Re-think: George’s Story (Curtis, 2022b) is a piece of digital literature that has been specifically created to encourage the reader to consider the potential impacts of posting videos of others on social media. This concept is nestled within the larger idea of digital citizenship and digital footprint awareness. It follows the main character, George, as he navigates his feelings about a video of him posted on TikTok without his permission. The reader is able to interact with the story along the way and is presented with a chance to ‘re-think’ one of George’s decisions at the end of the story.
It is imperative that we give students opportunities to understand how to engage, react, analyse, create, collaborate and behave when living their digital lives given that we live in an ever more media-saturated, information-dense and connected world. Thankfully, there has been movement towards this in education circles. The General Capabilities (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, n.d.) has been around for a few years now and the recently released Information Fluency Framework created by the NSW Department of Education (NSW DoE) (Wall, 2021) indicates that it is becoming more of a priority. There are also other resources available, such as the Digital Citizenship website (NSW DoE, n.d.).
Beyond it being an academic requirement, the choice to go digital when creating Rethink: George’s Story was an easy one because, given the shift towards teaching 21st century skills, integrating digital literature into classroom practice is becoming a necessity. However, creating a quality piece of digital literature is easier said than done. The author needs to master a new medium or mediums in order to create their story while making sure that what is created is more than just a digital version of a print book, else they fail to make a piece of digital literature at all (Wiesen, 2022).
The types of digital features employed also needed to be carefully considered so as to add to the experience, as opposed to being distracting or just added for the sake of it (Lamb, 2011). The layout of Rethink- George’s Story is mostly linear, so that students can begin to engage with the digital text in ways in which they are familiar. It is not in a traditional graphic novel format but does have the general feel of one and this was a deliberate choice, hoping to engage more reluctant readers (Crawford, 2004). While there is no voice-over or read-along option, the vocabulary used is simple and clear so that most students will still be able to read the story. Overall, the amount and type of digital features employed within the text is a good introduction to what a digital text can be. Given that it has been made within CANVA, a platform that students within my school have been using for some time for single page creations, it is also an example of how students could begin to expand their own use of this tool to start to create their own digital texts.
The idea for Re-think: George’s Story was born out of the needs identified within my local school setting, where many students, some as young as nine, are already on social media platforms and actively creating content, with little thought to the short or long-term consequences. It has been designed to be a complimentary resource to an earlier project, Digital Footprints (Curtis, 2022a). Digital Footprints was created to provide a resource for teachers to encourage students to consider what their online self really says about them and provide tips on how to make sure their footprint is a positive one. As with Digital Footprints, the target audience for Re-Think: George’s Story is year 5/6 students. This is deliberate because, as previously mentioned, there is a need for it in my school setting and, according to Buchannan, et. al. (2019), the last 2 years of primary school life is an ideal time to teach students about the positives and negatives of online life.
It would be anticipated that Re-Think: George’s Story would not be used in isolation or as a single lesson, but rather as part of a sequence of lessons around student’s online life and their use of social media. Before I would use it in the classroom, I would create a learning experience to go with it, this could then be used by the teacher librarian or the classroom teacher.
References
Australia Communications and Media Authority. (2021, May). Digital lives of younger and older Australians revealed in ACMA report. ACMA. https://www.acma.gov.au/articles/2021-05/digital-lives-younger-and-older-australians-revealed-acma-report
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (n.d.). General Capabilities (Version 8.4). https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/
Buchanan, R. Southgate, E., & Smith, S. P. (2019). The whole world’s watching really: Parental and educator perspectives on managing children’s digital lives. Global Studies of Childhood, 9(2), 167-180. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F2043610619846351
Curtis, J. (2022a). Digital Footprints. https://sites.google.com/education.nsw.gov.au/positivedigitalfootprints/home
Curtis, J. (2022b). Re-Think: George’s story. https://www.canva.com/design/DAFMkvGw3kg/DTXuVll88ohT2OSnThBTMA/edit?utm_content=DAFMkvGw3kg&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton
Crawford, P. (2004). A Novel Approach: Using Graphic Novels to Attract Reluctant Readers and Promote Literacy. Library Media Connection, 22(5), 26.
Lamb, A. (2011). Reading redefined for a transmedia universe. Learning & Leading with Technology, 39(3), 12–17.
NSW Department of Education. (n.d.). Digital Citizenship. https://www.digitalcitizenship.nsw.edu.au/
Wall, J. (2021). Information Fluency: A NSW journey. Scan, 40(9), 4-9. https://issuu.com/scannswdoe/docs/scan_40_9_oct2021_issuu
Wiesen, G. (2022). What is electronic literature? Language Humanities. https://www.languagehumanities.org/what-is-electronic-literature.htm