Reading digital literary apps at school
Submitted by:
Brigitte Louichon
Abstract:
Description of the symposium / Round table
The large-scale dissemination of mobile and web applications in everyday lives and their common use in informal learning contexts bring into question their possible integration into educational environments and, more specifically, into the class practices. Several experiences in the last decade, from various theoretical and methodological perspectives, have explored their potential and limits in the school context [Kucirkova - Falloon, 2017; Merchant - Gillent - Marsh - Davies, 2013] : different disciplines, audiences and project goals were tested, recently proving the importance for the educators to move from "considerations of what to do to the concern of how to go" [Squire, 2005].
Literary apps are part of this reflexion and empirical studies have defined a first overview of their "affordances and limitations" [Bus - Takacs - Kegel, 2014] for the multiliteracy education: some of the effects of digital reading were described [Baccino - Drai-Zerbib, 2015; Mangen, 2008]; performances in decoding, understanding and memorising have been evaluated, often comparing print and digitised reading experiences [Mangen - Walgermo - Brønnick, 2013 ; Yilmaz - Orhan - Ugras - Kayak, 2014 ; Fittipaldi - Juan - Manresa, 2015; Dalla Longa - Mich, 2013]; designs, interfaces and UX have been considered [Landoni - Wilson - Gibb, 2000; Colombo - Landoni - Rubegni, 2012 ; Larson, 2010 ; 2013], as well as the physical participation of the reader in the immersion in the fictional stories [Mangen, 2008]. More recently, researches have questioned the readers' receptions [Acerra - Louichon, 2018] , the "impact of fictional reading with electronic devices on school and family reading situations" [Manresa - Real, 2015], and the specific skills and competences [Gervais, 2009; Saemmer, 2015 ; Bouchardon, 2014; Lacelle, Boutin and Lebrun, 2017] required for accessing digital and multimodal literary texts designed for touch and mobile screens.
Their forms, structures and reading strategies raise specific questions for the literacy development: how can narrative apps be integrated in the literary class? How are multimodal and interactive features presented and articulated to the literary reading teaching process? How are pupils and students introduced to the poetics of interactivity [Ryan, 2015] and to the multimodal reading that appear to be crucial for the reception of the digital literary work?
The following communications are inscribed in the children's and young adults' digital literature domain and aimed at offering some preliminary answers to those questions, through the analysis of three qualitative case-studies concerning the reception of interactive and multimodal fictional works across different genres and school levels in France. We will consider the hypermedia reading of two digital picturebooks at the primary school (Moi, j'attends [France Télévision, 2013] and Avec quelques briques [Clea Dieudonne, 2014]), an interactive literary narrative experience at the middle school with Déprise [2010] and a digital graphic novel at the high school (Phallaina [France Télévision, 2016]).
Data will be collected through a common protocol consisting of a digital reading session, a written questionnaire and an interpretative debate among the participants. The interpretation of the data will lay out some principles for exploring digital works in the class context, with a particular focus on the specific needs for accompanying the construction of the comprehension and the interpretation of the digital fiction.
Presentation of the 1st communication
This contribution is aimed at presenting the results of two hypermedia literary reading experiences realised in four French classes (CM1-CM2, corresponding to the last two years of the primary school). Pupils read two app adaptations of eponymous picturebooks: Moi, j'attends… [France Télévision, 2013] and Avec quelques briques [Clea Dieudonne, 2014].
By analysing the questionnaires, their navigation paths and the verbal exchanges held during the interpretative debate phases, we will particularly consider the students' reception and comprehension-interpretation of the digital literary work, as well as their choices and movements on the screen.
Presentation of the 2nd communication
Déprise by Serge Bouchardon [2010] is considered as an electronic literary reference by the French Education Department , and its author is widely acknowledged for his theoretical reflection on electronic literature. In this context, it is worth asking how students interpret his work and if they perceive it as a literary object. We will more particularly try to understand how the articulation between texts, images, animations and screen manipulation are considered and if they are effectively taken into account in their interpretation.
Presentation of the 3rd communication
Phallaina [France Télévision, 2016] can be defined as a scrolling graphic novel: no frame appears and each screen blends into the next one [Hoguet, Chavin, 2017].
What kind of reading experience does this new media artwork provide, and how could it be used in school?
In order to investigate which reading skills are particularly required, we will consider a sample of high school students involved in a reading experience and answer more particularly three main questions: which kind of artworks do they relate to this multimodal creation - graphic novels, movies, paintings…? Which multimodal elements are used to support their interpretation? How do students use intertextual and/or intericonical resources? And, from the teacher's perspective, how can this experience be incorporated into the literature curriculum?
Bibliography
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Hypermedia works
Avec quelques briques, Clea Dieudonne, 2014.
Déprise, Serge Bouchardon, 2010.
Moi, j'attends, France Télévisions, 2013.
Phallaina, Marietta Ren, France Télévisions, 2016.
Brigitte Louichon
University of Montpellier
brigitte.louichon@umontpellier.fr
Hélène Raux
University of Montpellier
helene.raux@umontpellier.fr
Eleonora Acerra
University of Montpellier - University Paul Valéry
eleonora.acerra@umontpellier.fr
Gwendolyn Kergourlay
University Paul Valéry
gwendolyn.kergourlay@gmail.com