I spent a significant amount of time during ETL533 refining my understanding of what a piece of digital literature is but, as I mentioned in an earlier blog post (Curtis, 2022a), it seems easier to identify what it is not. Groth’s (2018) explanation that a digital story has to be “constructed and experienced via digital media” (para 15) combined with Wiesen’s (2021) opinion that digital literature is “created in a digital medium that takes advantage of the format beyond the simple written word” (para 1) means that an e-book is not digital literature. The slope seems to get a little bit slippery when considering online games as many of those have narrative and digital features that would classify them as digital literature, but do not seem to be so.
Considering, firstly, how digital literature fits into the classroom and the library, and secondly, what role the teacher librarian would play, were other ideas that I spent time pondering. I was not alone, as in the forums Lysaught (2022, July 19) was considering the same quandary. She suggests that the teacher librarian is in an excellent position to curate digital texts that align with the schools needs. Lysaught suggests that many of the criteria for assessing the quality of print media can be applied to digital media, and whilst I agree, I think that additional criteria need to be added to evaluate the digital features specifically (Curtis, July 19). In response to this need for specific criteria for assessing digital literature, Yokota and Teale (2014) developed criteria to assess digital picture books, which was used by McGeehan et. al. (2018) in a later study. In a recent blog post (Curtis, 2022b, para 5), I refined these for the purposes of an assessment task and to make them more broadly applicable to all works of digital literature, not just picture books (although the first is the same as Yakota and Teales):
I recognise that these are broad criteria but as I begin to curate digital literature for my school library, I will be applying them. The biggest challenge to adding titles to the catalogue will be the time it takes to find and assess them, along with the budgetary limitations I will face; another thing that Lysaught (2022, July 19) and I agree on.
Creating a piece of digital literature was an excellent way to consider what components I needed to include so it would meet the above definitions; as was receiving and providing peer feedback on digital literature proposals. Louise (2022, Sept. 12) and Alicenlaszlo (2022, Sept. 14) both commented on the multiple-choice style ending and queried how the multiple-choice options might affect the reader. It was important that the readers could not choose for the video not to be posted in the first place as that is the obvious answer and, not necessarily a realistic option. In the final product I made sure that all 3 choices could be viewed as the right one. Belinda (2022, Sept. 12) made the suggestion of including a Google form to gather student’s thoughts post-story. Ultimately, I did not do this, as I would use the opportunity to have group discussions about their learning after interacting with the story. I did, however, include the option of a survey to indicate the choice made and the ability for students to view the results. These results could promote further discussions, for example, “why do you think x number of you choose option 2?” I was also prompted to consider how lower ability students might engage with the text and whether I would include pictures, memes and gifs to enhance the final product (Louise, 2022, Sept. 12). I stopped short of providing read-to-me options given my target audience is year 5/6 but did chose to use large, easy to read font for the majority of the story and simple vocabulary throughout. In regards to the use of pictures and memes, I was conscious of having a digital text that was too text heavy, so used images and simple animations to enhance the story.
I still have many questions:
I may not find the answers to any of these questions in my lifetime, but one thing is for certain, digital literature is going to be a big part of my future.
References
Alicenlaszlo. (2022, September, 14). I love the sound of this John and I think it would be a very helpful tool to help students [Comment on “Digital storytelling proposal – Rethink”]. The Rabbit Hole. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/therabbithole/2022/08/23/digital-storytelling-topic-proposal-rethink/
Belinda. (2022, September 12). I think that your topic of digital citizenship aimed at Year 5/6 is very apt. Many students at this age [Comment on “Digital storytelling proposal – Rethink”]. The Rabbit Hole. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/therabbithole/2022/08/23/digital-storytelling-topic-proposal-rethink/
Curtis, J. (2022a, August 21). Digital literature – a reflection. The Rabbit Hole. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/therabbithole/2022/08/21/digital-literature-a-reflection/
Curtis, J. (2022b, August 12). Evaluating digital literature. The Rabbit Hole. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/therabbithole/2022/08/12/evaluating-digital-literature/
Curtis, J. (2022, July 19). RE: Evaluating digitally reproduced stories [Discussion forum]. School of Information Studies, Charles Sturt University. https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_64104_1&conf_id=_128305_1&forum_id=_282784_1&message_id=_4140359_1&nav=discussion_board_entry
Groth, S. (2018, May 20). Still defining digital literature. The Writing Platform. http://thewritingplatform.com/2018/05/still-defining-digital-literature/
Louise. (2022, September 8). Digital citizenship is such a relevant and prevalent topic at present. I too work in a K-6 school and have [Comment on “Digital storytelling proposal – Rethink”]. The Rabbit Hole. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/therabbithole/2022/08/23/digital-storytelling-topic-proposal-rethink/
Lysaught, D. (2022, July 19). Evaluating digitally reproduced stories [Discussion forum]. School of Information Studies, Charles Sturt University. https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_64104_1&conf_id=_128305_1&forum_id=_282784_1&message_id=_4140359_1&nav=discussion_board_entry
McGeehan, C., Chambers, S., & Nowakowski, J. (2018). Just because it’s digital, doesn’t mean it’s good: Evaluating digital picture books. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, 34(2), 58-70. https://doi.org/10.1080/21532974.2017.1399488
Wiesen, G. (2022). What is electronic literature? Language Humanities. https://www.languagehumanities.org/what-is-electronic-literature.htm
Yokota, J., & Teale, 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.