This quiz is based on the Modernist English Literature.
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Tuesday, 14 July 2015
Sunday, 28 June 2015
Bhavnagar: The Future Smart City of India
India to have 100 Smart Cities across 21 States in next 5 years
Priy Bhavenavasi,
SWACHHTA Sarvexan Antargat Bhavnagar City ne TOP 75 SWACHH SAHER ma STHAN APAVVA ANE VISHESH LABH APAVVA aje j tamara family na darek smatphone ma App http://bit.ly/29LX9YQ download kari Register karo Ane tema location tarike Bhavnagar Pasand karvanu bhulso nahi.
To know more about Smart / Future city project, visit following website or scroll down this blog.
(Source: http://www.smartcitiesindia.com/)
(Scroll Down, to view videos from CNBC Awaz and other News Channels)
CNBC Awaz, the business news channel, has prepared a series of short videos on the Bhavnagar city. Those videos are embedded on this blog.
Future road-map for Smart Cities in India
| • | 100 smart cities: The government has allocated an outlay of Rs 98,000 crore (US$ 15,329.26 million) to execute 100 smart cities, and the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), which is an urban rejuvenation programme for 500 towns and cities in next 5 years. | |
| • | Smart heritage cities: The government has introduced a project to develop 12 heritage cities across the country. Called HRIDAY Scheme or National Heritage Development and Augmentation Yojana, the cities included are Ajmer, Amaravati, Amritsar, Badami, Dwaraka, Gaya, Kanchipuram, Mathura, Puri, Varanasi, Velankanni and Warangal. | |
| • | Smart ports: The government plans to connect 12 smart cities with the maritime hubs at an estimated cost of Rs 50,000 crore (US$ 7821.05 million). | |
| • | Smart armed force stations (SAFS): There is a proposal to develop 6 smart armed force stations (SAFS). Of the 6 stations; 3 will be army stations, 2 of airforce and 1 of the navy. | |
| • | Smart aerotropolis: The West Bengal government plans to develop first airport city called the Bengal Aerotropolis Pvt Ltd (BAPL) at Andal in Burdwan district. | |
| • | Smart railways: Ministry of Railways has introduced world-class station programme to upgrade and revamp the existing railway stations. New Delhi Station will be the first station to be redeveloped within this programme spread over 86 hectares land with 18 platforms to handle in excess of 500,000 passengers per day. The Surat railway station is also to follow with 2.27 lakh square metre for redevelopment of new station. Along with this a total of 1,052 stations have been identified for upgradation of passenger amenities. It is proposed to include 200 more stations under this scheme. | |
| • | Smart villages: Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (Parliamentarian's Model Village Scheme aims to ensure holistic development of identified gram panchayats. Under this programme, Andhra Pradesh is the first state to launch the 'Smart Village' plan aimed at making AP, a top state in the country by 2029. | |
| • | DMIC: The Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) running through six states Delhi, Western Uttar Pradesh, Southern Haryana, Eastern Rajasthan, Eastern Gujarat, and Western ans to build a dedicated freight corridors along the Delhi-Mumbai. The cities that have been identified are Dholera in Gujarat, Shendra-Bidkin in Maharashtra, Greater Noida in UP, Ujjain (MP) and Gurgaon in Haryana. | |
| • | SEZ: Guizhou International Investment Corp (GIIC) has signed an MoU with Kakinada SEZ (KSEZ), a subsidiary of GMR Infrastructure to develop industrial park over 2,000-acre land for setting up Chinese high-end equipment manufacturing plants. GIIC will invest $500 million in developing the infrastructure and various facilities of the industrial park. These Chinese companies will invest $2-3 billion in setting up their operations over the next 5 years and generating more than 5,000 jobs for both skilled and unskilled workers. | |
Thursday, 4 June 2015
Memorabilia 2015
 |
| Dr. Vedant Pandya releasing Memorabilia 2015 |
The publication of Memorabilia is one of the many traditions of the Department of English, M.K. Bhavnagar University. For last five years, students are publishing this booklet. The booklet is collection of creative and critical writings of the students. Poems, short stories, paintings, pencil sketches, cartoons, posters, abstracts of research papers published by students, reviews of books / movies, critical observations of current affairs etc are some regular columns in this booklet. The Compilation and Editing, which is very difficult task, is also carried out by a group of students. They have to collect contents from students, compile it, edit it (where ever necessary), convert into common format and make it ready for publication on the Annual Function Day. The Memorabilia is released by the guest on this day. The Memorabilia is one of the many ways to evaluate students' creativity and critical acumen. It gives platform to students to publish their critical thoughts and creativity. That's fine. But what is more important is the ability of the chief editor and the team working for the Memorabilia. It is ultimate test of this group of students. From working in team (getting works done by each other, persistently requesting classmates to give their contributions, managing time from regular lectures and other learning assignments) to solving problems of compilation, editing and working on front page design to people-problems which are the most toughest nut to crack, these students have wonderful learning of 21st century skills. Yes, we, at Dept. of English, believe that the students in today's classrooms are going to work and live in 21st Century. Hence, the learning of these skills should be incorporated in daily activities and routine teachings at the Department. For this purpose, we have identified the 21st Century Skills Map which is the result of hundreds of hours of research, development and feedback from educators and business leaders across the nation (USA). The Partnership between 21stcenturyskills.org and National Council of Teachers of English has come up with interesting map of these skills. They are:
- Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
- Communication
- Collaboration
- Information Literacy
- Media Literacy
- ICT Literacy
- Flexibility and Adaptability
- Initiative & Self-direction
- Social & Cross-cultural Skills
- Productivity & Accountability
- Leadership & Responsibility. (Curios to know more about these skills, click here)
It is this group of students who work on this Memorabilia, who are not only tested on these skills, but it also provides them to hone these skills. This year, Poojaba Jadeja and group of students have done quite satisfactory work. You can have a look at Memorabilia 2015 here under. As it is embedded from slideshare.net, if it takes time in loading, you can click here to open Memorabilia 2015 in new window.
From the Desk of the Head of the Department (Form Memorabilia 2015)
Questions! Yes, it is the questions raised by students, which make teachers happier than happy. This year, in both classes, there were several such happy moments. Especially, the participation of Riddhi Jani, Poojaba Jadeja and Lajja Bhatt was noteworthy. Yes, we missed Amrutha Reddy, who surely would have raised the level of interaction in the subsequent semesters, had she not left during second semester.
Overall, the participation of students was encouraging. They were always on their toes, rushing to complete several offline and online tasks, apart from managing several other affairs of Department. With all the burden of routine work, they actively participated in co-curricular activities. The students in the year 2014-15 represented in 39 events! We are proud to see that Saryu Baraiya and Kaushal Desai represented department in 11 events, each.
We run Online Discussion Forum, to engage students with learning and to connect classroom with ‘real life’ situations. During the year 2014-15, twenty-four discussion threads well opened for email discussion. We are glad to see 402 emails being exchanged with total of 75,355 (seventy five thousands three hundred and fifty five) words used by students. Drashtri Mehta remained most active student on this forum with 5,882 words written in various email discussions!
