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.