Category Archives: INF533 – Literature in Digital Environment

INF533 – Literature in the digital environment reflection

Posted on by

Assignment 4 PART C: Critical Reflection  

Digital Literature is a term that is as broad as the digital environment it is part of.  It refuses to be contained and evolves at the same pace as the technologies used to create, share and view it.  I have come to realise through the subject of “Literature in the Digital Environment” not only the breadth of this term, but its importance to educators of students in the 21st Century (Fitzgerald, 2017).  To be digitally literate in today’s digital information overloaded world students need to be engaged with digital texts embedded into the curriculum in meaningful ways in both the consumption and production aspects of acquiring knowledge.

The use of the term ‘literature’ confused me at the beginning of this subject as I equated it with ‘fiction’ only.  Through completing the second assignment for this subject I discovered that digital literature, electronic literature, and e-literature are broad concept terms encompassing both fiction and non-fiction works, that make use of the digital world affordances which allow for manipulation, encouraging participation with the texts themselves, intertwining genres, media and platforms (Crowley, 2017).  This blurring of genres, media and platforms are mirrored in the blurring of the line between consumers and producers of digital literature, as the trend for participation in the production, through interactions, create a continual cycle where some digital literature forms continually evolve and adapt as viewers/users/players engage with the material.

In the discussion forum for trends in digital literature I asked “Where can I find digital literature” only to find out that it is everywhere!  Our students are familiar with many forms of digital literature, whether they recognise it or not.  They have produced digital stories, and participated in them through their access to social media forums.  Ask any teenager with a smartphone to show you their snapchat or Instagram story?  Walsh (2010) believes teachers who match students learning activities to the “digital communication practices used outside school” will help engage students to be active in the learning process (p. 226).  Walsh also believed that good digital literature displays a synergy between the technology and the quality of the literature (Walsh M. , 2013).  Incorporating digital literacy into the curriculum in ways that are meaningful and engage students is the challenge of education in the 21st century (Walker, Jameson, & Ryan, 2010, p. 221).  How can we utilise the communication practices students use outside school when many schools restrict access to social media and many other sites?  I am lucky enough to work in a school that employs a BYOD program with specific guidelines as to the capabilities of the device, many schools have no such guidelines or in many cases no devices used systematically across the school.  To implement digital literature into our school programs in meaningful ways that enhance student engagement requires time of professionals that are already time poor, a topic that was raised in the discussion forum for this subject (Fraser, 2017).  I believe that we need to find the time and harness the benefits of using digital literature, especially digital storytelling in our educational practice.

The curriculum is being pushed towards embracing inquiry learning and collaborative learning and digital literature facilitates this through embracing digital storytelling (Crowley L. , 2017).  Digital storytelling blends media with the written word to enhance it.  Using narrative and storytelling techniques digitally, we are seeing a return to the spoken and visual components of storytelling.  Neuroscientist have proven the benefits of engaging with narratives to increase involvement, memory and empathy, which is why advertising companies use them to such success (Schwertly, 2014).  We remember the advertisements.  We feel strongly about advertisements.  This is the power of storytelling – why wouldn’t we use it to help students remember, be involved and feel empathy about what they are learning in class?

Digital literature and digital storytelling empower the full array of diverse learners in our classrooms.  They can choose how involved they become with the material, to which depth they want to follow or even at what level they want to read.  They can choose the best way to access the material, manipulating the content to suit their needs.

The ease at which content can be added or used digitally makes fair use and copyright issues at the forefront of all digital literature producers’ minds.  Through engaging students academically in digital literature and digital storytelling we are ensuring that they are aware of not only their rights but the rights of all producers of material sourced electronically.  Knowing that the story you produce will be shared with the worldwide community ensures that you follow the copyright rules, such as seeking permission if an item is under copyright.  In compiling my digital story for this subject I had to do just that with the National Film and Sound Archive.

Humans are social beings, and literature allows us to socialise with people not only in our immediate circle.  Digital literature allows for instantaneous interactions to be occurring across the globe.  Personally, I have been exposed to some amazing digital literature through this course and now feel confident in helping others find all the benefits that digital literature has to offer. After all, “literature deserves its prestige for one reason above all others:  because it’s a tool to help us live and die with a little more wisdom, goodness and sanity” (The School of Life, 2014).