Apart from the academic activities, if there is anything that recurs in my memory, at this moment, it is Gardening and Library Committee. Under able guidance and leadership of Sejal Vaghela and Saryu Bariaya, both committees did extraordinary work. Sejal Vaghela was, always, found forward thinking and planned all days of gardening quite meticulously.
I remember in no particular order the shining examples like that of Pratiksha Solanki ( in displaying situational leadership in managing Picnic), Namrata Gohil (in quest of difficult topics for presentation and assignment), Vinod Rabhadia (commitment to participate in Cross Country at Botad), Kaushal Desai, Shubhda Parmar and Lajja Bhatt (reading and publication of research papers), Hitesh Parmar (for his passion for General Knowledge), Arati Maheta (for her punctuality) and many other students whom I miss to mention here, which does not mean they have not contributed. There were many other talented students in the class but, may be, because of other priorities, they were not able to give their 100% to the Department. It is our loss and failure to see that we could not get 100 % engagement form 100% students.
I would like to give special congratulations for the perseverance of Shabana Khalani - the Malala of our class - for her persistence efforts to continue with study in spite of her marriage, becoming a mother of a child and failing in exams. It requires out-of-the-world courage and bounce-back ability to do what she has done!
It would be nothing less than ingratitude if i do not thank all those students (Kinjal Patel, Urvi Bhatt, Shital Italia, Drashti Mehta and Kaushal Desai) who spent their valuable time for Murals. A special thanks to Sejal Vaghela for an innovative idea to draw colourful mural near the entry of the Department.
This memorabilia is the hard work of Poojaba Jadeja. Without her painstakingly collecting content form all students, minute editing and creative organization, this Memorabilia would not have seen the light of the day. I am thank full to all other students who helped in this Memorabilia (they are acknowledged in her note so i am not repeating names), specially for the creativity in designing front page.
Shubhda Parmar, the G.S., should be commended for her able leadership qualities. She managed all the affairs and activities efficiently. She led from the front and kept the class together.
Being a believer in the Darwinian theory of evolution, I firmly rely on the fact that every new generation is smarter than the previous. Similarly, this batch was better than the previous batches. We hope to see new batch of students outsmart this batch . . . but till then we will relish the memory of live interaction and healthy discussion . . . and will miss the hungry haste and tireless striving to learn . . . which we have seen in your eyes!
On behalf of all the teachers of Department of English, I feel privileged and pleasure to wish you all exceptional academic career. We wish you best wishes to lead the word wherever you are, whenever you get an opportunity, in what so ever role future makes you accountable, with moral scruples, dignity and faith in self!
Thank you.
~ Dilip BaradThe Image of the Front Page of Memorabilia 2015
Tuesday, 2 June 2015
Creativity in Curricular Design: Designing Curriculum to Promote Blended Learning
Creativity in Curricular Design: Designing Curriculum to Promote Blended Learning
Dilip Barad
How to Cite this
Article:
MLA Citation:
Barad, Dilip. "Creativity in Curricular Design:
Designing Curriculum to Promote Blended Learning." e-Reflection I.2
(2012): 53-64.
APA Citation:
Barad, D. (2012, May-June). Creativity in Curricular
Design: Designing Curriculum to Promote Blended Learning. (R. G. Kothari, Ed.) e-Reflection,
I(2), 53-64.
Abstract
Curriculum is not only the core of
the teaching-learning process, but it is also the life-blood for student - teacher
development. If it is true that the students can be as better as their teachers
are, it is also true that the teacher is as better as the curriculum he
teaches.
Curricular design in higher
education by and large, still follows traditional footsteps. The innovations
brought in various walks of life through ICT are yet not creatively
incorporated in designing curriculum. Teachers, here and there, disseminate
education through ICT; some of the Universities have attempted new designs; yet
looking at the larger picture of higher education, we find that a lot still
have to be ploughed in designing curriculum to harvest the rich dividends of
ICT.
One of the best and easy ways to
design curriculum is to promote blended learning. It is proven by various
researches and projects that blended learning has positive impacts on the
process of learning. But still the question of how creative we can be in
designing curriculum in such a way that we can make best use of available
technology along with our traditional scaffolds need to be addressed. We should
think about curriculum design, which can help us in giving space for
self-learning along with the changing role of teachers as facilitators. This
paper aims to explore such possibilities. It also aims at sharing a few
innovative changes made in the curriculum design where in by incorporating ICT
into traditional curriculum design, teacher-student autonomy, self-learning,
peer interaction and language skills were found to be improved among the
students.
 |
| Wordle image of Abstract of this Paper |
Part I
John Franklin Bobbit in ‘The Curriculum’, which is said to be the
first textbook published on the subject, wrote that the curriculum,
as an idea, has its roots in the Latin word for race-course, though it
has nothing to do with the idea of horse race. He tried to explain curriculum
as “the course of deeds and experiences through which children become the
adults they should be, for success in
adult society” (1918) . In this idea of the
curriculum, it can be read that it encompasses entire scope of
formative deed and experience not only occurring in school but in and out of
school; experiences that are unplanned and undirected, and experiences
intentionally directed for the purposeful formation of adult members of society
(Curriculum, 2012) . Though it is
difficult to say if the researchers like Philip Jackson (Jackson,
1992)
and William F. Pinar (Pinar, Reynolds, Slattery, &
Taubman, 1995)
of today agree with Bobbit’s idea of the curriculum or not, yet it has a grain
of truth when he writes that the curriculum is a social engineering arena. One
of the many arguments, which may be of some interest in this paper, is that
curriculum defines and controls the deeds-experiences the student ought to
have to become the adult he or she ought to become. To put it in
simplistic terms, we can ask, what do we expect our students to become after
their studies? Our answers may be too idealistic or too pragmatic. But we can
zero down our answers to the golden mean wherein we expect the sorts of skills
ranging from ‘how to make living’ to ‘how to live’ to get inculcated among our
future custodians of culture, society, economics, politics and above all
academia. Thus, the importance of curriculum design is decidedly crucial in
making the future of the world after us better than what it is today. It is not only the core of the
teaching-learning process but it also is the life-blood for student - teacher
development. If it is true that the students can be as better as their teachers
are, it also is true that the teacher can be as better as the curriculum s/he
teaches.
Nevertheless, the fact remains that
this vital part of the education system by and large remains unexplored so far
as scientific methods and social engineering is concerned. Possessions of
relevant knowledge, creation of new knowledge, and the capacity for its
application have become the determinants in the strength of a nation.
Consequently, technical education has come to the centre stage and is today the
most important agent for change and development. (Lal, 2000) . However, if we have
a birds-eye-view over the curriculums of the higher education in Gujarat and in
most of the traditional Universities of India, we find that we have ‘miles to
go before we take pride in making our young generation’s future brighter. Most
of the curriculum is designed from the perspectives of 20th century
ways of teaching and learning, which again was nothing but revised model
designed on Western curriculum framework, which was modeled on the idea of
Industrial Revolution (Robinson, 2010) . If we are thinking
in terms of social engineering to prepare new generations for the future, how
can we rely on the means and ways of the past? The educationists who are
actively involved in the process of designing curricula belong to the time,
which was quite different from the time in which today’s kids are growing.
