I have just finished reading ETL402’s Module 4 on Literature in the digital environment and now I have to own up that I have ZERO experience with digital literature apart from downloading The Hungry Caterpillar app for my youngest child when he was a toddler. But here’s the thing, I don’t feel too guilty, because few of the teachers I work with are using it either. So who is to blame? And is blame even necessary? I think, as usual, that the answer is somewhere in the middle.
When I read about ALIA’s goal that school library collections should be a 50/50 of print to digital resources by 2020 I had to laugh. As at December, 2021, my primary school library currently has zero per cent of it’s collection as digital. I am not anti-screen or pro-print but I am pro-quality and pro-access. I think that the name or type of digital literature is not important – enhanced, interactive, e-book, app, game – none of this matters. What matters is that there is a story that the user/reader can immerse themselves in for pure joy and preferably, skills such as language and empathy are increasing almost without their knowledge. Consequently, I am continually re-assessing what digital literature is available through free online platforms and via subscription. I am also continually assessing the access issues and curriculum needs of students at my school. Admittedly, I haven’t done these jobs well. I had restricted my assessment of literature to the same 5 or 6 platforms and the odd Google search. And I had restricted my evaluation of access to observation and assumption.
I am happy with my decision to no subscribe to any e-platforms yet. I don’t believe that they are currently value for money. As for free online platforms these have their limitations. Some, like Project Guttenberg have little available that I could interest my students in, while others, like Starfall, are more for reading instruction. Instead I refer students to the local library and during the most recent Covid lockdown I even made How To videos to help students and parents access these services. Many of the app based reading experiences that I have just learnt about are wonderful examples of literature but require certain devices and software to access. This is where access becomes the issue.
Based on the remote learning experience in our school community, families do not have good access to digital devices and wifi suitable for e-reading experiences. However, based on my recent discovery that students in a stage 3 class were loving the online reading experience provided by Get Epic, a free online collection with over 40,000 titles perhaps I should reevaluate and ask students and parents if they would use an online subscription. Why? Because I would do anything that would increase reading for pleasure in our school community.
On that note, I am disheartened to discover that many of the apps being developed for reading seem to assume that parents won’t be involved in their child’s reading experience or even encourage this. The Penguin Message app (which appears to no longer exist as I couldn’t find it), promoted the app as a way to help parents so they didn’t have to nag their children to read a book. Ummm, how about reading with their child rather than nagging.
I am also very disheartened by the narrow use of literature in classrooms. In spite of the national curriculum insisting that we teach multi-modal literacy I don’t know any teacher who goes past picture books when it comes to explicit literacy lessons. I also don’t know any teachers who are using literature in subjects other than English. I am also concerned that teachers in K-2 are deferring to YouTube and other free story reading platforms and letting someone else read to their students. I would like to read more about this and understand the implications for students. I would also like to improve the use of digital multimodal literature among teachers through better collection management and promotion. My current budget for digital library resources is zero but I would like to better understand how I can increase access to free online resources for teachers.
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