Prototyping a Dual-Display e-Reader in the Literature Classroom

This semester, the Computer Science Department and the English Department at UMD teamed up to provide Honors students in Book 2.0: The History of the Book and the Future of Reading with a prototype electronic reading device. The deployment is part of a longitudinal study to understand how electronic reading devices are used in an academic setting. One of the goals this semester is also to determine how the introduction of a second device---wirelessly linked to the first---affects the reading experience. In this Digital Dialogues talk, Chen will describe the devices being used by Kraus and her students, their design rationale, and some of the more unique aspects of the study being conducted. Kraus will preview an upcoming assignment that has students reading a 20th-century avant-garde novel on the dual-display e-readers, a novel originally published in unbound sheaves that the reader is encouraged to assemble in any order. The presenters will conclude with some of the more surprising results gathered so far, at the halfway point of this study.