The use of a learning platform in a reading and writing course

Abstract

This article deals with an online course offered by the university of Navarra in the German Department in Spain which is based on the reading process of a literary work and the integration of various other sources of information, and by using electronic tools such as the discussion forum, the diary and the Internet. The concept is developed regarding a literary didactic methodology that takes productive, learner centred literary communication as fundamental. Other important objectives are: to enhance the learner's autonomy with activities centred on their productivity before, during and after the reading; to improve their reading and writing skills with different kinds of reading materials; to extend their general cultural knowledge in relation to literature, other media, history, and therefore to use the Internet as a source in order to research topics related to the author, his work, place and time presented in the novel. The use of electronic tools not only ensures the instrumental advantages of independence of time and place, but more importantly, is to be seen in a new literary didactic approach in reference to the context, the intertextuality and contextuality of a text which characterizes hypertextuality and hypermediality. In this sense, the use of a learning platform in its convergence of production, literary communication, contextuality and hypermediality constitute the fundamental aspects of their net -character as an open dynamic system. The use of Internet in this context is to be seen in its pedagogical contribution to more sophisticated projects and as an integral part of teaching literature electronically. All these structural elements constitute in the theory of literature the basis of a more complex aesthetic of the new media in relation to literacy and the inherent potential of creating experiences which are no longer bound only to a book as a medium.