Tweets from Ullyot's most recent ENGL 205 class. #engl205 | I had the pleasure of taking my two introductory university English classes (ENGL 205 - 2011 & ENGL 295 - 2012) with Michael Ullyot, a Professor and digital humanist at the University of Calgary. Digital Humanities, at its most basic level, attempts to combine English Literary studies with the digital age. For Ullyot, this meant taking Shakespeare's classic tests and combining them with current digital practice. Walking into his class was different, to say the least. Our assignments included tweeting, maintaining a blog, and using online programs to analyze Shakespeare; yet, they were my most memorable classes at university. |
Naturally, when I discovered I would be guiding grade 10's in their first foray through Shakespeare, I immediately thought back to those classes with Ullyot. What he is doing makes sense. Students in the 21st century develop their digital literacy at the same time, if not before, they are English literate. Why not use digital tools to examine traditional texts?
Critics of the digital age often morn the loss of long attention spans, but I think this is one of the beauties of online publishing. An author must be brief if they wish to hold their audience's attention, and thus each word is chosen with care and consideration. Twitter is the perfect example of this careful berevity. In Ullyot's class we were required to submit a certain number of tweets under a common hashtag. We could pose questions, take pictures of our text annotations, or generally share any links or information we had while reading. It helped to develop a reading community outside of the classroom.
This activity is something I would love to try with my grade tens during practicum, but I have some reservations about it as well. First of all, should I grade it? It gives me some great formative feedback about my students, and I want them to participate, but how do I motivate them to do so, and to think critically without a grade. I'm hoping the activity will be engaging enough that this is not something I have to worry about. Secondly, twitter is a social media platform that I cannot necessarily control. I want to be sure that students aren't abusing the community we are creating. And lastly, like everything in my planning. I'm not sure that students will actually enjoy the activity. I want to do something that will make reading the play memorable and enjoyable, but I also want to ensure that I am giving them the best learning opportunities possible.
Critics of the digital age often morn the loss of long attention spans, but I think this is one of the beauties of online publishing. An author must be brief if they wish to hold their audience's attention, and thus each word is chosen with care and consideration. Twitter is the perfect example of this careful berevity. In Ullyot's class we were required to submit a certain number of tweets under a common hashtag. We could pose questions, take pictures of our text annotations, or generally share any links or information we had while reading. It helped to develop a reading community outside of the classroom.
This activity is something I would love to try with my grade tens during practicum, but I have some reservations about it as well. First of all, should I grade it? It gives me some great formative feedback about my students, and I want them to participate, but how do I motivate them to do so, and to think critically without a grade. I'm hoping the activity will be engaging enough that this is not something I have to worry about. Secondly, twitter is a social media platform that I cannot necessarily control. I want to be sure that students aren't abusing the community we are creating. And lastly, like everything in my planning. I'm not sure that students will actually enjoy the activity. I want to do something that will make reading the play memorable and enjoyable, but I also want to ensure that I am giving them the best learning opportunities possible.