I interact with digital literature and within the digital literature environment every day. I receive weekly email articles from Edutopia that I read on my phone. I study using my laptop and engage with various readings throughout the week. Each night I watch an episode on Netflix. Once I’m in bed, I pick up my Kindle and read before falling asleep.

I love digital literature, and believe it is impossible not to interact with it in the twenty-first century. Here’s what I now know after one week of study in INF533 – Literature in Digital Environments.

In its most basic form, digital literature is an eBook. Ebooks allow for a greater breadth of accessibility, both in the traditional sense of larger text size and higher contrast ratio, and in the sense that a user need not physical access to a library or bookstore. Having worked as a teacher-librarian in Saudi Arabia throughout the Covid-19 school closures, eBooks provided students access to reading material from the comfort of their own homes (Felvegi & Matthew, 2012, p. 40). Extended forms of eBooks are interactive eBooks such as Lightbox.

Lightbox by Follett Destiny is not just a digitised book. No, it provides several key features that go above and beyond digitised text. These key features include; Google Maps, where students can explore the location they’re reading about whilst remaining in Lightbox; videos, high-definition videos embedded in the text; slideshows, relevant images and video slideshows developed to support comprehension; quizzes, interactive quizzes embedded in the text; audio narration; activities; weblinks; and key words, providing definitions for key concepts (Follett School Solutions, n.d.).

Prior to interacting with this course, I had no knowledge of hypertext fiction. Reading Rettberg‘s (2012) paper on electronic literature brought to mind Adobe Flash games from the 90s that were, choose your own adventure style, multi-optioned games.

My preferred reading option is my Kindle Paperwhite. With it, I am able to select the font, change the text size and brightness of the screen. As Lamb (2011) rightly identifies, e-devices are far lighter than the hundreds of books they can store and don’t just take a load off students’ backs; instead of dropping a 500g book on my face as I fall asleep, I receive a ‘paper-light kiss from a 180g device.
I love being able to click on an unknown word to discover its definition and often catch myself doing it to physical books and even my non-touchscreen laptop.

Currently, I engage with professional readings on my laptop even though it tires my eyes. The kindle is my preferred screen to read from, and it provides more value in highlighting, sharing and bookmarking sections in texts (Lamb, 2011, p. 13). As such, I may soon make the leap to engaging with professional readings on my Kindle.

I have a three-year-old son who engages with interactive books on the iPad application Khan Academy Kids. This app provides my son with a ‘read to me’ option that displays the text and accompanied images and video.

We live in an era of digital innovation, the question is not do you engage with digital literature, but, how do you engage with digital literature to progress learning?

References

Felvégi, E., & Matthew, K. I. (2012). eBooks and Literacy in K-12 Schools. Computers in the schools, 29(1-2), 40-52. https://doi.org/10.1080/07380569.2012.651421 

Follett School Solutions, (n.d.) Lightbox: More than just an interactive book – it’s an educational platform. https://www.titlewave.com/main/lightbox

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

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