Digital Book Review
https://voicethread.com/share/14227909/
Written Reflection
For this YAL Blog Post #6 assignment, I was tasked with creating a digital book review, where I was able to conduct a “booktubing” (Semingson, Mora, & Chiquito, 2017); in order to complete this review I needed to take the following steps: first I thought about which young adult novel I would like to use, then I reviewed my choice and planned the book review script by creating a document detailing the elements described in the “Blog Post #6” assignment prompt. Since the digital book review is essentially “an interview where you talk through your favorite parts of a text” (Dr. Damico’s assignment prompt) I found this assignment to be rather comfortable; this is in part due to me having recently used my chosen text (Holes by Louis Sachar) in an assignment for another course where I paired it with a selection of literary canon. One aspect of the digital book review assignment which I found difficult (personally) was the multimedia aspect; I would have to humbly admit that creating and using multimedia platforms, or discussion posts, is slightly out of my natural comfort zone. Having said this, I do understand that utilizing and becoming comfortable with multimedia is inevitable for our profession, and I will adapt.
Furthermore, to achieve greater understanding of its possibilities, I believe it is necessary to draw similarities and comparisons between digital book reviews and face to face (in class) book reviews. For many of today’s technology-driven students, harnessing the technology and multimedia platforms to create fun, interactive displays and assignments might be the key to unlocking their interests towards classwork. On the other hand, when students are given unsupervised space, there is always a possibility of them getting sidetracked or distracted; when it comes to digital book reviews, the student is not physically in a classroom being monitored by a teacher. The independence mixed with the media aspect of the assignment might prove to be too tempting for some students, who might find themselves sidetracked with social media, or gaming. All this being said, I do believe that digital book reviews can be as effective, or more effective than face to face book reviews. Not only do the digital reviews appeal more to the students due to their media platforms, but they relieve anxieties students might have in classroom situations, especially if they feel they don’t have enough knowledge of the subject to contribute directly.
When I consider myself in the classroom as a future educator, I can definitely see myself using digital book reviews, or “booktubing”, like I have for this assignment. In light of the worlds current events, specifically the COVID-19 global pandemic which has caused schools to resort to virtual learning, teachers must be ready and able to create multimedia versions of all classwork and discussions – including book reviews. Even if classrooms were operating as normal, without the given current events, creating a variety of content within my assignments and classroom discussions has proven to be an effective method of retaining the students attention.
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