Our Solution
So how do we ensure that Shakespeare's works — a resource so rich in literature, philosophy, psychology, and human life itself — are not lost to these "digital natives"?
Crossing the Digital Divide
Shakespeare In Bits aims to address this potential disconnect by blending technology and content to provide a more stimulating, contemporary learning experience. Graphics, audio, and text combine to provide users with multiple cognitive inputs while on-demand rollover notes, clickable in-line translations, character bios etc also provide a degree of interactivity that keeps the student more fully engaged with the text. Importantly, this approach also allows the students to interact with challenging words or phrases in their original context, without resorting to “dumbed down” modern “translations”.
Pedagogical Perspective
The combination of animation, audio, and text delivered by each Shakespeare In Bits title also allows students to process information in a way that best suits their learning style. Multiple intelligence theorists such as Howard Gardner have argued that traditional educational methods best suit learners with a strong verbal or logical-mathematical intelligence. With Shakespeare In Bits, learners with a strong visual, auditory or kinesthetic intelligence are also catered to, through the rich graphic, aural, and interactive elements of the software.
Other influential thinkers, such as developmental psychologist Lev Vygotsky, have argued that active participation and social interaction can maximize learning outcomes in the classroom. Cognizant of this, Shakespeare In Bits allows students and teachers the flexibility to use the product on their own in a self-paced environment, or in a more collaborative group settings via a projector in the classroom.
Our school licensing also facilitates flipped classroom approaches, with students welcome to access the resources from home, if required by their school.