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