Today’s kids are living in digitally wired world wherein screens are flashing
information in the torrent of signals. When the curriculum designer of today
was a kid, there was hardly, single channel TV, and the number of newspapers
and magazines were quite negligible as compared to today’s plethora of TV
channels, mobile phones and latest technological gadgets. The kids, growing
amidst such an attack of information from all vistas obviously, have different
psychological tendency towards learning. For instance, multitasking or learning
from various sources at a time becomes their habit. There was a generation who
learned only from ‘books’, there is a generation which is learning from ‘screens’.
The book is changing its form and hence eReaders, eBooks & mobile books are
much in demand than traditionally printed books. Now, the million-dollar
question is how the people who are designing curricula will understand the
psychological needs of the new generation, which does not share common
experience of teaching / learning?
Therefore, the innovations and
creativity in curriculum designing should become a buzzword. A lot depends of
the imagination of the educationist to think out of the box and be bold and
experimental in trying out things that have yet not even thought in pedagogical
discourses. One of the ways of doing so seems to be in looking toward the
concept of blended learning with a novel way.
Part II
Let us see, first of all, what does this phrase ‘Blended Learning’
signify? Blended learning is not a new concept in the pedagogy. The recent buzz
around the word ‘blended learning’ and the number of articles in books,
magazine and journal, major thrusts in conference themes, and campus
initiatives focusing on ‘blended learning’ would lead one to believe that a new
educational phenomenon has been discovered. It is well observed in EDUCAUSE
Research Bulletin, “In actually, the blending of face-to-face instruction with
various types of non-classroom technology-mediated delivery has been practiced
within the academy for more than four decades (Dziuban, Hartman, & Moskal, 2004) . Thus, it is not
exaggerated statement to say that ‘no teaching is possible without blended
learning’. It is always found that all teachers, down the ages, have
incorporated various approached and methods in teaching. None can ever say with
a guarantee that any single approach in teaching was adopted by any teacher at
any given moment of time in history of pedagogy. Blended learning was always in
practice and will always remain so in the classroom interaction. We may use
different names like ‘mixed-mode’ or ‘hybrid’ for what is described here as
blended learning. But still it is not so easy to use these words
interchangeably and conclude that blended learning as an idea does not offer
any new dimension in social engineering and pedagogical concerns of 21st
century. The way the term ‘blended learning’ recurrently used in the present
context signifies its meaning.
The Wikipedia entry on Blended learning defines it “in educational
research as something that refers to a mixing of different learning environments.
It combines traditional face-to-face classroom methods with modern
computer-mediated activities. According to its proponents, the strategy creates
a more integrated approach for both instructors and learners. Formerly,
technology-based materials played a supporting role to face-to-face
instruction. Through a blended learning approach, technology will be more
important” (Blended_learning, 2012) . Well, this widely
accepted definition seems to say that technology is extremely crucial for the
concept of blended learning. A nexus for the development of such a model has
been online environment. DeZure, Buckley, Barr and Tagg, and others note that
the confluence of new pedagogies (for example, the change in emphasis from
teaching-centered to student-centered learning paradigms), new technologies
(for example, the rapid spread of the Internet, World Wide Web, and personal
computers/tablet PCs), and new theories of learning (for example, brain-based
learning and social constructivism) are enabling entirely new models of
teaching and learning and that this change is of sufficient magnitude to be
described as an educational transformation or paradigm shift (Dziuban, Hartman, & Moskal, 2004) . The new learning
environment is heavily transformed and is influenced by web-based learning,
e-learning, and asynchronous learning networks, among other similar forms. Thus,
the concept of blended learning refers to curriculum design that combines
face-to-face classroom interaction with online learning environment (virtual
learning environment – VLE).
The question that pop-ups at this
juncture is ‘why, what and how to ‘blend’? Information and communication
technology (ICT) has brought in paradigm shift in every walk of life. We have
already entered the second decade of so called 21st century. The 21st
century in its significance incorporates ICT as a part of life. Teachers, who
are supposed to be the torchbearers of social change, unfortunately, are
followers so far as this social change is concerned. This is a noteworthy
observation because most of the ways of dealing have changed and this change is
brought in by ICT, whereas the teachers still are not so enthusiastic about
incorporating ICT as a part of their lives. Teachers, here and there,
disseminate education through ICT; some of the Universities have attempted new
designs; yet looking at the larger picture of higher education, we find that a
lot still have to be ploughed in designing curriculum to harvest the rich
dividends of ICT.
This answers to our question of
‘why’. The kids of tomorrow, the custodians of the future are growing in a
different environment. As it is already discussed in part I of this article
that ‘netizens’ have different psychological needs for learning, we are not
repeating it again. Instead, let us discuss some research outputs to prove our
point. The research by Garrison and Kanuka proves that blended learning
increases the options for greater quality and quantity of human interaction in
a learning environment, and offers learners the opportunity ‘to be both
together and apart’ (2004) . Another theory is
that of ‘separate and connected knowing’ (Clinchy, 1989) . This theory may help to look at human
interactions in different amounts at different times and results are used to
help improve communication and learning. It is because of such tendencies among
learners to be both together and apart, and separate knower and connected
knower, happening almost simultaneously that we are in need of blended learning
which is provided by VLEs.
Second, very significant concern is
‘what to blend’? If I am allowed to borrow words from ECAR (Dziuban, Hartman, & Moskal, 2004) , I would like to put
it as ‘What proportion of each is required to label a course as ‘blended’?’
Well, blended learning retains the face-to-face element, making it – in the
words of many faculty – the ‘best of both worlds’ (Dziuban, Hartman, & Moskal, 2004) . At times, teachers
do not understand where to stop and where to elaborate? Some topics would have
been wind up in a few lectures were as some would have been dealt in with
elaborated discussion. Time, space constraint and pressure to complete syllabus
in the stipulated time, at times, create hindrance. Thus, maximizing success in
a blended learning initiative requires a planned and well-supported approach that
includes a theory-based instructional model, high-quality faculty development,
course development assistance, learner support, and ongoing formative and
summative assessment (Dziuban, Hartman, & Moskal, 2004) . At every point, it
should be kept in mind that blended learning is not to fill in the gaps of
teachers. Teachers cannot be replaced by VLEs. Blended learning redefines role
of teachers and makes teachers available to students on virtual world and thus
total hours of interaction between teacher-students does not decrease, in fact,
it increases. It helps teachers in better understanding of their teaching
methodologies and students progress.
