ENGAGING DIGITAL LITERATURE TO ENHANCE DIGITAL LITERACY (A Survey among Fourth Grade Students of a Private Teacher Training College)

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper aims to investigate the attitudes of 56 students at a private teacher training college toward digital literature and its influence on their digital literacy. It also examines their challenges and strategies while studying digital literature. A descriptive qualitative technique was employed in processing the data results from a Likert scale questionnaire and interview. The results showed that digital literature made students engage well in the learning process since some features of digital literature made them interested. Their digital literacy is also positively influenced because they are able to collect sources of literary works in several ways, realize the impact of social media on the development of literary texts, and can create and distribute literary works digitally. Furthermore, challenges faced and their strategies during digital literature class were found. The majority of students revealed that poor internet access is the biggest challenge in learning digital literature. Moreover, some of the students had problems in terms of language barrier, adaptation from offline to online learning, lack of focus, lack of interaction, lack of learning strategies, lack of reading comprehension, and lack of digital literacy. Besides that, a few students found difficulty in terms of boredom, inaccessible sources, irrelevant sources, lack of digital devices, becoming uncreative, and too much information. However, a few students did not encounter any significant problems in learning digital literature. In conclusion, the students showed positive attitudes toward digital literature in enhancing their digital literacy. Furthermore, although the students faced some challenges in digital literature, they had their own strategies to overcome them