Transmedia Storytelling & New Media Literacies

MONDAY, MAY 9, 2011

Laura Fleming


Thanks to all of those who participated in the recent vibrant, richly layered,round-table discussion on Cisco's GETideas community- and thank you to GETideas for hosting it.  The discussion focused on the use of transmedia storytelling techniques within education and featured members of the Inanimate Alice team.  Although the discussion thread is still online and ongoing participation is welcomed, I thought I would take this opportunity to highlight some of the outstanding points made that are relevant to both the transmedia and the education communities.

Kate Pullinger, author of Inanimate Alice, reminded us of the importance of authenticity when creating transmedia storyworlds.  She told us that from her experience, digital fiction projects work best when they are 'born-digital', conceived of as digital projects from day one.

Simon Pulman spoke about the capacity to be 'passionately curious' and how transmedia in education is less about finding a more efficient way to funnel facts into kids' heads and more about providing a safe, trustworthy environment that can encourage kids to test their curiosity and begin to make connections between pieces of media.

Ian Harper, the producer of Inanimate Alice proposed the idea of 'anytime education' in which Simon Pulman proposed the idea of an 'alternate summer' transmedia learning environment.  Ian Harper spoke aobut students using the Inaniamate Alice series 'out of hours' and how it engaged kids when they would otherwise be out on the street.  He also stated:

"What excites me is the considerable 'stretch' this provides for co-creation, charing and reaching out to the wider world.  We have yet to see how friends and family can fully share in such stories.  Homework, schoolwork, and the summer recess wasteland could and should be fully accessible by educators and parents."

John Connell offered insight into widening the debate to include some glances at the very nature of literacy itself in the 'transmedia world'.

"The ability to read, write and speak will always be a critical element of literacy, but transmedia is showing us the way to an understanding of how that element can can be combined powerfully and meaningfully with all of the other elements that can be used."

As this roundtable discussion was going on, I had the opportunity to attend the Sandbox Summit in which I was able to hear Karen Cator- Director of the United States Department of Educational Technology present.  One of the more interesting points she made was that we as a learning society are at a digital inflection point- transitioning between print-based classroom materials and digital media.  She mentioned transmedia as being a  powerful force in moving from print to digital and how stories across platforms help to personalize learning, offer opportunities for a much more productive environment.

Bill Boyd and Hilery Williams offered insight into the world of students with learning difficulties and how oftentimes, particularly students with dyslexia, are faced with an unbroken wall of written or printed text and are often left feeling deflated.  Bill pointed out that:

"Transmedia does not spell the end of printed text.  Inanimate Alice, for example, includes a progressively more difficult written text from one episode to the next.  Unlike conventional texts though, young learners are drawn in and have additional 'incentive' to read it". 

I pointed out that transmedia techniques in education leverage not only the strengths of each platform, but cater to the strengths of each learner as well and how a carefully designed and implemented transmedia production would take into account the needs of all of our learners allowing them to immerse themselves in the content.

Martassac and I also spoke about the important role of teacher-librarians in aquiring the materials to to support literacy across platforms, while also teaching the necessary skills for students to be able to effectively consume the content and become the producers of the content themselves.

With most of the focus being on technology, Jake Witz then steered the discussion in another direction by asking how much of this can be achieved without technology- making it accessible to all children.  Hoppingfun responded by saying that transmedia storytelling can absolutely be no-tech and low-tech, low-cost and no-cost, making it accessible for schools and informal education groups.  She also pointed out as opposed to lesson 'extensions' which are usually assigned for extra credit or optional, one exciting goal of tranmsedia is to make them fully integral pieces of a unified lesson which, centers in one tight, action-packed, emotionally rich, historically complex core story.

Bill Boyd reminded us all that regardless of the medium or the platform, the really important thing is a good story.  He also suggested that:

"when we talk about stories, we are not simply talking about fictional creations, we are talking about all of the ways in which we construct learning.  Every time a teacher enters a classroom or a learning space, they are constructing a story, and helping others to construct theirs."

And finally Marsattac asked two questions that I think need further reflection and analysis by transmedia producers of content and educators alike:

1)  How is the arrival of new generations of students used to transmedia contents since childhood going to change school as we know it?

2)Pedagogical transmedia contents are probably going to be developed in the future, what should their core characteristics be?