Lastly, ‘how’ to ‘blend learning’
to gain maximum benefits? There is no panacea for this riddle. It is difficult
to give one definite model. The research scholars like DeZure, Buckley, Barr
and Tagg discussed various phenomena but it is worth mentioning that the final
selection of model for implementation depends on the local environment. This
local environment includes existing curriculum, space in the curriculum to
experiment, teachers’ aptitude, learners’ readiness and existing
infrastructure. Here again, it can be suggested to ask following questions on
the onset, which are proposed by ECAR (Dziuban, Hartman, & Moskal, 2004) :
Key
Questions to Ask:
·
What programs in your institution are
best suited for blended learning?
·
What models of blended learning are most
appropriate for your campus?
·
What support mechanisms are necessary to
ensure the success of blended learning on your campus?
·
How can blended learning become an
effective mechanism for meeting some of your institution’s strategic initiatives?
·
How will you assess the impact of
blended learning?
Before we end this discussion, it becomes necessary to take a case
study of blended learning and test the validity and reliability of these
questions in our educational environment, which is by and large traditional in
its methods of implementing curriculum objectives.
Part III
A
case study: Experimenting Blended Learning in Post Graduate Teaching at
Department of English, Bhavnagar University, Bhavnagar (Gujarat – India)
The research article would sound
like hollow words if the ideas and concepts discussed are not proved by its
practical implications. Let us have an overview of a case study on blended
learning. The working paper on this project was presented as digital poster
presentation in AsiaCALL International Conference (Barad, Poster Presentation: Using Web Tools in Convergence with
Traditional Learning, 2010) .
The academic initiatives enforced
by UGC led all Universities to make specific changes. The Bhavnagar University
had been one of the leading Universities in Gujarat to implement such
initiatives when it was proposed by UGC Regulations 2009. In 2010, semester
system, with continuous internal assessment with weightage of 70:30 grade
points/marks was, introduced. This single change made dramatic changes for the
curriculum designer and faculty members. We, at Department of English, took
maximum advantage to bring in innovative changes. It was made mandatory by
Bhavnagar University to have three components in 30 marks continuous internal
assessment (now onwards mentioned as CIA), viz., Presentation, Assignments and
Test. We designed curriculum to give ample space for incorporation of ICT into the
teaching-learning process. Our learning objectives along with ‘developing
understanding of world literature and universal humanism’, were to make
students ‘future-friendly’. We wanted to make them techno-fluent. We observed
that most teachers of Arts faculty have a kind of aversion towards technology
as a pedagogical tool because they have ‘never seen their teachers using it’
and were never ‘taught with technology’. Thus, we wanted to make ICT integral
part of teaching – learning process.
We made following innovative
changes: (all these changes are made without disturbing face-to-face
interaction)
·
Assignments should be submitted as blog
entry. Students are supposed to submit at least 21 assignments during the M.A.
(English) programme.
·
Presentations shall be made only through
PowerPoint and it shall be video recorded. All students shall be given videos
of their presentations. Students are supposed to make 21 presentations during
the M.A. (English) programme.
·
The test shall be the combination of
‘Online’ and pen – paper mode. All objective type tests shall be on Moodle VLE.
·
At the end of the fourth semester, all
these (i.e. blogs, videos & presentations) shall be indexed on the students’
personal website. Google site was used for this task.
·
For instructions and teacher-student
communication, SMS group and Google email group were used.
This was part of curriculum design
and as it was mandatory, no students were excused from it. The students were
given extra benefit of these online activities. In the CIA, students were
offered bonus marks/grade points for successfully carrying out these online
activities. We have to admit that until and unless, teaching and evaluation are
not incorporated and each and activity (whether face-to-face or online) is not
converted into grade points/marks, students will not participate
enthusiastically. Thus, the bonus point idea clicked well with the students.
Many students got the benefit of it. Some of them were physically ill or
ill-prepared on the day of presentation or test. But they did exceptionally
well in ‘online’ activities to save them from failing in CIA.
The obvious outcomes of this
blended learning project (Barad, 2012) are as under:
·
It supported the argument that learning
is an active, social process. According to Kliebard (1992), John Dewey
(1859-1952) created an active intellectual learning environment in his
laboratory school during the early 20th century. Neuroscience now supports this
form of active learning as the way people naturally learn. Active learning
conditionalizes knowledge through experiential learning (Kliebard, 1992) (Constructivism (learning_theory),
2012) .
The students were found actively involved in the computer laboratory. Students
naturally acquired online skills and learnt some valuable skills like ‘writing
for web’. It was not part of curriculum to teach them e-skills but they
naturally learnt it from the environment, which was created because of
innovation in curriculum design.
·
It proved what Smith wrote while
exploring John Dewey’s viewpoint. John Dewey believed education must engage
with and expand the experience; those methods used to educate must provide for
exploration, thinking, and reflection; and that interaction with the
environment is necessary for learning; also, that democracy should be upheld in
the educational process. (Smith, 2001) . It was quite
surprising to see that students were keen to stay more at Department and were
found engaged in discussion about studies before, between and after the
face-to-face lectures. What was incredible to observe was that students were involved
in active learning, exploration, thinking and reflection. They were asked to
make comments / raise questions/doubts / initiate discussion under the blogs
and presentations. This provided them space for interaction with the
environment. More importantly, the level of transparency was so high that it
helped to upheld democratic values in the environment. Internal marking systems
are always marred by charges of corruption. As the entire internal evaluation
was shifted to VLE, the parents as well as classmates can view and openly
comment on the marks/grades allotted by teachers to the students. This amounts
to greater transparency and helps in establishing trust in the education
system.
·
The outcome of ECAR (Dziuban, Hartman, & Moskal, 2004) found its support in
this project. Hence, we agree to say that it helps instructors evolve as
designers of active learning environments, thus becoming much more facilitative
in their teaching. Interestingly, this phenomenon is consistent with what Carl
Rogers (1983) called the
‘facilitative teacher’. Initially, teachers found it awkward to work and
interact with students on virtual environment. However, later it was realized
that being facilitator is quite different from being a teacher. The ideals that
we have attached with teachers as being friend, philosopher and guide are
normally not fulfilled in physical traditional environment. The virtual world certainly
helps teachers being friendly facilitators rather than being ‘dictators’ in the
classroom. Mostly, teachers feel that they are creating a conducive environment
for the students but if students were asked, they would reveal how frightened
they are to interact with teachers in the physical world. Nevertheless, on the
virtual world, such inhibitions are broken and students feel better off with
their teachers.
·
The environment created by blended
learning brings in mixed reflections from students. Many students lament the
loss of face-to-face contact and a few have techno-phobia, which averts them to
respond on VLE. Thus, it was observed during this project that students must
learn to ‘unlearn’ the habits of learning in traditional methods before
‘relearning’ how to learn on VLEs. We agree with the observations of ECAR -
“the rhythms of blended courses differ from those in face-to-face classes,
forcing students to stay actively engaged and connected. For students, the
landscape of learning is drastically altered, although they are still to anchor
their learning experience on the familiar face-to-face class meetings”. (Dziuban,
Hartman, & Moskal, 2004) .