(The School of Life, 2014)

Word Count: 817

References

Crowley, L. (2017, September 13). Digital storytelling is our future. Retrieved from https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/lenacrowley/2017/09/13/digital-storytelling-is-our-future/

Crowley, L. (2017, August 27). INF533 assignment 2 part b: Critical reflection of digital literature experience. Retrieved from https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/lenacrowley/2017/08/27/inf533-assignment-2-part-b-critical-reflection-of-digital-literature-experiences/

Fitzgerald, L. (2017). INF533 – Literature in Digital Environment. Wagga Wagga: Charles Sturt University. Retrieved from https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/execute/displayLearningUnit?course_id=_26925_1&content_id=_1546313_1

Fraser, J. (2017, August 6). The importance of time. Retrieved from https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_26925_1&conf_id=_45305_1&forum_id=_95356_1&message_id=_1412607_1&nav=discussion_board_entry

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

Schwertly, S. (2014, October 22). The neuroscience of storytelling. Retrieved from https://www.ethos3.com/2014/10/the-neuroscience-of-storytelling/

The School of Life. (2014, September 18). What is literature for? Retrieved from https://youtu.be/4RCFLobfqcw cited in Fitzgerald, L. (2017). INF533 – Literature in Digital Environment. Wagga Wagga: Charles Sturt University. Retrieved from https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/execute/displayLearningUnit?course_id=_26925_1&content_id=_1546313_1

Walker, S., Jameson, J., & Ryan, M. (2010). Skills and strategies for E-learning in a participatory culture. In R. Sharpe, H. Beetham, & F. S. De, Rethinking learning for a digital age: How learners are shaping their own experiences. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Walsh, M. (2010). Multimodal literacy: What does it mean for classroom practice? Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 33(3), 211-239. Retrieved from https://www.alea.edu.au/documents/item/63

Walsh, M. (2013). Literature in a digital environment. In L. McDonald (Ed.), A literature companion for teachers (pp. 181-194). Marrickville, NSW: Primary English Teaching Association Australia (PETTA).

 

 

Digital Storytelling is Our Future

Posted on by

Unless you have been living under a rock, technology and digital texts have become the staple for our world population. Technology has afforded us the ability to connect not only locally but worldwide and this has had a profound effect on our school programs.  We have shifted from using technology as  a substitute for a typewriter/word-processor to being a fundamental tool that is embedded  throughout all aspects of the learning process. It is for this reason that digital texts must be included in our programs. We need our students to be digitally literate and this will only occur when we use technology collaboratively, by both teachers and students, in producing and consuming information in a way that complements the curriculum (Combes, 2016).  The digital texts that are used or produced, must be for an authentic purpose that is relevant to the user (Mills & Levido, 2011, 89).  This push for authentic purpose can be seen in the Australian Curriculum’s drive to inquiry learning and  2017 Horizon Report’s push for collaborative learning (Adams Becker et al., 2017, p. 20).

What better way than incorporating digital texts than in the form of storytelling, a process that neuroscientists have confirmed helps us internalise the information we are receiving – “illuminating parts of our brains that are only active when we experience something”  (Schwertly, 2014).  By having students not only engaging with digital stories for information, but allowing them to produce them as part of our program, we are incorporating critical thinking skills, building their digital literacy skills and allowing them to produce material that is relevant to their interests through a process of collaboration.

I personally loved the model that was outlined by Mills and Levido (2011) – iPed, as I can see how I could build a class of digital storytellers.  There are so many fantastic tools available for our students to use which I think are worthwhile exploring and using.  Below is a brief outline of a few of my favourites with descriptions:

  • SWAY – Microsoft’s way of creating interactive presentations, reports, newsletters and stories
  • Newsmaker – a program that lets you become a news reader – reading scripts off tellypromts while filming
  • Verse – a program that lets you make interactive videos
  • Twine – an interactive non-linear story maker
  • Sutori – a program that lets you create an interactive timeline incorporating visual stories
  • StoryJumper – currently used in our school to create story books.

Adams Becker, S., Cummins, M., Davis, A., Freeman, A., Hall Giesinger, C., & Ananthanarayanan, V. (2017). NMC horizon report: 2017 higher education edition. Retrieved from The New Media Consortium website: http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2017-nmc-horizon-report-he-EN.pdf

Combes, B. (2016). Digital literacy a new flavour of literacy or something different. Synergy, 14(1). Retrieved from https://www.slav.vic.edu.au/synergy/volume-14-number-1-2016/reflections-and-actions/611-digital-literacy-a-new-flavour-of-literacy-or-something-different.html

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

Schwertly, S. (2014). The Neuroscience of Storytelling. Retrieved from https://www.ethos3.com/2014/10/the-neuroscience-of-storytelling/

 

Digital Literature Trends

Posted on by

via GIPHY

Digital literature, like everything digital, is in a continual state of evolution.  In my reading to discover information/evidence of developments and new directions in digital literature I came across many examples of incredibly creative work being produced (see my resource page).  What has struck me is that I have never seen many of them before.  Unlike traditional literature, where if you want something new to read you can go to a bookshop (if you can find one) or your local library and peruse the shelves, digital literature seems like you stumble upon it, or get introduced to it, before you even know it is a thing.

