In the spring of 2004, four Harvard sophomores, led by Mark Zuckerberg, set out to move the college experience online. The result of their efforts, the social-networking website Facebook, which launched on February 4, 2004, has achieved just that, extending the social experiences of college online. Students can–and do–add people they meet in class, outside of class, campus club-mates, and potential love interests to their online friends list. We can “like” each others’ comments, tag ourselves in images, and we always know when some event is going on, whether it be a party around campus, upcoming tests, or even world events. Facebook has revolutionized the ways in which we communicate with our peers. In the social sense, Facebook has placed the college experience online–but remember, the “social” aspect is only half.
On Thursday, February 3, 2011, English 30 students under the tutelage of Diana Gruendler took the first step in completing the process. As part of the Sony Reader: New Frontiers in Reading research project, Gruendler’s undergraduate TAs launched Lector: A Virtual Book Club, a website devoted to expanding the classroom experience to the internet. In the New Frontiers in Reading research project, students have been exposed to Sony Readers in order to gauge the readers’ compatibility with the classroom atmosphere. In the past, the research group has run classes using the same syllabus, one a “control” class using regular, codex books, and the other an “experimental” class, in which the students had to use the readers. Now we’re taking that one step further, by incorporating a medium natural to an electronic device, a website, and opening the invitation for others outside of the project that have eReaders to participate. Lector takes its name from the Latin word “lector,” which referred to a reader in ancient times, one whose job it was to read from texts in public forums, when literacy wasn’t common. It’s a play on the fact that we call devices such as the Sony Reader, Kindle, and Nook “eReaders” and not “eBooks” — because they display the text of eBooks (strings of code), and sometimes can actually read to us.
As Facebook connects people socially, Lector connects people intellectually. Right now, the key constituency consists of two English 30 sections on campus, taught by the same instructor. But this is only the beginning. Consider the student who misses class, for whatever reason it may be. As a conscientious student, I hate missing classes; the guilt gnaws at me relentlessly. But a student whose class is on Lector can afford to miss a class and still contribute to the conversation online. One of the amazing things about Lector is that two of our TAs (and my fellow research assistants) aren’t on campus. One is currently in Michigan on a co-op for chemical engineering, and the other is in Australia studying abroad–half a world away! No matter where they are–either three states away or literally on the other side of the planet–these students still contribute to the conversation, by helping with the design and maintenance of the website, posting videos that go with the current content we’re discussing in class, or commenting on the students’ remarks. The only limits are those that we place on ourselves–time, day, and location are no longer an issue.
Stay tuned next week as I further explore the vast potential of Lector and where we envision it going. In the meantime, please check out our website and join in the conversation.