·
Lastly, let us conclude with the
benefits of using Moodle Virtual Learning Environment. As the design and
development of Moodle is guided by “social constructionist pedagogy", it
helps a lot in fulfilling the objectives of Constructivism (Moodle, 2012) From a constructivist point of view,
people actively construct new knowledge as they interact with their
environments. Moodle’s Philosophy web page mentions – “Social constructivism
extends constructivism into social settings, wherein groups construct knowledge
for one another, collaboratively creating a small culture of shared artifacts
with shared meanings. When one is immersed within a culture like this, one is
learning all the time about how to be a part of that culture, on many levels” (Moodle, 2012) . Teachers as well as
students experienced this during this project. Teachers became more creative in
teaching. The time of interaction increased in the classroom, which, in
traditional mode, was wasted in the dissemination of information only. The
process of information turning into knowledge was experienced as more time was
dedicated in interpretation and reflective thinking.
·
One of the major limitations of this
project was infrastructure. We felt that students of Arts faculty (especially
of our Department) still are not able to get personal computer with hi-speed
internet at their residences. Therefore, the institute has to provide all these
facilities and time to work on these tasks. Fortunately, the department of
English can make provision for 1:2 computes with hi-speed internet connection,
and the lab was kept open on holidays also so that students can spare ample
time to complete their online tasks.
In spite of issues related to
students, faculty and institutes, the impact of blended learning is positive. It
is difficult to disagree with ECAR (Dziuban, Hartman, & Moskal, 2004) when they conclude:
“The process is always formative and sometimes opportunistic. The outcomes are
most effective when participants share an inspiring vision; seek maximum
possible involvement; bring out the best in others; celebrate accomplishments;
and model behaviour that facilitates collaboration.” The synergy of traditional
face-to-face methods with that of an online environment helps in fostering positive
realignment in HEIs.
References
Barad, D. P. (2010, January 12). Poster Presentation:
Using Web Tools in Convergence with Traditional Learning. AsiaCALL
International Conference 2010. Vallabh Vidya Nagar (Dist. Anand), Gujarat,
India.
Barad, D. P. (2012, April 11). Project Blended
Learning 2012. Retrieved April 24, 2012, from Google Sites:
http://sites.google.com/site/projectblendedlearning2012
Barr, R. B., & Tagg, J. (1995). From Teaching to
Learning - A New paradigm for Undergraduate Education. Change, 27(6),
12-25.
Blended_learning. (2012, March 15). Wikipedia.
Retrieved April 7, 2012, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blended_learning
Bobbit, J. F. (1918). The Curriculum. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin.
Buckley, D. P. (2002). In Pursuit of the Learning
Paradigm: Coupling Faculty Transformation and Institutional Change.
Retrieved from EDUCAUSE Review:
http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0202.pdf
Clinchy, B. M. (1989). On Critical Thinking &
Connected Knowling. Liberal Education, pp. 14-19.
Constructivism (learning_theory). (2012, April 4). Wikipedia.
Retrieved April 7, 2012, from The Free Encyclopedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivism_%28learning_theory%29
Curriculum. (2012, March 20). Wikipedia.
Retrieved April 6, 2012, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curriculum
DeZure, D. (2000). ed., Learning from Change:
Landmarks in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education from Change Magazine,
1969-1999. Sterling, Va.: Stylus Publishing Inc.
Dziuban, C. D., Hartman, J. L., & Moskal, P. D.
(2004, March 30). Blended Learning. ECAR Research Bulletin, 2004(7),
pp. 1-12.
Garrison, D. R., & Kanuka, H. (2004, February).
Blended Learning: Uncovering its Transformative Potential in Higher Education.
The Internet and Higher Education, pp. 95-105.
Jackson, P. W. (1992). Conceptions of Curriculum and
Curriculum Specialists. In E. b. Jackson, Handbook of Research on
Curriculum: A Project of the American Educational Research Association
(pp. 3-40). New York: Macmillan.
Kliebard, H. (1992). Constructing a History of
American Curriculum. Handbook of Research on Curriculum, 157-184.
Lal, G. K. (2000, July). Curriculum Design - A
General Perspective. Directions, p. n.p.
Moodle. (2012, Feb 2). Philosophy. Retrieved
April 7, 2012, from Moodle: http://docs.moodle.org/22/en/Philosophy
Pinar, W. F., Reynolds, W. M., Slattery, P., &
Taubman, P. M. (1995). Understanding Curriculum: An Introduction to the
Study of Historical and Contemporary Curriculum Discourses. New York:
Peter Lang.
Robinson, K. (2010, October 14). Changing Education
Paradigm. RSAnimate video on YouTube. London: Cognitive Media.
Rogers, C. (1983). The Interpersonal Relationship in
the Facilitation of Learning. (M. Thorpe, R. Edwards, & A. Hanson, Eds.) Culture
and Processes of Adult Learning.
Smith, M. (2001, May 8). John Dewey. Retrieved
April 7, 2012, from The Encyclopedia of Informal Education:
http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-dewey.htm
Thursday, 28 May 2015
Comparative Overview of the Forms of Storytelling with Reference to the Digital Age
Comparative Overview of the Forms of Storytelling with Reference to the
Digital Age
Prof. Dilip Barad,
Dept. of English, M.K. Bhavnagar University
How to cite this article:
MLA Style:
Barad, Dilip. "Comparative Overview of the Forms
of Storytelling with Reference to the Digital Age." Spark International
Online Journal III.3 (2011): 35-61.
APA Style:
Barad, D. (2011, Aug). Comparative Overview of the
Forms of Storytelling with Reference to the Digital Age. (B. Parmar, Ed.) Spark
International Online Journal, III(3), 35-61.
Abstract
Over the ages the form
of storytelling has undergone significant changes. The Sanskrit and Greek
masters were happy in telling their stories in form of verse letters, plays and
epics; in the 18th century
‘Novel’ was seen as the most suitable form for storytelling. In the 20th
century, the fragmented life found its expression in theatre of absurd, problem
plays and the life full of hurry and flurry gave shorter forms like novella,
one-act plays and short stories. At the fag-end of the first decade of the 21st
century, some forms have emerged to cater the needs of techno-savvy netizens.
The Epistolary form of telling story initiated by Richardson in ‘Pamela’ found
its new manifestation in Matt Beaumont’s novel ‘e’ in 2000. Matt
has experimented with the epistolary form by replacing letters by emails among
the characters. The advent of e-novels is seen as yet another step further in
the evolution of new forms of telling story, and yet another form to mesmerize
the world with its synergism of words and videos is in the buds. This new form
of storytelling is ‘vook’ – a word coined for ‘video-book’.
This paper attempts to compare the changing forms of
storytelling, and also aims to examine the connection between at the forms of
literature, changing times and tastes of the reading audience.
 |
| Wordle of the Abstract |
“Over
all [the scholar’s work] should rule a searching intelligence, asking that
fundamental question of the septic: just
what do you mean by that? And if the question is asked with a real
desire to know and understand . . . the work is done.” - G.R. Elton, The Practice of History (New York, 1967) 141. (Altic 1993)
At
the heart of literature is telling story, and its success depends on how well the story is
told. How well it is told, however, depends largely on the pleasure it gives to
readers. This pleasure, if it is conditioned by ‘the law of poetic truth and
poetic beauty’ (Arnold 2001), elevates the story to the height of a classic.
