Transmedia and education: How transmedia is changing the way we learn — from thedigitalshift.com by Carolyn Sun

 

From

Transmedia -Illustration By Oanh Le

 

 

Excerpt:

Transmedia, a broad descriptive word that literally translated means “across media” and encompasses many strategies that transverse industries, is generally regarded as the use of multiple media platforms to tell a story or story experience. Though the word “transmedia” is thought to have entertainment franchise origins, its adaptation for education purposes is both valuable and becoming more and more common. While teachers like Sansing are using coding and programming in their language arts instruction, others are taking advantage of increasingly sophisticated apps and interactive media for classroom use.

 

 

Also see:

  • The Science of Storytelling [Infographic] The chemical and psychological makeup of our minds affects how we consume content: Our brains are wired to connect with compelling stories.
 

Hypermedia storytelling — from kirkbowe.com
Museum exhibitions as dynamic storytelling experiences using the latest technology

Excerpt:

The secret of many great storytellers lies in their ability to adapt delivery to their audiences, even as they speak.  Storytelling is at its best when it is not a one-way monologue but rather an experience which is shaped by the teller and the listener together.  Underpinning this is the notion of real-time mutual discovery.

Great museum exhibitions tell great stories.  But for practical reasons they lack a dynamic edge, unable to see the faces and hear the thoughts of the people walking around them.  This is because many exhibitions are, to some extent, static place-holders for the mind and soul of the curator or curation team.

One of my passions is researching into how to use technology to bring a vibrant storytelling relationship to the fore.  Recently, advances in certain areas of mobile technology have begun to show me that the potential is now there for the cultural heritage sector to take advantage of it.

But how about the cultural sector?  Many museums have already experimented with mobile interaction through the use of printed codes, such as QR codes, which visitors must scan with their devices.  Bluetooth Smart removes that cumbersome step: visitors need only be with proximity of a beacon in order for your app to provide them with the contextual information you wish to deliver.  The technology has many different potential applications:

– Place a beacon in each room of the exhibition.  Your app then triggers a screen of scene-setting background information for the room as the visitor enters.  No need to have congestion points around wall-mounted text at the door.

– Place a beacon under selected objects or cases.  As visitors walk up to the object, your app detects the beacon and provides commentary, video, or a three-dimensional representation of the object.  No need for visitors to type in an object number to a traditional electronic guide.

From DSC:
This has major implications — and applications — for teaching and learning spaces! For blended/hybrid learning experiments.  Such technologies can bridge the physical and virtual/digital worlds!

 

 

Another interesting application, providing access to published content from a specific location only:

 

New children’s book combines modern technology and storytelling — from iwantpop.com by

 Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

MONTREAL, April 15, 2014 /IWANTPOP.COM/ — Jonathan Belisle, a Montreal teacher, script writer and web entrepreneur, has developed the ultimate storytelling system. It’s a combination of old and new, traditional mythology and modern technology, a mixture of fantasy and reality.

Wuxia the Fox is a transmedia project that comes as an illustrated book paired with an iPad app. “The app reacts to what it hears and sees,” explained Belisle. “As you read the story, the app adds the music and sound effects, based on where you are in the story and the tone of your voice. It’s the future of children’s books.”

The iPad app triggers new scenes of content using image recognition, and transforms into a musical instrument when interacting with small wooden blocks provided with the book.

 

Also see:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jonathanbelisle/wuxia-the-fox-augmented-book-and-ipad-app

 

 

 

Also, another interesting item:

Predicting the future of cinema: No limits — and the web wins — from variety.com by David Cohen

Excerpt:

He said today’s tech already offers hints of what the future will bring: screens large and small that can duplicate nearly anything the eye can perceive; cameras that let filmmakers choose framing, depth of field, focus and brightness in post, rather than on the day of shooting; fast networks that permit “collaboration at the speed of thought” and allow people to work together regardless of how far apart they are.

 

 

oculus rift Facebook

 

 

 

Interlude CEO Yoni Bloch to showcase the power of interactive video at the Future of Kids’ TV Summit at MIPTV 2014 — from businesswire.com

Excerpt:

“Interactive videos that respond to children’s preferences can transform TV and educational programming from a passive experience to an active one that is fun and engaging. With kids today growing up with interactive devices, they have an appetite to do more with content than sit back and have it delivered to them in a one-way stream,” Bloch said. “With the potential to create wonderful learning experiences for children, The Summit provides a global stage for attendees to make meaningful changes in the technologies used for entertainment and education.”