 If you would of told me a month ago that if I wanted something good to read that was interactive I should go to the app store and look under games, I would have been dubious.  Yet, there is an abundant array of fantastic apps that provide you with your literature fix in this interactive format.  “Device 6” is one such app I am working through at the moment.  My teenage daughter gets her fictional b-grade romance fix from an app called “Choices” (I am hoping it is a phase).  One of the articles I found which was extremely enlightening was an interview between Jake Offenhartz and Leonardo Flores, the treasurer of the Electronic Literature Organization in an article, “Electronic Literature in 2016: Definitions, Trends, Preservation and Projections” which covers everything its title suggests.  The blending of augmented reality and digital literature is fascinating. The use of twitter, snapchat and Instagram to create digital stories is being utilised by many of our younger generation, who do not see themselves as producers of literature.  The issue of preserving digital literature is going to be the issue that will continue to plague this new evolution of literature as the platforms, programs and devices we use continually evolve at a rapid rate.

This technological age we live in is offering us extremely creative ways to engage and produce literature.  At them moment finding where and how to access them is proving a challenge for me being a non-social recovering technophobe who is trying to engage with all things social and technological at once.  So if you are like me sites like the interactive fiction database  and the Electronic Literature Organization’s Electronic Literature Collections are a good place to start.

Electronic Literature Organization [Web log post]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://eliterature.org/#!showcase/27

Entropy. (2016, February 1). Electronic Literature in 2016: Definitions, trends, preservation, and projections. Retrieved from https://entropymag.org/electronic-literature-in-2016-definitions-trends-preservation-and-projections/

Play App Tube. (2016, August 26). Choices: Stories You Play – The freshman #1 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/KByyssr-LWI?list=PLCXnFTrLzGoJSJYKpP_IWFiI6vc8-S_im

Simogo. (2013, October 16). Device 6 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/-qKqsg9KiBA

 

Recognising Aesthetic Synergy

Posted on by

As I am completing the reading for my subject INF533: Literature in digital environments I am constantly thinking I – How are we using digital literature educationally?  James & De Kock (2013) called paperback books closed environments and commented that with digital literature the reader decides their level of engagement (p. 120).  I would argue that we as readers have always decided our level of engagement.   You can have two students read the same piece of literature and yet see it completely differently depending on how ‘engaged’ they are with the text.  Yes digital literature allows for interactions and exploration during the reading text, if the reader chooses to, but are they engaging or simply viewing?  Are they simply getting lost in the world of hyperlinks and digital features.  We as educators need to empower our students with the skills required for them to judge the quality of what they are reading in both a digital and non-digital form.  Walsh (2013) outlined the aspects of good literature as  the “aesthetic synergy between the technical features, artistic creation of text and the ideas within it” (p187).  In our information overloaded world this ability to recognise good literature when a lot of material is self-published needs to be taught.  Students need to be able to recognise  the devices that an author or producer of good text uses in order to produce their own quality material, which as Yokato & Teale (2014) highlighted is central to being literate in the 21st century (p.584).

James, R. & De Kock, L. (2013). The digital david and the gutenberg goliath: the rise of the ‘enhanced’e-book. English Academy Review, 30(1), pp. 107-123. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10131752.2013.783394

Yokota, J. & Teale, W. H. (2014). Picture books and the digital world: educators making informed choices. The Reading Teacher, 34(6). Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/3886534/Picture_Books_and_the_Digital_World_Educators_Making_Informed_Choices

Walsh, M. (2013). Literature in a digital environment (Ch. 13). In L. McDonald (Ed.), A literature companion for teachers. Marrickville, NSW: Primary English Teaching Association Australia (PETAA). https://www.csu.edu.au/division/library/ereserve/pdf/walsh-m3.pdf

 

 

Blog Task #1 INF533

Posted on by

My head is spinning from the world of digital literature.

