Entornos digitales: Conceptualización y praxis ed. by Beatriz Trigo and Mary Ann Dellinger (review)

In Entornos digitales: Conceptualización y praxis, editors Beatriz Trigo and Mary Ann Dellinger bring together, through nine essays and an introduction, a range of approaches to the theory and practice of Digital Humanities within Hispanism. Topics vary widely, including for example, representations of technology within a variety of literary and filmic texts, the impact of digitization projects, the place of technology in the classroom, and more. Digital technology, the book argues, does not only have the potential to alter methodology and approach to scholarship within the humanities, but can also serve to contextualize or bolster the value of humanities within a world increasingly reliant on statistics and quantifiable data. Additionally, the book points to the ways in which digital humanities has increased interdisciplinary collaboration within and across universities.

Part one “La digitalización de las humanidades” describes a variety of perspectives concerning the “digitalization of the humanities” and the manifestations of this development within a variety of academic settings today. The first essay, “Las humanidades digitales: qué, quién, cómo,” by Beatriz Trigo, is focused on how digital humanities work has shaped scholarly approaches within Hispanic Studies, arguing that digitalization and quantification of information through technology has served to increase accessibility, collaboration and breadth of scholarship. One of the most innovative contributions of this volume, in fact, is Trigo’s ability to succinctly summarize and translate into Spanish recent developments within Digital Humanities, signaling the ongoing need for digital representation of non-Anglophone cultures, as well as the creation of academic venues that could better support multilingual digital humanities projects. This part also includes an interesting contribution by Daniel Escandell Montiel on the intellectual diaspora of the twentieth century.

Part two “Transmedialidad” is focused on the varying interpretations of “transmediality” as a concept, meaning the confluence of different medias relating to one topic and its effect on twenty-first-century audiences. Authors of chapters in this second part are Jonatán Martín Gómez, Nuria Ibáñez-Quintana, María Cristina C. Mabrey, Thomas Deveny, Mary Ann Dellinger, and Michele C. Davila Gonçalves. While all chapters are certainly worth reading, likely of most interest to audiences of Hispania is the concluding essay of the volume, titled “Youtube como antídoto contra la ansiedad durante el proceso de adquisición del español como segunda lengua,” which examines the efficacy of visual aids in facilitating or impeding oral communication within the classroom. David-Ross Gerling and Mary Ann Dellinger compare the various responses of Spanish language learners who are presented with YouTube videos in which protagonists converse in varying degrees of Spanish language fluency. The study presents two groups of students: Classroom X and Classroom Y with two kinds of Spanish language videos: Classroom X only saw videos in which Spanish was spoken colloquially and Classroom Y only saw videos in which Spanish was spoken in “linguistic perfection” (204). Exams were then conducted daily following exposure to the videos. Controls included time of day, frequency of screenings during the week, kind and frequency of examinations given, and the length of the study.

Results of the study were not conclusive, although in some cases there was a correlation between regular exposure to colloquial Spanish, and reduced anxiety and proficiency in the target language. The authors concluded that regular use of YouTube videos within class is an efficient method of making use of what they call the “silent period,” a time when students internalize the language (207). Further, the authors insist that students expecting to work in the Spanish-speaking world have much to gain from exposure to multiple dialects and situations of communication that can be found on You Tube or through comparable digital means. The study even tried to incorporate students’ various professional interests into classroom conversations and themes, such as discussing the publications of state and federal environmental agencies for students interested in conservation, or discussing...