The pleasure quenched by the reader from the truth and beauty of literature is
also governed by the race, milieu and the moment. I mean to say, the taste of
the reader and the time in which it is written also has its own aesthetic
influence on the art of telling story.
The
poor peasants and brave warriors of Greece and Mahabharata found dramas and
epics better forms of story telling to quench their thirst for aesthetic life.
Reaching to this point in the history of narrating story for aesthetic pleasure
and to teach moral lessons on niti-shastra, it has undergone important changes.
Slowly and steadily, the oral tradition metamorphosed into written and from
there into performing art. The Aesop’s fables (Long 2011) in the West and Panchatantra & Hitopadesha in East
had its beginning in oral story telling (Wikipedia). Later on they were found
in written form.
From
here on wards, I would rather concentrate on the literary tradition in
Literature in English than on world literature, because by speaking on changing
art of story telling of world literature, I would display my ignorance than
knowledge.
Coming
to the 18th century, the century where in new forms of telling stories
are experimented and invented, we find that the fire, fine feelings,
enthusiasm, the glow of the Renaissance and the moral earnestness of Puritanism
(Long 2004) is lost from their art of telling story. Renaissance was the time
of fiery passion, hunger to grow, unlimited enthusiasm to achieve the
unachievable and never ending passion for life. Thus the classical form of
telling story i.e. Drama, found its new format in Christopher Marlow. Though,
still it is drama and poetry only, yet the performance of drama is quite
different than that of classical Greek & Latin masters. Use of Blank verse,
breaking of unities and mixture of tragicomedies gave new style to the old art
of telling story. Shakespeare polished all the gems that were invented by
Marlowe in such a shining state that none can make it more polished there
after. It was John Dryden (1668) Who said this to enumerate the phenomenon in ‘Of
Dramatik Poesie, An Essay: “Those beauties of
the French poesy
are such ... it where it is
not: they are indeed the beauties of a statue but not of a man”. The plays written
by Shakespeare and University with all deformities of plot construction and
characterization were still true representation of human soul and nature.
During
renaissance and reformation, we had the tradition of telling story in prose
form also. The University Wits and thereafter John Bunyan, Daniel Defoe, Addison
and Steele carried on this tradition and went on adding a component or two by
the time Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) and Henry Fielding (1707-1754) turned it
into the new form of telling story – well-known today as NOVEL. (Watt 1957)
The
spread of education led to more readers. The way technique of making papers
migrated from China to Europe and Gutenberg’s printing press encouraged more
writing, similarly education helped in the spread of more magazines and prose
writing. Thus 18th century has more number of magazines and novels
to cater the needs of the reading public. The education to females in 18th
century gave rise to more number of female readers. (Compton-Rickett) The coarseness
of Fielding, Smollett and Stern did not satisfy the aesthetic urge of these female
readers. Thus we have women novelist in abundance in the same years.
Thus
we can perceive that the time, the moment, the philosophies and thoughts of the
era has tremendous impact on the art of telling story. Compton- Ricket has
rightly noted in The History of English Literature (1946) that the masculine
qualities comprehend a broad grasp of general principles, a logical constructive
power of a faulty for dealing largely and sanely with the big issues of life.
The feminine qualities on the other hand, lie in subtlety rather than vigor of
perception, an intuitive insight into the delicate complexities of character and
an intensity and tenacity of passion. As
illustrations of the masculine and feminine methods of approaching the social
life to the late 18th century we have Fielding and Jane Austen, each
of them essentially a painter of manners, concerned in the difference between
town and country, satirical in treatment, eschewing sentiment as far as
possible. Between the, we have a wonderful picture of the time, and the one
complements the other, for the difference are rather sexual than purely literal
– the one, bold, dashing, painting strong, vivid colours; the other, delicate,
subtle, avoiding violent contrasts, and dealing rather in nuances.
This
proves the point how art of story telling differed from man to woman. The
education and experience of Fielding, the man on the roads, and Austen, the
woman of the house, reflects the moments lived by the society in their
predefined horizons.
The
increasing number of readers gave rise to NOVEL as the most sought after form
of telling story. The Victorians found in Novel what Elizabethans sought in
plays.
The
rise of magazines contributed to the rise of short story also. (Watson 1994). Short
stories were a staple of early-19th-century magazines and often led to fame and
novel-length projects for their authors, similar to one-act plays.
In
the modern times, industrialization & growth of factories influenced the
reading habits of people which in turn influenced creative writing also. (Ward
1978). The life became so fast that people were not able to spare more time to
read long novels or see long plays. The short story and one-act plays were more
suitable form of telling story for such an audience. Thus we find more numbers
of such arts of telling stories in 19th and 20th century.
But
still we find that the art of telling story is not that experimentative. The
path and faith breaking philosophies of 19th and 20th
century has its own toll on the art of telling stories. Darwin’s proving that
the world in not created by God (1860), Freud’s libidal interpretation of human
relationship (1896c) and Nietzsche’s
final declaration – God is death (1882), shattered the faith of creative
genius. It is well said by Mahesh Bhatt (film maker) that artist as a creative
person is abnormally and inhumanly sensitive – for him a touch is a blow, a sound
is noise and ay misfortune a tragedy. (qt from The Times of India article – “Is
M.F. Hussain a Victim?”)
The
influence of art of telling story does not require detailed mention here. The
shattered faith fragmented the lives of people. The remaining work was done by
two world wars. The witness of First World War and life under the thread of
second was terrible for the sensitive creative mind. What we find in fragmented
art of telling story. In fact, there is no story at all. It is all rambling of
thoughts, trying to say something, utterance fail to express their anguished
anxiety. Thus, the stream of consciousness in novel, collage in poem of TS
Eliot, Auden and Yeats, absurdity in plays took place of sanity in telling
stories. Martin Esslin (1967) makes a working hypothesis of the traits of
story-telling art of these decades in his famous book. ‘The Theatre of the
Absurd’.
The
modernist art of telling story is the best example of how philosophical
discourse can interpose its influence on it. The time it self was shattered and
fragmented. Nothingness was the meaning and nihilism was their only optimism.
The story tellers of the time faithfully reflected this in their art of telling
stories.
The
post modernist era was the time of deconstructionist ideology. In the modernist
art of telling story, thought the stories were fragmented and nothingness was
the only thing, yet the centre hold the ground strongly. In post modernism, the
centre is de-centered. There was an attempt to identify meaning in
meaninglessness of modernist art of telling story; here the meaning is nothing
but free play of difference and deffarance (Derrida 1966). The centre is at the
periphery and the periphery is at the centre. Thus Coetzee’s (1986) art of
telling story has the centre in Friday ( in novel , 1986) and not in Robinson
(Defoe). Mahabharat is retold from Draupadi’s view point. (Vaidya Spivak)
Julian Branes’s The History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters has a narration form
woodworms angel and not from Noah’s. Derridian influence gave free play of
experiment in telling stories. Derrida’s philosophical discourse impacted the
art of story telling. Dattani’s plays have entre in eunuchs and HIV patients
(Kumar T). Sarojini Sahoo’s feminist discourse undermines the western feminist
discourse of Simon De Bouevier and gave rise to Indian feminism. Similarly,
Dalit aestheticism is also on the high rise.
