ruth page (university of leicester) & hannah chapman (birmingham city university)
TRANSCRIPT
Ruth Page (University of Leicester) & Hannah Chapman (Birmingham City
University)
1st year, 1st semester module Aims
◦ Introduce concepts from literary theory and illustrate them through the use of digital texts
◦ Encourage the scholarly use of online resources◦ Broaden what it might mean to ‘read’ a ‘text’ in
English studies
Precedents in North American universities ‘Generation M’ (Born post 1983)
◦ Familiarity with technology Blinds spots in the use of online materials
◦ unfamiliar genres (Hyperfiction)◦ Indiscriminate use of wikipedia
Possibility for estranging ‘the text’ and ‘reading’
Illustrations from Inanimate Alice
Links to online articles and web sites
Podcasts of the lectures, PPT slides
Blog assessment
• Semiotics – narrative and gaming • Authorship – collaborative nature of writing,
Kate Pullinger’s lecture• Textuality• Readership• Defamiliarization - making a text strange• Feminism• Race
10 entries over a 12 week period
Set question each week 300-350 words long Encourage regular
engagement Enable regular feedback Support composition
skills at the level of the sentence/paragraph
What conventions should you use in an academic blog?
Do skills in online writing (adding links and images) transfer to other areas of English studies?
Does public viewing of work build confidence (or do students find this nervewracking)?
Risks of plagiarism?
Not all students (or colleagues) will see the value in using digital texts◦ Reading online will not replace reading books
Wider range of hyperfiction / genres included
Include more scholarly archives (e.g. JSTOR, primary archives)
Structure the independent learning progressively through the module
• Defamiliarizing reading practices• Extending the semiotic range of reading
material• Illustrating theoretical concepts• Access (no multiple copies needed)• Explicitly intertextual nature of hypertext
encourages students to make connections• We could have taught the theory without it,
but it was much more interesting and engaging with digital textuality throughout.
Wikipedia Blogs: LiveJournal, Belle de Jour Online Magazines Had never seen or heard of Hyperfiction.
Advantages -Relevant to who I am and the things I know. - Being able to draw new and interesting
contrasts and comparisons. - Generally more engaging.
Disadvantages - The divide between those who could not see the
relevance and those that could. - Worrying that the sources (i.e. Unknown
bloggers) were not credible. - A degree of ‘spoon feeding’ where perhaps the
less confident students would go back to the examples time after time.
Advantages: - Discipline of writing regularly and
concisely - Feedback within days - Able to see growth as a writer
Disadvantages: - Concerns about plagiarism between
students - Picking up bad habits when reading each
others’ work
The blog has opened doors and given me confidence.
Higher Education Academy Student Bloggers
Confidence building - Work Experience - Writing Competitions - This conference (obviously)