When thinking about reviewing my knowledge and understanding of digital literature and the discussion around the topic. I must be honest and say I still feel I have a lot to learn. I am definitely more adept at creating and teaching students how to create digital literature using a variety of techniques and tools. This is largely due to my tinkering with and creating digital stories during the research phase and creation phase of my Assignment 4 task, as well as the ideas shared by the likes Hall (2012) and Mills & Levido (2011).

I still have concerns about the longevity of the digital literature being created, as I stated in my first blog post for INF533 (Wood, 2018), what will happen to the Shakespeare’s of digital literature when we no longer use the technology that accesses the stories? I am somewhat heartened by the effort of libraries to archive this digital content. The Library of Congress in America has been archiving digital content since the year 2000 (Library of Congress, 2018) and similar archiving projects are happening throughout the world. The complexities and fluidity of the online and digital environments are an enormous challenge and I am in awe of and thankful for the Librarians who have taken on this never-ending task.

At the beginning of my learning in INF533, I had a positive disposition towards digital texts. I enjoyed and still enjoy interacting with texts both in e-books and online and loved the instantaneous access to both narratives and facts (Wood, 2018). I was however dubious about the quality of said literature and in Assignment 2 I was concerned with the lack of a set in stone evaluative rubric on which digital texts could be judged (Wood, 2018A). Lamb (2011) and Jabr’s (2013) articles helped me to define my understanding of digital texts and after reading Bryan Alexander’s (2011) work on digital storytelling and contemplating the question; what isn’t a story, my thoughts solidified into a simple thought. I was reminded that no matter where a story is written, on a temple wall in Ancient Egypt, on a clay tablet in Mesopotamia, illuminated on parchment in the Middle Ages, or typed on to a screen in the modern day, the essence of a story is the same. Stories make us feel, the difference between a group of data points and a story is the way a story creates meaning and feeling in the reader.

During my review of three different forms of digital literature (Wood, 2018A). I was heartened by the high quality and easily accessed literature available in the digital environment. Narrative Apps, like 80 days (Jayanath, 2014) are perfect examples of a story created for the digital environment that use the affordances (Borowska, 2015) available to them to create an interactive experience that adds to and enhances the narrative, creating meaning, whilst at the same time allowing collaboration and sharing of ideas (Rosenthal, 2015).

In my role as a primary teacher finding the time to choose appropriate digital technology that is both age appropriate and pedagogically sound as well as supported by evidence (Hayman & Smith, 2015) is a consistent difficulty. I often rely on the recommendations of my colleagues both within my school and system community and the online educational community to find digital tools that will allow my students to create digital literature.

Lastly, my largest area of knowledge acquisition was in the area of Copyright. With the creation of my own piece of digital literature, I was acutely aware of the amount of time and effort that went into creating and editing a very simple piece of digital literature. From this creation experience, I spent many an hour learning about the various different types of copyright, ensuring I only accessed and used material for which I was entitled to use (Creative Commons, 2018). This was a massive wake up call for me, as I think that often people in the Educational sphere, myself included assume that they can use digital artefacts, as long as its only for ‘educational purposes.’

Throughout INF533 I have accessed the online forums, revelling in the expertise and ideas shared by my fellow students. I am still gaining confidence in adding my own ideas and comments to these same forums, but hopefully with the my continued exposure to this form of digital literature as my Masters journey continues I will do so with more regularity in the future.

References

Alexander, B. (2011). Storytelling: A tale of two generations, Chapter 1. In The new digital storytelling: Creating narratives with new media. ABC-CLIO.

Borowska, P. (2015). 6 types of digital affordance that impact your UX. UX Design. Retrieved from http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2015/04/6-types-of-digital-affordance-that-impact-your-ux/

Creative Commons. (2018). Share your work. Retrieved from https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/

Hall, T. (2012). Digital renaissance: The creative potential of narrative technology in education. Creative Education, 3(1), 96-100. Retrieved from http://file.scirp.org/Html/17301.html

Hayman, R., & Smith, E. E. (2015). Sustainable decision making for emerging educational technologies in libraries. Reference Services Review, 43(1), 7-18. doi:10.1108/RSR-08-2014-0037

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

Jayanath, M. (2014). 80 days [Mobile application software]. Retrieved from https://play.google.com/store

Lamb, A. (2011). Reading redefined for a transmedia universe. Learning and leading with technology, 39(3), 12-17. Retrieved fromhttp://ezproxy.csu.edu.au/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=67371172&site=ehost-live

Library of Congress, (2018). Web Archiving. Retrieved from http://www.loc.gov/webarchiving/

Mills, K.A., & Levido, A. (2011). iPed: pedagogy for digital text production. The Reading Teacher, 65(1), 80-91, DOI: 10.1598/RT.65.1.11

Rosenthal, S.T. (2015, August 18). Digital storytelling: What it is… and… what it is NOT. Retrieved from http://langwitches.org/blog/2015/08/18/digital-storytelling-what-it-is-and-what-it-is-not/

Wood, A. (2018, July 23).  To E-books and beyond! – Assessment item 1 Online Reflective Journal Blog Task INF533 [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/awood/2018/07/23/to-e-books-and-beyond-assessment-item-1-online-reflective-journal-blog-task/

Wood, A. (2018A, August 19). INF533 – Assignment 2 – Part B Critical Reflection [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/awood/2018/08/19/inf533-assignment-2-part-b-critical-reflection/