An In-Depth Approach

Ok, to be honest, the chapters I've been working on for our eBook, "Becoming Digiliterary," definitely needed some fleshing out.   Finding sources was not easy though!  However, with some new tactics, I was able to find a lot more than I thought on my topics.  Here are my results.

eBibliography:

Un-Limiting Our Generation

Tweethis:  The generations to come have a different take on the uses and opportunities afforded by online scholarship as a source of knowledge, as well as the use of devices in the classroom, than do the generations before them.

Social Graph:

• ·         Conversation b/w Shelby and Rachel Newell:  I asked my roommate, who heads over to the Provo Library at least 3 times a week, why she didn’t consider using a Kindle or eReader of some sort and an app like Amazon or Overdrive to save her time.  I explained that if she used one of those, she could have endless books available without being put on a waiting list for them.  She told me that reading was her way of disconnecting.  She said that she spent so much time in front of a screen that she just wanted to feel the book and see the pages of the right side grow less and less.  It gave her a feeling of accomplishment.  We then discussed how learning is affected by digital reading and if people retain information better from a printed page or online.
• ·         Conversation b/w Shelby and Cooper Dana, a sophomore at Westwood Highschool in Mesa, AZ (Mesa Public Schools have recently switched over to iPads instead of textbooks in the classroom):  My brother told me that in his classes, they only use iPads instead of real books in their classrooms.  He said that he loves it, because he doesn’t have to carry around books anymore...and it’s really easy to download games onto the iPads.  He is sixteen, so this really didn’t shock me.  This was interesting to me because the eBooks they use are incredibly useful, but aren’t dedicated to purely learning.
• ·         Yahoo! Answers: Can I use a kindle for college textbooks instead of actual books? (https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20121128163620AAqEweS )

New Media:

·         Youtube: iTools: Kindles in the Classroom (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV6XOozvtLk )

·         THE EVERYTHING BOOK: READING IN THE AGE OF AMAZON (http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/17/7396525/amazon-kindle-design-lab-audible-hachette )

·         Amazon Store: Engaging Students (http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000412651 )

Social Networks:

·         Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/102841710354937354215

Traditional Scholarly Sources:

·         “Words with Friends:”  Socially Networked Reading on Goodreads (http://www.mlajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1632/pmla.2013.128.1.238 )

Get Off My Property:

Tweethis:  Increased online access has upped the readership of eBooks, but at the cost of much copyright infringement. 

Social Graph: 

·         Chat between Shelby and Jason Ray:

S:  Hi Jason.  Can I ask you a question for my English class?

I'm going to say yes.  Do you think that the rise of eBook popularity has created an increase in illegal downloading for authors?

J: It's not something I've ever thought of before, but I would say yes--it's a lot easier to illegally download a book than to steal a hard copy of it, so I would assume it's done more now.

And no, you may not ask me a question

S:  Have you ever done this, and if not, what would be something about it that would tempt you?

J:  I haven't. I'm personally against illegal downloading of any type of media and will not do so.

The biggest pull to download something illegally for me would be if I can't get something through regular channels--for example, a book that I really want to read that isn't in the US or in any stores or libraries I have access to.

But I still wouldn't do it.

S:  You're a champ.  Thank you!

·         Chat between Shelby and Celeste Dana: 

S:  hey maaaam.  Can I ask you a question for my english class?

C:  Of course.  Talking or facebook chat

S:  Chat...so I can copy and paste!  Do you think that eBooks have created a greater risk of illegal downloading for authors?

C:  Probably.  But I think that's the risk of working in a digital world.  But, because there's a lot more chance to get their books published and in front of the public, it's a trade off.

S:  Have you ever done this, and if not, what would be something about it that would tempt you?

C:  Have I ever done what?

S:  downloaded a book illegally?

C:  No

S:  Is there any aspect of it that would tempt you to do so?

C:  NO.

S:  Sweet.  Thank you! 

