holt literature and language arts textbook online

holt literature and language arts textbook online

Exploring the Impact of Digital Platforms on Literature and Language Arts Education

1. Introduction: The Evolution of Literature and Language Arts Education in the Digital Age

While the protocols, practices, and theories supporting literacy education continue to shift and be modified, these shifts are occurring at the same time as rapid advancements in digital technology. If we wish to fully prepare students for citizenship and college and careers, then we must address how such digital advances impact not just reading and writing but also the very subjects that myriad organizations argue are crucial for personal fulfillment and economic prosperity, namely the reading, analysis, and creation of literary and informational texts. The digital age, and the tools and platforms that accompany it, offer the field of education promising change and innovation. Platforms foster the kinds of “textual expansions” described by Pariker (2015), in which new modes of composition create extensive opportunities for reading and writing. These expansions reflect shifts in which multimedia draws together not just images or information but words and literary features. Platforms further allow for the empowerment of community – readers, writers, and citizen journalists working in multiple modes, such as the activist communities of Lemonade and Beyoncé’s visual album and the public discussion forums annotated by the authors of The Web We Want.

As scholars Sara Kajder and Troy Hicks assert, “The digital age has fundamentally transformed what it means to be a reader and a writer, challenging educators to teach literacy in ways not possible in previous literary eras.” So, too, must we acknowledge that digital platforms and tools – the technologies that emerge from and fuel the digital age – have contributed to these changes. The purpose of this review is to broadly explore the implications and effects of these tools and platforms, particularly as they influence the teaching and learning of literature and language arts at the secondary level. Defined as online services providing platforms for user-created work, digital platforms have begun to significantly distribute, disseminate, and diversify literary and informational texts. Such affordances complicate traditional discussions about literacy practices and literacies, including exploration of the best – or at least most effective and efficient – pedagogical approaches for teaching literature and language arts.

2. Digital Tools and Resources for Teaching Literature and Language Arts

National Geographic Online provides resources that bring old texts to life with maps, photographs, and exploration activities. EDSITEment is another high-quality resource for the humanities and social science educators that offers access to the highest quality material on the Internet and for student use. EDSITEment is a partnership among the National Endowment for the Humanities, Verizon Foundation, and the National Trust for the Humanities and is a part of its youth and education programs. The goal of EDSITEment is to “provide a platform for innovative and effective use of new technologies in teaching and learning in the talented and rewarding subjects.” Shmoop provides access to beautifully presented, in-depth content including literary and historical overview, themes, and characters. The platform also provides quizzes, learning guides, and lesson plans aligned to Common Core standards.

When thinking about online learning in the context of literature, poetry, historical texts, or cross-curriculum connections made available through literature and language arts, teachers may wonder about the resources and tools available to ensure that students interact with these digital texts and resources in rigorous and meaningful ways. Among numerous choices, Poetry Foundation provides a rich resource of classic and contemporary poets, classic and contemporary poetry, poetics essays, and educational resources. ReadWriteThink provides free access to the best of Language Arts teaching. Established as a partnership between the International Reading Association (IRA), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and the Verizon Foundation, each of ReadWriteThink’s user-friendly tools supports learning and creativity in all areas of the English Language Arts Curriculum.

3. Challenges and Opportunities of Online Textbooks in Literature and Language Arts Education

In general, the impact inherent in SPA application is not limited to the interaction process of the digital platform per se; rather, other impact factors are also driving the effect of e-book or digital platform application in educational instruction. Specifically, the characteristics of the educational environments, teaching resource interactions, interactions between teaching resources and professors, interactions between students and teaching resources, etc. These important impact factors should be taken seriously, although SPA’s usability and satisfaction to teach the education effect through the multilevel appropriateness or perceived value found by educators or students is probably enhanced. The present study discusses the results of the follow-up survey in which a partition analysis was conducted to examine the uptake and satisfaction of e-books in a language arts course conducted on the digital reading platform of a local university. The survey results provide insight into the factors influencing the effective use of e-books in teaching Chinese language arts.

In recent years, alongside the increased number of people who go online and develop e-books for digital learning, e-books have also gradually been introduced to schools. Text-reading courses, for example, become digital, taking advantage of digital reading platform services, followed by video media resources, collaborative reading, mobile learning, project appointments, etc. Digital textbooks, therefore, provide a dimension of the added value of online learning experiences. As to language textbooks, various morphemes or multimedia are essentially the same, in addition to providing multimedia context. More beneficially, interest or chances for practice may be increased. At present, many of the digital textbooks widely applied by universities and colleges or high schools for language courses are generally designed and developed from SPA, whose purposes are displayed in class, self-taught and preview.

4. Best Practices for Integrating Online Textbooks into the Classroom

When the online selection and anthology has been designed to make it easy to access and search printed chapters and materials that are designed for classroom use, they provide a rich source of authentic texts for use in the K-12 classroom. They also make it easy to distinguish content that is traditional (paper and ink) from that which is digital. This feature is useful for classes that assign the same section of text to all students or that infuse traditional and digital reading materials and activities. Students can easily check out a current traditional book and return it when they are finished reading it. They do not have to request digital books or worry about whether older digital equipment can handle the book. Because teachers are pressured to use and integrate technology as appropriate in the classroom, it is easy to make and accommodate such choices.

There are several ways to incorporate online textbooks into classroom instruction, many of which can be accomplished without requiring students to have regular access to the internet. To be sure, providing reliable internet access to all K-12 students should be a priority. For example, Charlestown High School in the Boston Public School system provides a free laptop computer and free internet access in their homes to every student as well as their teachers. Through its Engage program, the state of Maine provides a free laptop computer for all students at every high school in the state as well as their teachers. If this is not feasible, placing computers in common spaces, such as schools or libraries, is a good start.

5. Future Directions: Innovations in Digital Pedagogy for Literature and Language Arts

We extend to narrative literature and to another artistic form with a tradition of ages: the theater. We limit ourselves to discussing a literature resource and suggest readings and activities that the teachers can use with texts of each one of the activities. We discuss theoretical grounds. We gathered data through tests of reading, questionnaire, and focus group of students of a literature course for undergraduates in order to understand how digital game elements would enhance their motivations for the classical literature study and the consequences they expect from them.

The evidence we have accumulated in this literature survey has brought us to the Stage 5 part of the Design-Based Research phase, the program replication and training. We present a first step. We anticipate that it will be the vanguard of what will be many innovative activities with literature and language arts at a time in which we are living in a digital culture. We presented an example of a classical literature-inspired gaming assignment and discussed what became obvious in that study: historically, literature has existed alongside its versions, interpretations, appropriations, and adaptations of the narratives, characters, themes, and other elements. The era of digital platforms has revolutionized those operations, which then it may be used as a pedagogical tool.