PART B: Critical Reflection of Digital Literature Experiences
What makes a good digital text, what counts as one, and what purpose do they serve?
According to Davis (2004), A good digital text combines the tradition of oral storytelling with 21st century multimedia and communications tools. They have permanent web presence and can be shared on other social media platforms. Digital Storytelling (DST) is the modern twist and way of expression of the ancient art of storytelling. Like oral tradition stories, the purpose of DST is to evoke an emotional response from its readers whilst communicating the desired message.
Digital stories can range from the simple use of slides and pictures that correspond to a narrative to the complex use of advanced sound, visual, and transition effects (Malita & Martin, 2010). Digital storytelling can incorporate many other aspects than just telling a story through using an ever-increasing selection of online applications and creative software, apps, websites etc. It goes beyond narrative and helps students connect deeply with the content. As students work on DST projects they develop essential management skills like collaboration, problem-solving, persistence, organisation, time management etc.
A good digital text fosters appropriate use of technology that suits the ever-changing curriculum and pedagogical requirements. The focus is on learning and not just having fun using technology. It should integrate with other key learning areas like maths, science, history, art, STEM etc. It should motivate the students and develop their skills to cope up with future workplaces. The hands-on activities should help teachers meet the diverse needs of its learners.
Through the creation of digital stories, students not only become more technologically literate, but they also become designers, listeners, interpreters, readers, writers, communicators, artists, and thinkers (Kajder, 2004).
Compare your experience of reading digital texts with reading print
I like reading print texts as it is less distracted and helps me retain information. According to Huang (2012), “Students encounter some problems with e-reading, such as difficulties with reading and browsing, eyestrain, and limited previous exposure to the Internet.”
It is astonishing to see how today’s learners’ reading habits have been profoundly changed by the recent growth of digital books. I often read digital texts on my phone, computer, and other portable devices due to its ease of availability. It offers fast and prompt information. I believe digital texts lack the versatility and comfort of a traditional book. I find the experience of reading a printed book more satisfying and effortless as it allows me to hold it, feel the paper and bookmark it. Digital texts encourage superficial reading where you can quickly scan and skim the text to find the required information.
While looking for information, I like to make notes and highlight text as this helps my brain retain information. Even in the digital age, students prefer traditional paper textbooks because they are simpler to browse, underline, or make marginal remarks (Machovec,1996).
However, with the plethora of digital texts now available, this is something that is unavoidable due to being inexpensive, portable, and easy shareability across different platforms. Digital texts not only make learning easily accessible, but they also help meet the needs of diverse learners/learners with special needs etc. as the shapes, font sizes and colours of the digital texts can be adjusted.
Choose the digital text you most enjoyed and discuss how you might incorporate it into a program at your institution
The digital text that I enjoyed the most is the inspirational and immersive story from Imperial College London- COVID-19: six months on the frontline. Imperial College features amazing digital content on the web which is written and designed by experts in the field.
This story won the Best Education story award in 2021.
This story could be incorporated into any curriculum area that entails writing or research. The past few years have been very challenging and as the world is coming to terms with COVID-19 pandemic, there have been remarkable stories of human resilience, ingenuity, and creativity.
It will be amazing to see how digital storytelling can help students to express themselves and their abilities. I will use Canva and Book Creator with my students to help them write, design, and publish their story. Canva is a wonderful tool that can strengthen students’ literacy(writing) and 21st century skills. The beautiful templates and images will spark their creativity and imagination. Instead of looking at a blank piece of paper, they will have access to various digital tools to brainstorm their ideas. Their creative process is jump-started in a different way than staring at a blank piece of paper (Tackvic, 2012).
The use of digital stories in education is especially beneficial for countries like Australia which frequently welcomes immigrants and refugees. The ability for expression through visual media, rather than words, facilitates communication for new students and builds their confidence. This is particularly helpful for my school which has a high percentage of Eal/D (English as an Additional Language/Dialect) and NAP (Newly Arrived Students) as they usually shy to express themselves.
References: –
Tackvic, C. (2012). Digital Storytelling: Using Technology to Spark Creativity, The Educational Forum, 76(4), 426-429. DOI: 10.1080/00131725.2012.707562
Davis, A. (2004). Co-authoring identity: Digital storytelling in an urban middle school. Then: Technology, Humanities, Education and Narrative. 1(1), 1-16.
Huang, H-C. (2012). E-reading and e-discussion: EFL learners’ perceptions of an e-book reading program. Computer assisted language learning, 26(3), 258-281. DOI: 10.1080/09588221.2012.656313
Kajder, S. (2004). Enter here: Personal narrative and digital storytelling. The English Journal, 93, 64-68
Malita, L., & Martin, C. (2010). Digital Storytelling as web passport to success in the 21st century. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2(2), 3060-3064. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042810005057
Machovec, G.S. (1996) Books on the world wide web: issues and trends. Information Intelligence, Vol. 16, no. 6-7, pp. 1–6