Whatever
may be the influencing force, the last decades of 20th century
betrayed several experiments in the art of story telling. Thus, Author John
Fowles’s novel The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1969) has three endings. This
novel is a period novel inspired by the 1823 novel Ourika, by Claire de Duras,
which Fowles translated to English during 1977 (and revised in 1994).
Other
interesting experiments in art of telling story were done by B S Johnson. The
Unfortunates (1969) was published in a box with no binding (readers
could assemble the book any way they liked) and House Mother Normal
(1971) was written in purely chronological order such that the various
characters' thoughts and experiences would cross each other and become intertwined,
not just page by page, but sentence by sentence. B. S. Johnson's infamous
book-in-a-box is, if remembered at all, notorious for its presentation rather
than its content. The "book" consists of a first and last section
plus 25 other chapters, each one coming as a self-contained
"pamphlet", that can be read in any order the reader likes. The
subject matter concerns a journalist's day covering a football match in
Nottingham, remembering previous times spent in the city with a lover now gone
and a friend now dead. The innovative format permits Johnson to echo the random
thought processes of his protagonist--the associations and reminiscences
bubbling up in no fixed order as he walks through the city, watches and reports
on the match and returns home afterwards.
We
have curios experiment in novel ‘A Void’ by Georges Perec (1995). A Void
(translated from the original French La
Disparition (literally, "The Disappearance") is a 300-page French
lipogrammatic
novel,
written in 1969 by Georges Perec, entirely without using the
letter e
(except for the author's name), following Oulipo
constraints.
The
website www.fantasticfiction.com
has curious collection of such experimental novels written and published in
later decades of 20th century.
If
all these ages were marked by some peculiar social, political, economical,
philosophical, anthropological etc contemporary issues, the 21st
century is marked by the IT revolution. The time in which we live is known as
the time of e-renaissance. Information and communication technology has brought
in sweeping change in all walks of life. The technological tsunami began in
wild waves in 80s and 90s. Today, as we enter second decade of 21st
century, the world in deluged under the splurge of techno-tsunami waves. Now
the question is has this revolution brought any change in art of telling story?
Well,
forget about the literary value of his novels for time being. Just see what is
the moving fore in the plot in his novels: the mobiles, internet and call
centers. Yes, Chetan Bhagat’s One Night @ Call Centre (2005) has technology at
its centre. Now, the God does not say in thunder, but He rings and talks on
your mobile phones. Now, too much of thinking or rash actions are not fatal
flaws or hamartia. The fatal flaw is leaving your email account open without
logging out/signing out before leaving PC/laptop. In Three Mistakes of My Life
(2008), the mobile call from best friend’s sister during climax brings havoc in
the life of protagonist. Today, it is unimaginable to think of the story where
in mobile or internet is not an important part of the play and vital part to
play.
It
is not only movers and shakers of plot, but the form of telling story is also
affected. At the fag-end of the first decade of the 21st century,
some forms have emerged to cater the needs of techno-savvy netizens. The
Epistolary form of telling story initiated by Richardson in ‘Pamela’ found its new manifestation
in Matt Beaumont’s novel ‘e’ in 2007. Matt has
experimented with the epistolary form by replacing letters by emails among the characters. Thus,
the novel is a multiple-perspective narrative where events are seen through the
eyes of various people working for the agency, from temporary workers to CEO. e (novel) centers around corporate
business structures, leadership, creativity, headhunting for and firing people
to keep up appearances, work efficiency, business ethics, and all kinds of
human weaknesses which stall progress by having employees waste their time and
energy on unimportant things and which eventually prevent success. The advent
of e-novels is seen as yet another step further in the evolution of new forms
of telling story.
The
characterization, situations, plots, etc are changing and finding new
alterations. Even Sidney Sheldon type pulp fiction or J.K. Rowling type child
fiction or Poe type detective fiction are affected by the digital wave. We have
not Cyberpunk to replace traditional classical pulp fictions. Cyberpunk is
a postmodern and science
fiction genre noted for its focus
on "high tech and low life." The name was
originally coined by Bruce Bethke as
the title of his short story "Cyberpunk," published in 1983 It features advanced science, such as information technologyand cybernetics,
coupled with a degree of breakdown or radical change in the social order. Cyberpunk works are well situated
within postmodern literature.(Wikipedia Cyberpunk).
Collaboration
as against isolation is the key word in the digital age. Social media is
nothing but collaborating. It seems that suddenly everybody want to
‘speak/write’. Listeners or readers are fast becoming rare species. Well, this
trend of life is mirrored in Penguin project of WikiNovel.
A Million Penguins, the wiki-novel experiment
currently underway at Penguin Books is trying to find out if a self-organizing
collective of writers can produce a credible novel on a live website. A dubious
idea if you believe a novel is almost by definition the product of a singular
inspiration, but praiseworthy nonetheless for its experimental bravado. Though
the project has not succeed yet, nearly 1500
individuals have contributed to the writing and editing of A Million Penguins,
contributing over 11,000 edits making this, in the words of Penguin’s Chief
Executive, ‘not the most read, but possibly the most written novel in
history‘. 75000 people have visited the site and there have been more
than 280,000 page views.( Ettinghausen 2007)
Such
experiments in writing literature along lead one to think of the demise of
literature. Kernan Alvin (1992) takes a critical look at the changing paradigm
in society because of the influence of digital ways of life and tries to
connect with with the literature. Let me quote at length from the review of his
book ‘The Death of Literature:
“Kernan
Alvin probes deeper, relating the death of literature
to potent forces in our postindustrial world—most obviously, the technological
revolution that is rapidly transforming a print to an electronic culture,
replacing the authority of the written word with the authority of television,
film, and computer screens. The turn taken by literary criticism itself, in
deconstructing traditional literature and declaring it void of meaning in
itself, and in focusing on what are described as its ideological biases against
women and nonwhites, has speeded the disintegration. Recent legal debates about
copyright, plagiarism, and political patronage of the arts have exposed the
greed and self-interest at work under the old romantic images of the
imaginative creative artist and the work of art as a perfect, unchanging
icon. Kernan describes a number of the crossroads where literature and
society have met and literature has failed to stand up. He discusses the high
comedy of the obscenity trial in England against Lady Chatterley's Lover, in which the British literary establishment
vainly tried to define literature. He takes alarmed looks at such agents of
literary disintegration as schools where children who watch television eight
hours a day can't read, decisions about who chooses and defines the words
included in dictionaries, faculty fights about the establishment of new
departments and categories of study, and courtrooms where criminals try to
profit from bestselling books about their crimes. According to Kernan,
traditional literature is ceasing to be legitimate or useful in these changed
social surroundings. What is needed, he says, if it is any longer possible in
electronic culture, is a conception of literature that fits in some positive
way with the new ethos of post-industrialism, plausibly claiming a place of importance
both to individual lives and to society as a whole for the best kind of
writing.” (Kernan yalepress.yale.edu)
It
is difficult to disagree with Kernan. The Gutenberg has tolled the death of
printed poem or novels. As an alternative to this Apocalypse of print, some
theorists, critics or artists have already found solutions of „escape”. New
forms of literary practice access digital resources and force the boundaries of
„literature” to expand to visual, cybernetic, hyper-textual territories.
