In my first post for INF-533, I wrote that I interact with digital literature daily. Have I grown to interact with more digital literature?

Not really, no. However, over the course of the subject, my definition of digital literature has changed, and I certainly experience a broader spectrum of digital literature. Having engaged with and created my own piece of digital literature, my understanding and experience have broadened to the point at which I realise how limited my view of digital literature was. Furthermore, I have developed a deeper and more rounded understanding of how to engage with digital literature in the classroom.

Developing an understanding

My understanding of digital literature has expanded drastically. In my first blog post, my understanding was limited to eBooks and their various iterations (scanned book, enhanced eBook, application (app) based books or kindle specific books). I’ve come to see digital literature as a broad concept that is not limited to the various iterations of eBooks, but as discussed in my forum post for Module 3: Exploring Digital Forms, includes storytelling games and immersive journalism. My understanding developed even further when, for assignment 2, I chose to focus on interactive and augmented reality (AR) audio stories.

Content creation

Prior to engaging with the content of this subject, I have written short stories for pleasure. However, I have never thought to write a story for students in my school. Since most print stories are non-interactive, I thought to incorporate this element in my digital literature. I came across several issues when writing with Inklewriter. Firstly, as there were multiple options to select, and only one right answer, I wanted to loop the reader back to the scenario after selecting an unempathetic response. This way the story did not need to be overly complex and could follow the single path of empathetic responses. Furthermore, after creating these loops, I needed to ensure the same unempathetic response could not be selected over again (something I foresaw some students doing), thus creating an infinite loop opportunity. The next issue I discovered was an inability to randomise the order that responses appeared. Unfortunately, it seems this is a limitation of the program, and no amount of troubleshooting or Googling could solve it. The final issue was in making all options become available once again after looping the reader back (if selected) for a second read. Fortunately, I was able to resolve this and reset all the loop rules. In all, the creation of my digital story has been a rewarding experience; I utilised a program I’d never used before and believe I’ve done a good job. It’s far more than a short story in digital format and I feel confident I could use Inklewriter in the classroom.

Socially networked literature in the classroom

As stated earlier, my understanding of what is included in digital literature has broadened. Humans of New York, which I originally encountered on social media and never thought of as digital literature, is a form of socially networked literature I had previously overlooked. It combines photographs and text to share the story of different people living in New York.

In previous years, I have had students engage with social media to campaign and build awareness around key community issues. My experience with digital literature has allowed me to expand my view of what is possible. Reflecting on prior assignments, I now see how they can be modified, from a poetry portfolio to a piece of digital literature, that combines images, sound and text to bring their poetry to life.

Digital literacy: A necessary skill

Throughout the subject, I have developed an understanding of a new literacy necessary for students to navigate the digital world. As I discussed in my forum post for Module 1: Evaluating Digitally Reproduced Stories, often we – and I am guilty of it – assume that as students grew up interacting with digital devices, that they are, therefore ‘digital natives’ with expert digital skills. The reality is they do not have the expert skills we expect, and as educators, it is necessary for us to provide students with the skills in order to access the content. Leu et al. (2011) describe this skill set as a new literacy, digital literacy. In the discussion forum post for Module 2.1: Digital Environments, I discussed my realisation of this literacy and how I have amended how I teach since.

I know I can confidently take my new knowledge and experience of literature in digital environments into my twenty-first-century classroom.

References:

Bell, C. (2021). Digital literature to progress learning. Teacher Librarianship – An Australian in Saudi. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/thelibrarykingdom/2021/07/17/digital-literature-to-progress-learning/

Bell, C. (2021). 1.2 Digital narratives [Online discussion comment]. Interact 2.

Bell, C. (2021). 2.1 [Online discussion comment]. Interact 2.

Bell, C. (2021). Exploring digital forms [Online discussion comment]. Interact 2.

Bell, M. (2021). I am eMpathetic. [Digital artwork]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. https://i.ibb.co/qm9WTnV/I-am-e-Mpathetic.png

Bell, M. (2021). Football?. [Digital artwork]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. https://i.ibb.co/LhJ4N3W/Football.png

Bell, M. (2021). Hurt. [Digital artwork]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. https://i.ibb.co/gDLS2Mw/Hurt.png

Bell, M. (2021). Lonely. [Digital artwork]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. https://i.ibb.co/mXPbq1Q/Lonely.png

Bell, M. (2021). Overwhelmed. [Digital artwork]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.  https://i.ibb.co/dbwgBQs/Overwhelmed.png

Bell, M. (2021). Upset. [Digital artwork]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. https://i.ibb.co/QNZgC8m/PNG-image-7-D27453-E30-BB-1.png