 

Also see:

MIPTV: “Future of Kids TV Summit” announced — from
80 senior programming execs to map out digital strategies for kids entertainment.

Excerpt:

“I’m thrilled to be present at the Future of Kids’ TV Summit to discuss how content creators can create a digital playground for children,” said Bloch. “Interactive videos invite kids to continually engage and shape the story differently each time. I look forward to exploring new ways for the entertainment industry to help kids become active participants instead of passive viewers.”

The Future of Kids’ TV Summit is the latest in MIPTV’s established line-up of forward-looking events, following on the heels of the International Drama Coproduction Summit and the Digital Minds Summit. These forums are now recognised by key industry executives as must-attend events in their business agenda.

 

Expanding Learning Opportunities with Transmedia Practices (part 1) — from worlds-of-learning.com by Laura Fleming

 

Transmedia-LauraFleming-Part1-MarApr2014

Excerpt:

The proliferation of digital and networking technologies enables us to rethink,  restructure, and redefine teaching and learning. Transmedia storytelling takes advantage of the rapid convergence of media and allows teachers and learners to participate in rich virtual (and physical) environments that have been shown to foster students’ real emotional engagement with the process of learning. Transmedia learning applies storytelling techniques across multiple platforms to create immersive educational experiences that enable multiple entry and exit points for learning and teaching. By utilizing constructivist and connectivist precepts in the application of these techniques, we can create pedagogies that are transformative on many levels. Encapsulating these notions in the concept of the Transmedia LearningWorld (TLW) allows educators to combine the exciting affordances of the digital technologies with real-life experiences and truly learner-focused pedagogies to produce profoundly productive and powerful learning experiences.

Expanding Learning Opportunities with Transmedia Practices (part 2) — from worlds-of-learning.com by Laura Fleming

Excerpt:

Transmedia storytelling exemplifies learning in the twenty-first century by merging the concept of storytelling with that of the listener-learner and the resulting emotional engagement with the pervasiveness of media. We might define transmedia learning as: the application of storytelling techniques combined with the use of multiple platforms to create an immersive learning landscape which enables multivarious entry and exit points for learning and teaching.

Expanding Learning Opportunities with Transmedia Practices (part 3) — from worlds-of-learning.com by Laura Fleming

Excerpt:

None of this is easy though. Teachers must be given the support they will need to prepare for the concomitant shift in instruction; they will need help to make sense of the new kinds of content that will make their way into the classroom; they will need encouragement to change their approach to teaching and to learning accordingly; and they will need support in how to effectively weave and integrate technology into their practice. The effective use of digital learning can help school districts meet these educational challenges, including, as we have noted, implementing college and career-ready standards for all students, as outlined in the Common Core. Educators need to come to see technology as intrinsic to their instructional practices. Rather than envisaging a process in which technology is merely embedded into the curriculum, an attitude that so often relegates the technology to an afterthought or just one amongst a range of motivating techniques, it should be about the seamless integration of technology into every aspect of teaching and learning through transmedia practices. Technology tools should be so much a part of learning that the friction is removed because of educators and learners do not waste energy thinking about how it works, instead becoming an essential component of all that goes on in the classroom.

Expanding Learning Opportunities with Transmedia Practices (part 4) — from worlds-of-learning.com by Laura Fleming

Excerpt:

The paradox lies in the fact that, at the same time that political and economic forces are pushing the agenda of standardization with some determination, the social-technological environment that we now inhabit is pushing education in the opposite direction. In a real sense, learning is breaking free from the tradition model of education—with school as the central paradigm in that model—simply because the walls of the school can no longer contain all the knowledge and content and desire to learn that is now flowing freely across the ether and intermingling across borders without constraint.

Expanding Learning Opportunities with Transmedia Practices (part 5) — from worlds-of-learning.com by Laura Fleming

Excerpt:

The power of Inanimate Alice lies in the organic connection that is made between the story and the medium along with the innovative use of design and structure. The story unfolds in a game-like world that makes readers direct participants in helping the story to unfold across multiple platforms. With hours of interactive audio-visual experience built in, a gripping mesh of games, puzzles, sights, and sounds embellish and enhance the storyline. The interactivity and narrative are not distinct from one another. In the case of Inanimate Alice, the interactive elements simply cannot be separated from the story. Whether it is controlling Alice’s Baxi (her handheld gaming device) or communicating with Brad (her virtual friend on the Baxi), the embedded technology enhances the narrative and helps it to unfold in manifold directions under the reader’s impulse. It is this that makes Alice a truly unique digital reading experience.

