aesthetic synergy”, and is necessary when educators are recommending digital texts to engage students.
Reading digital texts requires another skill set to traditional literacy skills (Leu et al., 2015). While I enjoyed delving into some excellent examples of digital literature for older readers, such as Device 6 and Nine Billion Branches, which are thought-provoking and perplexing, I also find the twisting, non-linear reading experience fatiguing and at times frustrating. A greater cognitive load is certainly required when engaging with innovative forms of digital literature, even when we have competent, well-developed literacy skills. Researchers have found that an overload of information can interfere with our ability to make meaning, given our information processing systems have a limited capacity (Furenes et al., 2021). For young readers, as well as applying developing literacy skills, such as decoding words and understanding literal and inferred meaning in a text, students must also learn how to navigate these new text structures, such as hypertext fiction, multiple storylines and non-linear narratives (Serafini & Youngs, 2013, p.401-402).
Solid traditional literacy skills must come before students can be expected to engage with any form of digital text (Combes, 2016, para 3). This raises the valid concern of some parents and educators, about the purpose of digital literature in primary school contexts, given the “mismatch often found between the goals of content developers and child development researchers” in new digital media (Hassinger-Das et al., 2020). Two recent studies have found that for those with conventional reading skills, and for children with emergent reading skills, reading performance (including story comprehension), is greater with print-based formats (Clinton, 2019; Furenes et al., 2021). So, what to do? While students are in primary school settings, it is clear that in order for digital literature to be used effectively for learning, and to be fully appreciated when reading for pleasure, educators and parents must be involved in scaffolding and modelling the necessary skills for meaning making, and social interactivity, with digital literature.
As referred to in my review of the War Horse app, the four, interconnected pillars of learning – cognitively active, engaged, meaningful, and socially interactive (Hirsh-Pasek et al., 2015), are the conditions through which learning most effectively happens. Digital literature has the potential to support these pillars, if educators and/or parents are also involved in bolstering the student interaction with digital texts. The War Horse enhanced app could be successfully used in middle and upper-primary classrooms, as a quality resource when engaging with the Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) and English curriculums. The app could support the investigation of key concepts for developing historical understanding: significance; continuity and change; cause and effect; place and space; interconnections; roles, rights and responsibilities; and perspectives and action (ACARA 2010-present). Through class or library literature circles, in small groups of mixed ability levels facilitated by a teacher, teacher librarian or teacher aide, students could be supported to make meaningful connections with the literary text and historical information, through dialogic reading and social interaction with peers. Educators could also facilitate a participatory literary community involving students, such as a literary class blog, to create a safe and monitored online social space. In this way, digital literature can serve its purpose of communicating content and making meaningful connections.
References
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2010 to present). Learning areas. Australian Curriculum. https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/learning-areas/
Bouchardon, S. (2016). Towards a Tension-Based Definition of Digital Literature. Journal of Creative Writing Studies, 2(1).
Clinton, V. (2019). Reading from paper compared to screens: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Research in Reading, 42(2), 288–325. https://doi .org/10.1111/1467-9817.12269
Combes, B. (2016). Digital literacy: A new flavour of literacy of something different? Synergy, 14(1).
Furenes, M.I., Kucirkova, N., Bus, A.G. (2021). A comparison of children’s reading on paper versus screen: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 91(4), 483-517.
Hassinger-Das, B., Brennan, S., Dore, R.A., Golinkoff, R.M., & Hirsh-Pasek, K. (2020). Children and Screens. Annual Review of Developmental Psychology, 2(1), 69-92.
Heckman, D., & O’Sullivan, J. (2018) Electronic literature: Contexts and poetics. In K. M. Price & R. Siemens (Eds.) Literary Studies in a Digital Age, Modern Language Association. http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6K649S3G
Hirsh-Pasek, K., Zosh, J.M., Golinkoff, R.M., Gray, J.H., Robb, M.B., & Kaufman, J. (2015). Putting education in ‘educational’ apps: Lessons from the science of learning. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 16(1), 3–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100615569721
Kucirkova, N. (2018) How and Why to Read and Create Children’s Digital Books: A Guide for Primary Practitioners. UCL Press.
Lamb, A. (2011). Reading redefined for a transmedia universe. Learning & Leading with Technology, (39)3, 13-17.
Leu, D. J., Forzani, E., Timbrell, N., & Maykel, C. (2015). Seeing the forest, not the trees: Essential technologies for literacy in the primary-grade and upper elementary-grade classroom. The Reading Teacher, 69(2), 139-145.
Serafini, F. & Youngs, S. (2013). Reading workshop 2.0: Children’s literature in the digital age. The Reading Teacher, 66(5), 401-404.
Walsh, M. (2013). Literature in a digital environment. In L. McDonald, A literature companion for teachers (pp. 181-185). Primary English Teaching Association.