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

Green, M. C., & Jenkins, K. M. (2014). Interactive narratives: Processes and outcomes in user-directed stories: Interactive narratives. Journal of Communication, 64(3), 479-500. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12093

Leu, D. J., McVerry, J. G., O’Byrne, W. I., Kiili, C., Zawilinski, L., Everett-Cacopardo, H., Kennedy, C., & Forzani, E. (2011). The new literacies of online reading comprehension: Expanding the literacy and learning curriculum. Journal of Adolsecent & Adult Literacy, 55(1), 5-14. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228409747_The_New_Literacies_of_Online_Reading_Comprehension_Expanding_the_Literacy_and_Learning_Curriculum

Miller, C. H. (2009). The new frontier of web-based stories: An expert in the field offers a primer on some of the ways you can expand your storytelling horizons. The Writer (Boston), 122(8), 42.

Yokota, J. & Teale, W. H. (2014). Picture books and the digital world: Educators making informed choices. The Reading Teacher, 67(8), 577-585. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.1262

Kingdom schools is a school for the children of the elite and wealthy of Saudi Arabia. All core subjects are taught by western teachers for whom English is their native language. Prior to the 2019-2020 academic year, staff turnover was high. Perhaps due to this lack of structure and inconsistent teacher expectations, student behaviour was poor. The school moral code was developed and implemented in 2019 to better support the instilling of appropriate behaviours. Since then, staff turnover has remained consistently low and student behaviours in and out of the classroom have improved.

The MORALS, displayed as statements, are an acronym for the behaviours expected of students. The morals were designed to support student well-being. Each fortnight the moral focus changes; throughout daily morning well-being time, the moral is unpacked and the fortnightly assemblies, led by different teachers, incorporates a lesson based around the moral focus. Throughout the year teachers and the principal’s award students for demonstrating certain morals. The school morals are below.

I am empathetic

I take ownership

I am respectful & resilience

I have acceptance & adaptability

I love to learn

I am successful

Each year, returning staff members run the first term’s assemblies. This provides new staff with an opportunity to develop an understanding of the morals and the expectations of assemblies. The library, as part of the boy’s upper primary and middle school (grades four to nine), supports the academic, social and emotional development of each student. Thus, the first in a series of interactive stories have been written to determine its potential success. Furthermore, as learning still takes place at home due to Covid-19, the interactive stories will be available for students online (Felvegi & Matthew, 2012, p. 40).

As a returning staff member, the librarian has developed an ‘I am empathetic’ moral resource in the form of an entertaining and educational interactive story (Green & Jenkins, 2014, p. 280). For students to demonstrate a moral, they and their teachers must first understand it. Empathy is a difficult concept for students to grasp and is often confused with sympathy. As such, the interactive digital story has been written to guide students in better identifying empathetic behaviours and therefore demonstrating them themselves. The interactive story will be used for students from grades four to nine, therefore, the included imagery was created to be relevant and accessible to all students. The school insignia is the apostrophe mark and as we are all members of the school, sharing a vision and purpose, the apostrophe was used to represent people within the interactive story. This allows accessibility for younger students and ensures that none of the images are too confronting.

Throughout the ‘I am empathetic’ fortnight, students will utilise five minutes during the morning check-in time to interact with the digital story and as a class discuss the situations which arise in the story. The story involves the student as the main character and places them in various real-life scenarios. The story guides the students to select the empathetic choice. This is made possible through the creation of rule-based loops that remove unempathetic options once they have been selected. Each option offers an opportunity for the student to demonstrate empathy, sympathy or indifference, thus allowing students to make real-life choices as though they are the character (Miller, 2009). The scenarios encountered in the interactive story are sadness, hurt, anxiety and loneliness.

The interactive story, written on Inklewriter, is not simply the scanning of a print book. The digital elements take it to a new level (Yokota & Teale, 2014). Its creation is purely digital and utilises digital-only elements. This includes the creation of loops, where after selecting an unempathetic response, the reader is looped back to the scenario and the corresponding response is removed. If printed, these elements would cease to function and draw away from the reader’s experience.

The interactive story I am eMpathetic (Bell, 2021) can be read here.

 

References:

Bell, C. (2021). I am eMpathetic. Inklewriter. https://www.inklewriter.com/stories/79840

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

Green, M. C., & Jenkins, K. M. (2014). Interactive narratives: Processes and outcomes in user-directed stories: Interactive narratives. Journal of Communication, 64(3), 479-500. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12093

Miller, C. H. (2009). The new frontier of web-based stories: An expert in the field offers a primer on some of the ways you can expand your storytelling horizons. The Writer (Boston), 122(8), 42.

Yokota, J. & Teale, W. H. (2014). Picture books and the digital world: Educators making informed choices. The Reading Teacher, 67(8), 577-585. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.1262