At the beginning of this English course I felt completely out of place and slightly incompetent. I had just returned from an 18-month mission for my church, and had immersed myself in a foreign language during that time. I was unsure if I could even write anything coherent in English.
Registering for this class I knew it would be a challenge, but I have always loved literature. I kept telling myself that anything worth it is difficult, and so I plunged into this new world. I was able to discover the diverse world of literature all on the digital platform the Kindle; a device I was completely unfamiliar with. I remember ordering it off of Amazon and to my surprise receiving it only 3 days later because of Amazon Prime membership, but that wasn’t the biggest surprise. I opened the Kindle and was amazed by its appearance as a printed book. I had never seen the screen of a Kindle, and in that moment it changed my opinion of the device almost instantaneously. (Check out chapter one of our class ebook, Becoming Digiliterate to learn more about the Kindle.)
Through reading Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad I began to see that the Kindle models traditional literary study; notes can still be taken, highlighting can be done, bookmarks may be placed and much more. It resembled a printed book, but it also enhanced note taking, highlighting, and bookmarking. Instead of tediously flipping through pages of the book I could see on one page all highlights, notes, or bookmarks I may have placed. This was very beneficial as my class collectively authored this blog and we all wrote several posts about Heart of Darkness.
Twice a week my classmates and I wrote in our class blog, ranging from blog posts about books that had impacted us to writing our own sonnets. I had read fashion blogs before, but had never actually desired to start to author my own blog. At first, it was such a stressful homework assignment that I would spend most of the day just brainstorming what to write about; it made me so nervous to post any of my personal thoughts about literature online. Literature was supposed to be something private right? Not anymore… If that wasn’t social enough my class was also assigned to have a Goodreads account.
The first time I was on Goodreads I probably spent the rest of my evening finding books I had read, and also adding some to my to-read list. I was surprised that many of my friends already had a Goodreads account as well, and I was able to see what books we had both read. I no longer had to rely on what a librarian insisted that I read, but Goodreads could recommend books based on what I had read and rated.
Through all these mediums my literary study has been enhanced. It goes deeper than just the sparknote study that I was used to, but into social sites such as twitter and youtube. This class has helped to see that traditional literary study has been changing since it begun from just an oral medium and it will continue to do so. The Kindle and any other form of digital literature are becoming just as much traditional as a printed book.
No comments:
Post a Comment