(Echinox Journal 2011). This experience of visual, cybernetic &
hyper-textual is experimented in form of Vook. (www.vook.com).
WHAT IS A VOOK?
A vook is a new innovation in
reading that blends a well-written book, high-quality video and the power of
the Internet into a single, complete story.
You can read your book, watch
videos that enhance the story and connect with authors and your friends through
social media all on one screen, without switching between platforms.
Vooks are available in two
formats: As a web-based application you can read on your computer and a mobile
application for reading on the go. With the web-based application you don't
have to download programs or install software. Just open your favorite browser
and start reading and watching in an exciting new way. You can also download
and install the mobile applications through the Apple iTunes store and sync
them with your Apple mobile device.
Vook has a simple idea: put great
filmmakers together with great authors and let them create a new kind of media.
But for this to succeed, we need a talented filmmaker who can be imaginative,
work with another creative vision and shoot and edit for an entirely new form.
For
more than 500 years the book has been a remarkably stable entity: a coherent
string of connected words, printed on paper and bound between covers. (Vook)
But
in the age of the iPhone, Kindle and YouTube, the notion of the book is
becoming increasingly elastic as publishers mash together text, video and Web features
in a scramble to keep readers interested in an archaic form of entertainment.
The readers are invited to log on to a Web site to watch brief videos that
flesh out the plot.
Some
publishers say this kind of multimedia hybrid is necessary to lure modern
readers who crave something different. But reading experts question whether
fiddling with the parameters of books ultimately degrades the act of reading.
(Rich 2009)
I
would like to quote at length form what Moroko Rich reported in The New York
Times (Oct 1, 2009 Pg A1)
“There is no
question that these new media are going to be superb at engaging and
interesting the reader,” said Maryanne Wolf, a professor of child development
at Tufts University and
author of “Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain.”
But, she added, “Can you any longer read Henry James or George
Eliot? Do you have the patience?”
The
most obvious way technology has changed the literary world is with electronic
books. Over the past year devices like Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s Reader have gained
in popularity. But the digital editions displayed on these devices remain
largely faithful to the traditional idea of a book by using words — and
occasional pictures — to tell a story or explain a subject
Simon &
Schuster is also releasing two digital novels combining text with videos a
minute or 90 seconds long that supplement — and in some cases advance — the story
line.
“Everybody
is trying to think about how books and information will best be put together in
the 21st century,” said Judith Curr, publisher of Atria Books, the Simon &
Schuster imprint that is releasing the electronic editions in partnership with Vook,
a multimedia company. She added, “You can’t just be linear anymore with your
text.” (Rich 2009)
Well, the
question may arise at the end of this paper reading that ‘what is the meaning
of this comparative survey of art of telling story? I would end this paper with
following stolen words – quoted randomly from ‘The Search is All?: The Pursuit
of Meaning in Julian Barnes’s Flaubert’s Parrot,
Staring at the Sun and A History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters’
written by Wojciech Drag.
“For Oliver, who
found the whole idea deeply embarrassing?” Originally used by
Terry Eagleton
to opens his recent book entitled The
Meaning of Life (2007). What is more, in the preface he notes that
writing about such a suspect concept as “the meaning of life” seems “fit for the
crazed and the comic”. Why is the notion of “meaning” embarrassing to explore?
Why are we so wary of it? Possible answers are many. One of them is that we
have come to live in an age that distrusts “big words” and concepts which
purport to account for the totality of human existence, which disregard variety
and difference. The postmodern thought, which highlights the contingency of
human life and announces the lack of any solid foundation to it calls into
question the notion of absolute meaning and regards it as redolent of “an
old-fashioned metaphysics”. The search for absolute meaning, I will argue, can
also find its expression in a desire to establish a stable context of
interpretation (such as religion or art) – a framework through which one can
understand one’s own experience and make sense of it. It may also take the form
of a longing for truth and authenticity, which would stand firm and intact in
confrontation with the relativity, skepticism and moral chaos that appear
implicit in the postmodern age marked by the demise of grand narratives. In the
times when no new ideas are to be expressed, what we find is experiments with
forms of expression. The end of cognitive receptivity deadens the creative grey
cells of human mind. Is it the absence of creativity that more importance is
given to form of expression rather
than the idea of expression?
May be it is the urge for instant gratification or to satisfy sensual pleasure
that these sort of mingling of words and videos are experimented. May be it is
the habit of techno-savvy mind to go for multi-tasking – doing several things
at a time – reading, viewing, listening, discussing on social network,
interacting with author and other readers – that these forms are emerging. During
Modernist era, Eliots, Pounds James Joyces and Beketts were in search of form
of expression which can express the fragmented existed of world war worn
generation. They found in stream of consciousness, absurd theatre and mythical
technique. May be today’s writer wants synergism of words and videos for better
expression of their ideas and to give what reader wants.
Yes,
the traditional ways of writing literature and reading literature is on death
bed. In all ages past, we have experienced at each and every fin de siècle there is conflict between
the new and the old. For the time being while the transition is happening, we
find literature with the traits of the old and the new. It’s a different matter
that such literature is hated by both, the old readers and the new readers.
Shakespeare’s plays were compared with bedlam asylum. Wordsworth’s poems were
considered childish, D.H. Lawrence was porno-writer, T.S. Eliot was not
understood to the Moderns. Today, they are all ‘classics’. In a new era of globalization and terrorism, Eagleton
(2003) warns, the bundle of ideas known as post-modernism is essentially
toothless. In this eloquent synthesis of a lifetime of learning, Eagleton
challenges contemporary intellectuals to engage with a range of vital
topics-love, evil, death, morality, religion, and revolution-that they've
ignored over the past thirty years. In his cry for more holistic and humane way
of "reading" the world, it becomes essential to see how art of
storytelling is undergoing sweeping change under the influence of digital age.
It would be interesting to watch how will comparative literature and
literary theory respond to these new practices? Will the theorists and critics
consider “old” theories fulfilled by the „empowerment of the reader”? Will they
feel the need to forge new concepts and new methods? Or will they seek entirely
new perspectives to which traditional methods can be adjusted? Alternative
conceptual and methodological discourses emerge in present-day discourses on
literature, springing from totally different points of view. The expansion of
literature beyond the paper-written support and the expansion of digital media
to the realms of literature engage writers and researchers of the literary
field in a rethinking of their own creative identity and of their disciplinary
approach. (Echinox Journal)
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