Huynh, M. & Le, N. (n.d.). The Boat. SBS. https://www.sbs.com.au/theboat/

The Boat adapted by Matt Huynh is a detailed and deeply emotional adaption of the book The Boat by Nam Le. This adaptation of the print book is a multimedia presentation of an eBook in some of its most detailed forms (Jenkins, 2010). This adaption of the book incorporates visual literacy through video, audio including sound effects, still and animated images and text to tell the story of Mai on her journey as a refugee from Vietnam. The presentation of this eBook as a multimedia form of digital literature is an example of elements from games and animated narratives. Throughout the story a range of digital animations of still images, sound effects and music are used to engage the reader. The moving elements within the narrative allow the reader to feel as though they are moving as part of the story, this is a feature that is seen in a number of forms of digital literature and often some of the most stunning digital features such as movements and displays and interactions with the page cannot be replaced in the same way when considering a print book (Jabr, 2013). It is also important to consider that in the comparison of this book in its print to digital forms is that an essential part of digital literature is engaging readers through artistic elements and shorter chunks of text (Flores, 2019; Jabr, 2013).

‘The Boat’ uses a great number of multimedia features to engage the reader deeply within the story and experience of young Mai on her journey to gain a new safe life. As you move through the story you are presented with detailed animations related to the story to bring the reader in and introduce them to the tone of the narrative. As you begin scrolling through the story and reading the text the images and written word on the page begin to move and roll around the page with the description of the story and they change drastically to still and stiff images as the story changes. The use of varying font, colour and size of the text further adds the ever changing and engaging visual element of the text. Moving through the text the reader is also able to click through to side stories that provide additional information that further explains parts of the story or adds additional information to help the reader gain a full understanding of the experience of the characters. The use of audio also features prominently throughout the story with sound effects matching the events in the narrative as well as signing and songs that feature in the story being played as you move through different sections of the text. With an increase in a students need to read life-changing materials a text like ‘The Boat’ also uses its digital features to allow the reader to think for themselves and interpret the story in their own way but providing a section of the story without text and only using still images and sound effects, this allows the reader to use their imagination to develop this section of the story (Bailey, 2018). The importance of using all these multimedia elements when developing a piece of digital literature or adapting a piece of print into digital form is to ensure that text is engaging and provided in shorter sections as reading large sections of information from a screen can often be overwhelming to the reader, this is one feature that the digital interpretation of ‘The Boat’ is so successful in keeping the reader engaged through the use of highly detailed images and animations alongside the text (Manresa, 2015).

This particular resource is targeted at young adult and high school aged students. It allows them to gain an understanding of the experience’s and emotions felt by someone who made the journey across the sea for refugee status as an aloe teenager. The work makes significant connections with a number of areas of the curriculum such as The English syllabus for Year 7 which focuses on exploring the aesthetics and social value of texts and viewpoints and events of characters represented in the text (Australia Curriculum and Reporting Authority, 2015). ‘The Boat’ also make significant links to the Cross Curriculum Priority of Asia and Australia’s Engagement with Asia where connections can be made with the significant past of connections between Asia and Australia and how this impacts our future (Australia Curriculum and Reporting Authority, n.d.).

 

References

Australian Curriculum and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (2015). English. Australian Curriculum. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/english/?year=11581&strand=Literature&capability=ignore&capability=Literacy&capability=Numeracy&capability=Information+and+Communication+Technology+%28ICT%29+Capability&capability=Critical+and+Creative+Thinking&capability=Personal+and+Social+Capability&capability=Ethical+Understanding&capability=Intercultural+Understanding&priority=ignore&priority=Aboriginal+and+Torres+Strait+Islander+Histories+and+Cultures&priority=Asia+and+Australia%E2%80%99s+Engagement+with+Asia&priority=Sustainability&elaborations=true&elaborations=false&scotterms=false&isFirstPageLoad=false

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (n.d.). Asia and Australia’s Engagement with Asia. ACARA. https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/cross-curriculum-priorities/asia-and-australia-s-engagement-with-asia/

Bailey, K. (2018). Becoming a global and digital citizen through the power of young adult literature. In Dail, J. S., Witte, S., & Bickmore, S. T. (Eds.), Young adult literature and the digital world: Textual engagement through visual literacy (pp. 53). ProQuest eBook Central. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csuau/reader.action?docID=5371700&ppg=4

Flores, L. (2019). Third generation electronic literature. Electronic Book Review. https://doi.org/10.7273/axyj-3574

Jabr, F. (2013, April 11). The reading brain in the digital age: The science of paper versus screens. Scientific American. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/reading-paper-screens/

Jenkins, H. (2010, June 21). Transmedia Education: the 7 Principles Revisited. Confessions of an ACA-FAN. http://henryjenkins.org/2010/06/transmedia_education_the_7_pri.html

Manresa, M. (2015). Traditional readers and electronic literature: An exploration of perceptions and readings of digital work. In Manresa, M., & Real, N. (Eds.). Digital literature for children: Texts, readers and educational practices (pp. 105-106). ProQuest eBook Central. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csuau/detail.action?docID=4322710