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

Is a story still literature if it doesn’t contain any words?

I am a teacher-librarian for English language learners (ELL) across grades one to nine in Saudi Arabia. As such, the breadth of digital narratives reviewed reflects the breadth of learning that takes place in an ELL classroom throughout these grades. As such, a good text serves different purposes depending on the language development of the student. However, as a general rule, a good digital text incorporates digital affordances that do not distract or take away from the story (Combes, 2016; Yokota & Teale, 2014). Furthermore, these digital affordances must add to the narrative creating something greater than the physical book itself. I enjoyed exploring in-depth the non-linear narratives in the Earplay app although I would not consider it to be a prerequisite of a digital text.

It is important to keep in mind that digital texts should serve a purpose and support the narrative being told. An analogy would be the purpose of background music in films; the purpose being to support the story and help create powerful emotions. The scene of a grand romantic gesture at the end of a romantic comedy is not as moving without music and jarring with the wrong music. The same can be said for digital texts, the digital inclusions should support the story to create something greater than what could have been as a paper book, rather than distracting and removing the reader from the narrative (Combes, 2016).

Khan Academy Kids is an app that I have used both in school for students who have very little understanding of the English language and out of school for my three-year-old son who is learning to count, read and trace his letters. I learned to read by physical book, practising with a parent, teacher or teacher-aid cemented the skill over the years. I enjoyed listening to audiobooks as a child and would spend hours on the floor or bed, playing and listening to a story on my tape deck. As I have kids of my own now, I am only beginning to understand the time that was invested in teaching me and my six siblings to read. The thought of ‘chucking on an app’ would have been abhorrent to my mother, yet I can definitely see the benefit of a well-selected app. Khan Academy Kids represents a well-selected and appropriate app for my sons, the eldest of whom is beginning to read blended sounds, thanks to the app.

As an adult, I love reading on my Kindle; I find most other digital texts very distracting. The greatest part is my vocabulary is constantly developing thanks to the inbuilt dictionary. I’m also able to easily (although I don’t) download and read in Spanish (my second language). That said, I have fond memories (prior to having children) of winter days spent curled up on the couch, enjoying a cup of tea or Milo and nursing a Robin Hobb epic in my lap.

Earplay along with AudioJack are apps I discovered after purchasing a pair of Bose headphones in 2019. If you’d like, you can read about my experience of trying to find these apps after removing and not using them since 2020.

Even though I did not review AudioJack as it is no longer AR functional, I thoroughly enjoyed exploring it and experiencing the ‘audio-free movies’. I can see multiple in its use in a classroom. Firstly, simply as calming music or during lesson change times to reengage and focus the students on the learning. I can also foresee using it as a creative writing prompt in English lessons. Often pictures or words or phrases are used as creative writing prompts, however, this does nothing to aid the students who enjoy experiencing the world through their ears. In the library, it could be played to generate discussion around what constitutes literature and story-telling.

When I began this subject, my view of digital literature was limited to eBooks and interactive eBooks, but the more I read the more I came to understand how vast digital literature really is. Stories in many tribes around the world remain a combination of song, dance and music. A series of illustrations can tell a story without a single word. A conglomeration of artistically arranged sounds can story that resonates uniquely with each listener.

Is that unique story still literature?

References:

Combes, B. (2016). Digital Literacy: A New Flavour of Literacy or Something Different? Synergy (Carlton, Vic.), 14(1).

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

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