Expanding Learning Opportunities with Transmedia Practices (part 6) — from worlds-of-learning.com by Laura Fleming

Excerpt:

As co-creators of content, our students actively participate in and take control of their own learning. As echoed by the United States Department of Education, the rich, fictional worlds of transmedia tend to create a greater level of social interaction that can inspire children to create their own stories and media products and to share them with each other. The experience of reading is changing. In a transmedia learning experience, reading is now simultaneously an individual act and a social act. Similarly, students can be individual producers but are also able to engage on collaborative sharing, joint creativity, and proliferation of knowledge across the globe.

 

 
 

The complete guide to Transmedia Storytelling — from stateofdigital.com by Gianluca Fiorelli

Excerpt:

Storytelling matters because great stories are:

  • Authentic;
  • Human;
  • Evoke emotions;
  • Are interesting (to me).

Stories, nowadays, must develop themselves in different platforms. For instance, I hear first a news in the radio in the morning, go reading about it on mobile app, and dig into it on desktop.

This is the basic representation of Crossmedia Marketing.

But Crossmedia Marketing, albeit being wonderful and at least how every marketers should conceive his marketing strategy, has the defect that it is usually just thought as a multi-device version of the disjointed content marketing campaigns.

What if I tell you that exists another form of doing Storytelling, which combines the multi-device advantages of Crossmedia but add the essential role of the end users to the mix? Transmedia Storytelling.

Be aware though that Transmedia is nothing really new. In fact, even if as a term was presented my Henry Jenkins in 2003, we could find a first idea of Transmedia in Walt Disney, and how he created a multi-platform narrative universe.

 

A TV app from Disney lets travelers browse its vacation offerings — from nytimes.com by Jane Levere

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

A SMART TV app being introduced by Walt Disney Parks and Resorts on Thursday will let potential travelers use their remote controls to research vacations at theme parks and hotels and on cruise ships and packaged tours.

Brad Baker, director of digital marketing for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, said the advent of smart, or Internet-connected, TVs had created “a really interesting space for us, since there is now a new way for us to be able to tell our story.”

 

Some mentioned functionality:

  • Aggregates videos, photographs, interactive theme park maps and other information from the websites of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts businesses and from their social media channels.
  • Has a trivia quiz
  • Some videos
  • Lets viewers request additional information by submitting their email address

 

 

From DSC:
The items below speak to the wonderful, powerful world of storytelling.  I see storytelling becoming more interactive/participatory — offering more choice and more control to the viewers.  There are applications in education, training, marketing, advertising, and more.  Finally, I’ve also included some interesting tools/sites for folks to create their own digitally-based stories. 


 

How storytelling can do wonders in blogging — by Kumail Hemani

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Why then was my history class one of the best classes I had? We never had to learn by heart any of the history notes in spite of all the dates, events, places and names. What we heard in that class got imprinted in our mind word by word as soon as they reached my ears.

Reason?

It was in the art of my teacher’s style of speaking and style of lectures. She never took our lessons as lectures, instead she choose to tell them through stories.

My teacher knew the art of true speaking. She spoke in such a style that we students felt everything happening around us. The lectures used to start forming an image in students mind, creating a flow, making everything seem like it is happening in the present. In such style of lectures, it only took us moments before everything made an impact on us and we understood everything word by word.

 

5 apps for making movies on mobile devices — from edutopia.org by Monica Burns

Excerpt:

Every year at Hollywood award shows, we see fantastic movies celebrated for their rich storytelling and dynamic performances. Your students can become moviemakers, too, thanks to some powerful apps for mobile devices. With these tools, your children can take videos and edit their work to make professional quality movies using iOS devices (iPads and iPhones) and Android tablets.

One good thing about this easy-to-use technology is that students can still use important English language arts skills like writing a narrative, planning a sequential story, and including key details when getting ready to make a movie. These apps can enhance the work that you are doing with children in the classroom and give them room to be creative storytellers.