I have been focussing on completing the readings contained in module 1 of this subject and the more I read, the more my questions and thoughts develop.  How are we preparing our students to live in this digitised world?  How do my own children display their digital literacy? What is digital literature?

Before starting this subject I thought of digital literature in terms of information found through the internet or on electronic devices.  My definition, I feel, compares favourably with Lamb (2011) and her five electronic reading environments: e-books; Interactive story books; reference databases; hypertexts and interactive fiction; and transmedia storytelling.  I must say that interactive fiction and transmedia storytelling were a complete mystery to me.   E-books I have used, but like many others I prefer the smell and feel of the real thing.  Reference databases are my day to day, and the constant battle of trying to get students to use the amazing collection of valid information they contain rather than simply ‘googling’ and taking the top result.  I was familiar with hypertexts in non-fiction, however, had never seen it in fiction, probably because I like my fiction in the physical form.

Reading, writing, and comprehension has always been linked together and share skill sets, however the pace that our digital world is evolving has made these three skill sets intrinsically linked as literacy has become deictic,  or continuously changing contextually (Leu, 2011, p. 6).  Rettberg (2012) clearly outlined in his article how literacy has evolved as technology has allowed for not only the externalisation of thoughts, but the broadcast and collaboration of our thought processes with ease.  This, as I explain to both my children and students, can be their greatest advantage and their biggest regret if engaged in without careful thought and full comprehension of what you are reading and writing, just ask Stephanie Rice.    Learning how to read and write online requires a complex layering of skills and therefore we need to not only evaluate the use of digital literature in our classrooms, but also develop our students’ skill in the areas of locating; evaluating sources; judging the accuracy and bias (Leu, Forzani, Timbrell & Maykel, 2015, p.140).  There is an assumption that our students are ‘digital natives’, when I feel the reality is that our children and students are constantly lost in the world of the ‘hyperlink’ where they a falling through the rabbit hole of the digital information world (Coombs, 2009).

We cannot predict what future technological developments will happen, nor how people will use them, yet we need to prepare our students and children to live in this constant, rapidly evolving world.  With this rapid evolution, it is hard to know what technology will stand the test of time,  leading to a much of our digital literature no longer able to be accessed due to formats, companies or devices used to view no longer in operation (Sadokierski, 2013).   I feel  that as teachers we need to focus on the skills behind the technology, rather than the technology itself.  What makes a story ‘good’ will be similar whether it is given digitally or physically.  Comprehending the mood, the devices, the literary elements that lead us to our feelings when we read, view or hear something is what is going to make our students and children able to ride the wave that is digital literature.

 

 

Coombes, B. (2009) Generation Y: Are they really digital natives or more like digital refugees? [online]. Synergy; v. 7 n. 1 p. 31-40; 2009. Retrieved from http://search.informit.com.au.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/fullText;dn=178236;res=AEIPT> ISSN: 1448-5176.

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

Leu, D.J. et al (2011). The new literacies of online reading comprehension: Expanding the literacy and learning curriculum. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 55 (1)5-14. Doi: 10.1598/JAAL.55.1.1

Leu, D.J, Forzani, E.,Timbrell, N. et al (2015) Seeing the forest, not the trees: Essential technologies for literacy in the primary-grade and upper elementary-grade classroom. Reading Teacher, 69(2) 139-145

Rettberg, J.W. (2012). Electronic literature seen from a distance: the beginnings of a field. Retrieved from http://www.dichtung-digital.org/2012/41/walker-rettberg.htm

Sadokierski, Z. (2013, November 12). What is a book in the digital age? [Web log post]. Retrived from http://theconversation.com/what-is-a-book-in-the-digital-age-19071

 

INF533 – Literature in Digital Environments

Posted on by

And the evolution of the librarian continues….

Having successfully completed subject one in my formal education to becoming a qualified teacher librarian it is now time to begin subject two: “Literature in Digital Environments” aka INF533.  I am excited to delve into digital storytelling and a little apprehensive that my creativity will desert me at my time of need.  In preparation I googled “digital storytelling” and found Emily Bailin’s TEDx talk The power of digital storytelling.  I don’t know if this is where this subject will take me, but after viewing Emily’s talk I am excited to explore how the power that adding visual and audio can “enhance our stories and make our connection more powerful” (TEDxSoleburySchool, 2014).

 

TEDxSoleburySchool. (2014, June). Emily Bailin: The power of digital storytelling [Video file].  Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA2cTZK9hzw