Teaching Shakespeare in the Digital Age: The eZoomBook Approach

Abstract

What collaborative process can teachers offer in order to stimulate their students' reading of and writing on Shakespeare's plays? How can new technologies contribute to facilitating the classroom experience? The eZoomBook (eZB) template was designed for teachers to create and share multi-level digital books called "eZoomBooks" that allow readers to access enriched versions of the original, organized according to different tabs related to places mentioned in the original text. A zooming in and out function enables the readers of the eZoomBooks to navigate freely between the original and the enriched tabulated versions. This paper focuses on a pilot study of the methodology using a simplified version of the template. The targeted learners were English as a Second Language engineering students. Our objective is to show that the eZB framework and pedagogical applications are especially appropriate in making a difficult subject easier to teach (giving and correcting group assignments) and learn by providing learners an innovative and motivating approach to reading literature.

The eZoomBook Tool: A Blended and Eclectic Approach to Digital Pedagogy

“…The eZB editor makes it possible to create interactive documents for the creation of multimedia enrichments and activities as well as multiple abridged versions of a given document through a Wiki-like system of construction. The educational perspectives of the eZB have been highlighted by a range of experiments carried out in different learning environments (De Marco, C., Evain C., and Gutierrez F. 2013, Evain, C., De Marco, C. 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016a, 2016b, 2014.…”