 

Visual storytelling: Why data visualization is a content marketing fairytale — from searchenginejournal.com by Shane Jones

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Humans are scientifically designed to love stories.
More of our brain is engaged when we listen to stories. They cause our neurons to act as if we were actually doing the actions we hear in the story. Stories also have that human element we were talking about earlier, which makes them more entertaining and engaging.

If you do it right, you can use your data to tell the human story – and how it can be improved through the use of your product or service. In fact, the best content visuals do just that. They introduce viewers to a concept or situation (the problem you address), walk them through the main information about that concept or situation (how you’ll address it), and then provide a conclusion in the form of CTA (converting).

In summary, people are interested in learning about themselves, but they’re sick of learning through plain copy, and they’re programmed to desire visual content that tells a tale. Visualizing data is an effective strategy for giving them exactly what they want – information that is more visible and less difficult to digest.

 

Crowdsourced storytelling: How can you make the most of user-generated content? — from latd.com by Kim Gaskins

Excerpt:

Connect with people on an emotional level.
This may sound obvious, but there are countless ways to frame a particular project or issue to people you’re hoping to entice—so make sure to think like a good marketer. For example, Israel Mirsky is the founder of Uncoverage, a crowd-funding platform for investigative journalism, who has decided to focus his message on the issues that are most emotionally accessible to his audience. There’s a compelling business case backing Mirsky’s efforts; namely, there’s no longer any business model to support important but resource-intensive journalism that may bring in fewer advertising dollars than simple, click-worthy headlines. It’s a powerful argument, but it’s not the one Mirsky is taking to potential contributors: “I suspect that talking about the problem with investigative journalism isn’t the right value proposition to bring to the table here. The right one is the one that individuals care about: the people and the issues that matter to them.”

 

latitude-March2014

 

 

6 great examples of digital storytelling — from 8ms.com by Simon Heyes

Excerpt:

In the socially connected world, the attention span of an audience becomes shorter as more and more mundane content is thrust in front of their eyes. Digital storytelling allows a brand to evoke emotion, and become more connected with consumers.

If content is at the heart of digital marketing, then we believe audiences are at the heart of digital storytelling. By creating a story that is authentic to your brand and to your audience, and then building content around that story, you will connect your brand to the lives of your consumers.

Here are six handpicked examples where we believe great writing is combined with great imagery to create authentic content, and a brilliant digital story.

 

5 steps for successful transmedia storytelling — from 8ms.com by Simon Heyes

 

5tipstransmediastorytelling

 

 


From DSC:
I see storytelling becoming more interactive/participatory — offering more choice and more control to the viewers.  As such, here are some interesting tools/sites:


 

Interlude

interlude-March2014

 

inklewriter

inkle-March2014

 

Padcaster

Padcaster-March2014

 

Voicethread

Voicethread-March2014

 

Racontr.com

racontr-March2014

 

TouchCast

TouchCast-in-Education3

 

Metta

metta-March2014

 

Hapyak

hapyak-March2014

 


Also see:


 

5 reasons why you should be using storytelling in training — from dashe.com by Ben Nesvig

Excerpt:

Storytelling has been a popular tool for learning since the dawn of civilization, but thanks to technology bringing new mediums for storytelling, it has been on the rise in training in the workplace. Despite the fact that storytelling is a powerful vehicle for teaching, some still prefer to do a “data dump” because it’s easier than constructing a narrative, though not more effective. Below I provide 5 reasons why storytelling should be used more frequently in the workplace.

 

Digital storytelling: an efficient and engaging learning activity — from elearningindustry.com

 

 Storehouse
“The easiest way to create, share, and discover beautiful stories.”

 

 

5-Transmedia-Projects-Storyscapes-2014

 

Excerpt:

The Tribeca Film Festival (TFF), presented by AT&T, is pleased to announce its 5 transmedia projects in the Storyscapes program that have been created in collaboration Bombay Sapphire®. Now in its second year, this juried Festival section was fashioned to showcase innovative and interactive transmedia work across genres. This pioneering form of storytelling encourages audience participation and sparks the imagination.

 

Mesmerizing fairy tale on the power of transmedia storytelling — from frametales.com by DRAFTFCB Madrid and posted by Filip Coertjens; with thanks to the Scoop on this from Laura Fleming (@NMHS_lms)

Cinderella2Dot0-Jan2014

 

BBC iWonder: Introducing Interactive Guides — from bbc.co.uk by Andrew Pipes

See this piece as an example of what they’ve come up with.

