Transmedia Literacies

I came across this almost by divine chance. I was just saying this morning that I was unsure of what to blog about as I exhausted a lot of my usual topic choices when it my mind thinks about Digital Literacy. However I was pleasantly surprised on my bus ride into the city this morning when I opened my iphone and read the title of the new episode for a certain podcast I follow. The podcast is the NCTE Language Arts Podcast. I picked it up at the start of this course and powered through the 20 some episodes in a short month. Now I most wait an agonizing month in between each episode. There is some really amazing stuff, and I will advocate for them now by showing you. This months podcast is entitled "Digital Storyworld: Transmedia Literature in the ELA Classoom."

Here is a pretty good definition of Transmedia Literacy.

 

For more information, see this article that I will be referencing throughout the post.

So in essence transmedia literacy is an interactive narrative that spans across multiple platforms. It's easy enough to say that but just the podcast speakers suggested it really is difficult to understand this unless you see. Lucky for you we are going to do just that. If you have a moment, take a transmedia journey with me.

If you don't have a few minutes, about five, just have a look at this trailer. Below is a video promoting one of the most prominent Transmedia Novels. It is entitled "Inanimate Alice" by Kate Pullinger. 

Interested yet? If so take it one step further and watch the first episode. Also note that I use the word "watch" very loosely. Simple follow this link and click on Episode One. It takes about five minutes. Go on, do it. Ill be here when you get back.

So, what do you think? As the episodes progress the interactivity becomes bigger and requires students to branch out beyond the scope of the interactive video, asking them to go to outside sources, other websites, even to submit their own material to help the protagonist in her journey. The best part is the website offers a full guide on how to integrate it into the classroom. In fact this "Inanimate Alice" and the website surrounding it was awarded the AASL award for best teaching website of 2012.

This type of Digital Storytelling, as it can also be called, is an amazing new frontier that opens up realms of possibilities for collaboration, classroom extension, and so much more. This is just the tip of the iceberg, if you'd like some more resources check out this awesome Prezi that maps out the different narrative types available to us through Transmedia Literacies as well as some amazing examples of Digital Stories.

The Trend Emerges

It seems I am noticing a trend in my blog posts. My other peers are doing some wonderful work responding to their uses of digital literacy in their classroom. I unfortunately do not have the pool of wealth to draw from. So I spend my time cursing the internet for cool new technology to talk about. This week I have come across something that I found after witnessing a rather strange phenomena earlier in the week.

I came home from work to find my fiance on the bed with her lap top with headphones. She is currently a junior at Pitt studying Spanish as well as in the Pre-Physicians Assistant track. I was surprised to see her as she normally is at class during this time. I asked her what she was doing, she removed her headphones and said.

"I didn't feel well so I am live streaming my physiology lecture." Turns out her professor actually live streams all his lectures, as well as records them for further review, and makes that resources available to the students. My fiance explains she would rather be there in person but she has friends in the class that only show up on days when they are required to take tests or turn in paperwork and simply live stream or watch the recorded versions after.

This got me thinking about the trend education could be taking. Cyber schools are already on the rise and causing budget crisis for numbers of public schools across the country. Many schools as well utilize their own online form of a classroom to extend their reach into the schools. This very course were in right now is entirely contained online. Where will we be in 10 years?

To re-focus this post however, I was very intrigued about the possibility of bringing this idea of streaming instruction into the secondary level. To begin I pose a question.

Has anyone ever seen this done? Have you heard of teachers recording or streaming lessons? The red tape would likely be miles long when it comes to this, but I see many benefits. Combating Absenteeism for one. Student sick for extended periods of time? Make recordings of their lessons or live streams available to them to extend the classroom into their own home. They can comfortably attend in their PJs.

Parents could become more involved in their students learning by being able to actually see what goes on in the teachers classroom.

Something slightly more controversial, but teacher accountability could become a much bigger focus when teachers are actually on record. This may not be a door some want to open, but accountability exists in so many other realms of this world, why should the education of our children be any different?

Moving beyond just purely theorizing I  do have some new services to share with you. This one might be a little bit beyond our available pay grade, but if your school is looking into streaming this company is, from what I can tell, one of the leading providers.

http://www.vbrick.com/industries/education.asp

Vbrick is an online streaming company that provides schools, along with businesses and other clients, with support, bandwidth, technology, and guidance to take their skills into the digital world. Everything from live morning announcements to streaming classrooms for absent students.

It is a world of possibilities, and dangers, but an interesting one regardless.