C:  That was simple

New Media:

• ·         Kindle e-book piracy accelerates
• (http://www.cnet.com/news/kindle-e-book-piracy-accelerates/ )

• ·         Digital piracy hits the e-book industry (http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/01/ebook.piracy/index.html )
• ·         Youtube: Illegal downloads make Kindle vulnerable [ Zoomin.TV Tech and Gadgets ] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U9yg9MYVz8 )

Social Networks:

• ·         Pointing Users to DRM-Stripping Software Isn't Copyright Infringement, Judge Rules  (https://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/thread/27644 )
• ·         Rise of illegal eBook downloads (Forum) (http://www.kuforum.co.uk/kindleusersforum/thread-6305.html )
• ·         Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/111687849164110924461/stream/ac789a62-c20c-4b76-be0b-ebd2de6e33dc

Traditional Scholarly Sources:

• ·         Digital Piracy: Factors That Influence Attitude toward Behavior

http://www.jstor.org/stable/25123707?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=online&searchText=book&searchText=piracy&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Donline%2Bbook%2Bpiracy%26amp%3Bprq%3Donline%2Bpiracy%26amp%3Bgroup%3Dnone%26amp%3Bhp%3D25%26amp%3Bacc%3Don%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff%26amp%3Bso%3Drel%26amp%3Bwc%3Don&seq=11#page_scan_tab_contents

This exercise made me search for a lot more sources than I had thought of before.  I'll be sure to look for others as I continue to work on the chapters in our book!  

Pinterest Has Done It Again.

If you flip on through the recent posts on this blog you will quickly learn that as a class we are working on an ebook and we are currently branching out into social research to inform our topic of digital literacy.

I decided to search through Pinterest because I could see from my classmate's posts that no one had found anything there yet. I was pleasantly surprised with what I found.

Pinterest is user generated. Individuals create pins that link somewhere else, like a blog or an article. The pins can be collected and curated onto a board. The reason that this site proved to be helpful in my research is that I found that there were SO many pins that linked to resources that could be helpful for our project. These resources proved to be neat because they were a combination of more scholarly articles and some less formal commentary on our subjects.

Here's an example of the cover for a pin I found that relates to my subject of online privacy. I love infographs and something like this could be a neat image in my chapter.

I also found pins to help with my subject of eLending (renting ebooks). There were copious amounts of pins to help users know how to rent ebooks and what books are available.

In my research I found that there is a ton of dialogue on Pinterest about online reading as it relates to Education. I believe this is because many Pinterest users are teachers, students, or home-teaching mothers. It reinforced my opinion that we need to make sure that we focus on this adequately. I found a wide variety of pins on this subject, from links to sites that legal free ebook links to step by step guides to using Kindle as a educational resource.  Here are some links to resources that I found that related to this. Here and here and here.

This experiment helped me to see just how many people out there really do have a stake in our project. With each pin I found there were pages and pages of "related pins" that were created by users. I think Pinterest will be a valuable resource for us to find both information and stakeholders.

The Social Research Resources

I love that our class is taking a new approach to research.  To help along the progress of our eBook project, we have looked at a few different sources in order to find more information to put in our chapters.  As an English major, I thought that this class would require a lot of hours in the library, pouring over giant books with even bigger words that were impossible to understand, just to figure out the hidden meaning of a classic paragraph.

Well, I'm still spending hours in the library.

However, this research is much different than what I thought it would be!  Instead of sticking to the traditional forms of learning, we have been encouraged to check out social sources.  This is basically my favorite activity, because I think that communicating over the internet is super cool.  To find out more about the great innovation of the Amazon Kindle and Goodreads.com, I checked out a few sites that I visit every day, but with a very different purpose!

For example, I headed over to Pinterest to see if there was any discussion or info over there,  While they had a lot of great stuff on teaching how to be digitally aware, safe, productive, etc., I didn't find much about our topic in particular.  However, Twitter turned out to be really useful with its hashtag searches.  There were a couple good articles that I found there about using Kindles in the classroom and how they have affected education.  Facebook was not the best option for me.  I don't think that many people see it as a place for literary discussion quite as much as other forums, etc.  Obviously that's based on my own connections, but I think that the majority of people who are interested in our topic are found on other forums, etc.

So...I went to forums!  I just typed in "Forums about Kindle" into Google and was taken to a ton of sites.  Amazon has one right on their page, but I think that one was pretty biased and they took any negative stuff off.  This obviously makes sense from a business perspective, but isn't the most accurate source.  The other site that I found here had a lot of topics and opinions.  It was cool!

As far as scholarly sources, I could use some help.  I found a few on the HBLL site, but nothing very specific as to what we're trying to write about.  If anyone finds some, let me know by commenting or just putting them on the drive!