 

interactive guides_3_screens.jpg

Interactive guides on three screens

The BBC article also pointed to a bit older,
but very creative piece from the NYT entitled:
Snow Fall

 

Transmedia Story Stream: Don’t just read a book–play it! — from bleedingcool.com by Dan Wickline; with thanks to Digital Rocking Chair for the Scoop on this

Excerpt:

Instead of downloading a static book, Transmedia Story Stream allows readers to log into story worlds filled with fans, activities, and extended narrative that can include video, audio, casual video games or live gatherings. And just like in a video game, the book will award fans for participating in the story. Fans can earn points and badges, collect digital goodies to share, earn money for spreading word of mouth, participate in a live chat with an author or illustrator right in the book or win a phone call with a character in a story.

 

TSS_assured_destruction

 

Transmedia Story Stream

 

TransmediaStoryStream-Jan2014

 

Also see:

 

CleverWayToReopenRennovatedSpace-Amsterdam-April2013

 

“Learning in the Living [Class] Room” — as explained by Daniel Christian [Campus Technology]

Learning from the Living [Class] Room  — from Campus Technology by Daniel Christian and Mary Grush; with a huge thanks also going out to Mr. Steven Niedzielski (@Marketing4pt0) and to Mr. Sam Beckett (@SamJohnBeck) for their assistance and some of the graphics used in making these videos.

From DSC:
These 4 short videos explain what I’m trying to relay with a vision I’m entitling, Learning from the Living [Class] Room.  I’ve been pulse checking a variety of areas for years now, and the pieces of this vision continue to come into fruition.  This is what I see Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) morphing into (though there may be other directions/offshoots that they go in as well).

After watching these videos, I think you will see why I think we must move to a teambased approach.

(It looks like the production folks for Campus Technology had to scale things way back in terms of video quality to insure an overall better performance for the digitally-based magazine.) 


To watch these videos in a higher resolution, please use these links:


  1. What do you mean by “the living [class] room”?
  2. Why consider this now?
  3. What are some examples of apps and tech for “the living [class] room”?
  4. What skill sets will be needed to make “the living [class] room” a reality?

 

 


Alternatively, these videos can be found at:


 

DanielSChristianLearningFromTheLivingClassRoom-CampusTechnologyNovember2013

.

 

 

8PredictionsFutureOfStorytellingGaskinsOct2013

 

The 8 items that Kim discusses include:

  1. Stories will come out of the screen, into the physical world.
  2. Characters will become connections.
  3. Audiences will be able to experience stories unfolding from different vantage points.
  4. Stories will be told 24/7.
  5. The notion of authorship will evolve; in many cases, storytelling will be more of a “bottom-up” process.
  6. Stories will make the world a better place (even more than they already do).
  7. Videos will offer one-click storefronts.
  8. Passive or active narrative experience? It’ll be your choice.

 

From DSC:
Again, we see:

More choice. More control.

 

The science behind transmedia storytelling & why you need to be across it now — infographic from marketingmag.com.au

Excerpt/description of infographic:

Transmedia storytelling is a marketing buzzword that will be around for a while – and for good reason. Brand storytellers are being forced to create new transmedia experiences by integrating dynamic content, often co-created through audience participation.

Getty Images has released a new infographic explaining the effective transmedia storytelling can offer the consumer if done correctly.

The infographic details how a transmedia story can lead to stronger emotional connections to brands and the ability for businesses to engage with new or jaded audiences to send brand loyalty soaring via this new media experience.

For this reason, Getty’s infographic explains why becoming effective storytellers in the transmedia marketplace is something that should be top of mind for marketers, advertisers and business decision makers.

.

From DSC:
After reviewing the infographic, I wondered…how might some of this relate to education? Engaging students? Fostering creativity in a variety of areas/disciplines?

 

 

FutureOfStorytellingGaskins-Oct2013

 

Excerpt:

Many of us go about our lives constantly surrounded by screens, immersed in various “stories”: movies, TV shows, books, plot-driven video games, news articles, advertising, and more. Whether we realize it or not, we’re creating new behaviors, routines, mindsets, and expectations around what we watch, read or play—which in turn presents new challenges and opportunities for creators and marketers.

In other words, while the fundamentals of good storytelling remain the same, technology is changing how stories can be told. But what does that mean exactly?

 
© 2024 | Daniel Christian