I saw a paperback in the wild today

I did. In fact I saw two of them. Together. Like some odd mating ritual. Two paperback books in the hands of two teenagers. I almost missed my stop as I gawked at them. I am not sure why I found this such an amazing site. I think it's possibly says something about the state of the world now, especially for our young members of it.

It is a growing trend that more and more Americans are reading less and less. According to Gallop polls reported in the New York Times and Boston Globe, there are a staggering number of growing statistics that cast a gloomy light on reading in the 21st century. Here are a few of them.

This was an article from 2007, and in the past six years this divide has only grown as digital entertainment becomes even more immerse and accessible. The question now becomes if digital entertainment is so rampant, why hasn't digital literacy risen with the revolution as well. Surely it must have had a positive effect? Perhaps taking a look at how reading has evolved will help answer the question.

E-Readers are no longer a revolutionary tool. They are in affluent and middle class families a house hold item. Most American households own at least one device that can be used as an E-Reader. They are relatively inexpensive and easy to use. The data coming about them is also encouraging. According to an article on CNN, Avid readers read about 40% more books per year on an E-Reader then paperback due to the availability and ease of use. Also a third of readers say they know spend more time reading  on their E-Reader then paperback. The article also predicted a bright future as the price of E-Readers continues to drop to entice more buyers to invest in the content available.

So this means reading is back on right! Not quite.

While there is still some debate, partially because it is very hard to get accurate reports of readership across the country, how many people will willingly claim they haven't read a book since highschool?, but many sources, including some in that very same article, point out that E-Readers only entice and advance the readership of current Readers. To a non reader there is little to entice them to go out and pick up an 80 dollar kindle especially when if they really wanted to read the book is likely right in that very same store for 1/10 of the price.

Okay so E-Readers may or may not be a positive effect for reading in the 21st century. I personally enjoy both, I have a handful of books on my kindle but also buy about 3,4 books for pleasure each year. And it seems most readers enjoy them. A portion are stalwart hold outs for the printed medium and I can see the appeal. There is something tangible about holding the book in your hand, feeling the ink so to speak. There is also something very nice about saying the phrase, "I think I'd like to read the Hunger Games" and then 10 minutes and 9 dollars later you are.What do you think? Hit the Poll!

Which do you prefer? E-Readers, Paperback, Both?
	My Kindle-Fire and I are getting married.
	I would cut down The Giving Tree to make one last paperback.
	I use both but prefer the E-Reader.
	I use both but prefer paperback.
	Does Facebook count?
pollcode.com free polls

Hollywood Literacy

We can all relate to that childhood dream in school, one which visually will never be the same as more and more school classrooms become equipped with smart boards and projectors, of walking into a classroom and seeing that traveling TV stand from the AV room. To the average high school kid it meant taking a period resting your head on your desk while a movie played. Sure there may have been a guided notes you needed to follow along with or a journal response you needed to complete, but it was nothing you couldn't turn to your buddy in the hallway after class to get the required information. This is often a high school students response to watching a video.



If the audio still isn't working, I was having tremendous difficulty with it, the teacher begins by saying "Today class we're going to be watching a movie.." and the class rejoices until she finishes her sentence by saying "And we're going to be taking notes." The class immediate deflates and the student in red finishes the video by proclaiming "What?"

So how can using a movie in the classroom be more then just an excuse for teachers, and students, to mentally check out for a time being. Film can be an amazing resource if used correctly. There is a book I would love to bring to everyone's attention. I have read excerpts of it during my own studies and will very likely be purchasing it in the future as the few chapters I have read give some amazing insight into how to effectively use film. Here is the text.

One of the biggest things I have taken away is this; using a film is useless if the teacher simply presses play and walks away for the period. Even if there is some kind of exit slip or guided notes sessions students will lose focus. They will fall into two categories. They will either zone out and lose all focus of the film and the content involved or fall to deeply into the film to focus on the instructional content. Rather the teacher needs to implement intervals to allow the students enough time to absorb the film but not too long so they lose the instructional goals. Golden suggests using skills like predicting, creating inferences, and activities like 60 second quick writes to inject learning and instruction into the film.

For example when teaching S.E. Hinton's "The Outsiders" and using the wonderful movie adaptation have the students pause right afters Johnny's final words "Stay Gold Pony Boy." and complete a sixty second quick write about the significance of those words within the context of the movie.

There are so many more resources in this book including 25 fully drawn out unit plans about popular movie adaptations. That alone is worth the cover price.