From Blackboard to Blogs: Teaching English Literature in the Digital Age

Abstract

This essay explores the digitization of the English literature classroom and considers its current and future incarnations. What can web-based courses offer students and teachers of English literature? How might the use of blogs, Twitter, hypertexts, and course management systems like Blackboard, among other digital tools, change the structure and very nature of literature pedagogy? These questions are particularly important to consider as our society is transformed by digital technology and during a moment in which the internet has promised inclusivity and the democratization of culture. Concomitantly, however, the humanities have become vulnerable in our tech-focused era and digital divides among different social groups persist in higher education. Hence, we must deliberate our adoption and adaptation of digital pedagogy with great thoughtfulness and care.