EdTech Insight

Innovating Education with Hack Days

2012-01-20T09:46:00.000-08:00

Recently, one of my ten-year-old students approached me and said, "Mrs. Fleming, I wish more teachers would teach beyond their boundaries." He went on to give an example: rather than learning basic skills on the computer, he would appreciate the chance to experiment with programming with a teacher there just to guide him. In addition, he felt that he had enough expertise in certain areas (he mentioned The Nitrogen Cycle), and would appreciate the opportunity to turnkey this information to his peers. He also expressed interest in having his peers do the same for him. Now while I understand this is clearly a wise ten-year-old, it did get me thinking. His insights brought me right back to when I was about his age and my 6th grade teachers allowed us to have "independent days" each Thursday. Not many things stand out in my own school career, however these days do. In the morning, we were given certain goals and objectives and even sometimes some more structured assignments and tasks, however, we were given the freedom and flexibility to complete these at our own pace, choose how we wanted to achieve the objectives, and were given opportunities to showcase our work with our peers and learn about things that interested us. Back then, in the traditional public school setting, this was quite unheard of, and in my opinion, quite successful. We took ownership of our learning and were motivated, enthusiastic, and engaged. We were not left to our own devices, but instead our teacher was there to facilitate and guide our learning. While the idea of interest-driven learning is not a new concept, it recently has gained more momentum and has had a bit of resurgence. This made me think that a variation of those "independent days" that I experienced as a sixth grader, could be refined into an "educational hack day" driven by our learners.

A conceptual model for a learner-focused "educational hack day" may include:

Set aside day-to-day work and instead provide time for children to collaborate and innovate and create outside the structure of a 'regular' school day
Present learners with a subject or a challenge and ask them to deliver something innovative
Learners get recognition for their work
Solve problems
Learn something new through innovation
Encourage children to leave their comfort zone
Allow for a flexible format that can be adjusted to suit curricular needs or to better meet the needs of the learners
Provide opportunities for learners to show off their skills and acquire new ones from their peers

My vision of a learner-driven hack day is not about the finished product at the end of the day, but rather about the engagement with a community of learners, learning from each other, a chance to live in their learning, an opportunity to work on things that interest you, and for your learning to be celebrated. For educators, it is about creating the environment for magic to happen.

*just an addendum- as I was in the middle of this post, the same boy asked me if I believe children should drive the curriculum. It looks like someone has been doing his homework.

Marcel the Shell With Shoes On

2011-11-24T04:47:00.000-08:00

I rarely blog about individual projects, however due to its popularity and relation to my library world, I had to mention this one. With well over 12 million views of this short film, it seems that I am very late to the game here, but it seems that I should pay attention because Marcel the Shell With Shoes On is a force to be reckoned with. The creation of former Saturday Night Live actress and comedian Jenny Slate and her fiance Dean Fleischer-Camp, Marcel the Shell boasts two tiny feet and just one eye. With Jenny providing the voice to the character, and Dean directing, Marcel discusses the realities and challenges of being a shell and offers some wisdom to the viewer along the way. What is interesting to me about this film is that it debuted on YouTube and due to its immediate success, there are now two videos about Marcel (with more to come), and an iPhone/iPad app. Realizing that children loved Marcel and his potential to be a classic character, they decided to take on the challenge of writing and publishing a children's book. The book, titled Marcel The Shell With Shoes On: Things About Me, is filled with drawings of Marcel around his home from his perspective.

Marcel even has his own Facebook page and Twitter account. There have been recent mentions of Marcel even having his own television show, in which Jenny Slate envisions as being like "The Muppet Show", but filled with a world full of shells.

For me, a powerful piece of Marcel the Shell's success is the user-generated content that has appeared online- videos created by people of all ages around the world that emulate the style of Marcel's short film. One of these creations, Marcel the Shell with heels on, has over one million views! Other creations include Charlie the Cheez-It, and Barack the Rock. Through Marcel, and the videos inspired by him, surprisingly we can appreciate multiple perspectives on how it feels to be different.

The Future of School Libraries and an Interview

2011-11-22T07:50:00.000-08:00

I have been remiss about blogging as of late, however I briefly wanted to mention two things. The first being a contribution I made to the ebook School Libraries: What's Now, What's Next, What's Yet to Come.
This crowdsourced collection contains over 100 essays around the world about school libraries written by librarians, teachers, publishers, and library vendors. Edited by Kristin Fontichiaro and Buffy Hamilton, who describe the work as including diverse perspectives on where school libraries are and what school librarians are doing to redefine, stretch, and expand traditional services. This book is available for free download in three formats:

PDF for those who want to read it on a desktop/laptop
.mobi for those who want to read it on Kindle software or a Kindle device
.epub for those who would like to read it on Adobe Digital Editions software, iBooks, Sony Reader, the Bluefire Reader app, Nook, and most other eReaders

My piece is in the chapter titled Emerging and Multiple Literacies and is about transmedia storytelling. The piece begins:

"Truly pivotal moments in teaching come along when you least expect them, and in hindsight you realize that those transformational moments will forever shape who you are as an educator. One such moment occurred for me more than a decade into my teaching career and was sparked off by my involvement in the online digital novel Inanimate Alice (http://inanimatealice.com)."

The second thing I wanted to mention was a recent interview I was lucky enough to be asked to do for Lucas Johnson's blog at Silverstring Media. Here is the introduction to the interview:

" I don’t think it’s a controversial stance to say that our education systems need help, especially with digital technology advancing so quickly. Well, Laura Fleming is the kind of teacher I would have loved in school. She truly understands how education can be improved — and implements it in her own classroom every day, using transmedia storytelling methodology to weave curricula together across subjects and engage her students in ways mere textbooks simply don’t. She’s also involved in Lance Weiler’s Robot Heart Stories — and was kind enough to answer some questions for me."

The entire interview can be found here. Thank you to Lucas for the opportunity.

Robot Heart Stories

2011-10-25T17:59:00.000-07:00

"Robot Heart Stories combines all the qualities of what I call "social benefit storytelling." The combination of creative narrative with noble ambitions is exactly the kind of groundbreaking transmedia that is inspiring and motivating to storytellers like me."

Tim Kring creator of "Heroes" and the new Fox series "Touch"

Robot Heart Stories is the first in a trilogy of experiential learning projects from award winning storytelling pioneer Lance Weiler and creative producer Janine Saunders. With the help of a talented team of storytellers, educators, scientists, and mathematicians, an immersive learning experience has been created that has enabled students across continents to collaborate on getting a little lost robot home. As a class of students in Montreal, and another in LA, have worked together to get Laika back into space, while at the same time, students around the world, including my own, have had endless opportunities for creation and participation in the project. What powers the Robot is passion and creativity. To get involved, students have created “heartpacks” to share something they love. Their work then becomes a part of a "heartpack" gallery from participants around the world. For every 1,000 "heartpacks" that are submitted, a contribution will be made to creative writing programs in public schools.

My students created many heartpacks and connected so deeply with the story, that we decided to engage with Laika in other ways. My second graders used differentiated question stems to generate questions they had for the robot and recorded them in a VoiceThread for Laika to hear and respond to. Their VoiceThread can be heard here:

My first graders also created a VoiceThread to share their passions:

My third graders who were just embarking on a journey with understanding and using the conventions of nonfiction. We launched the unit with students exploring their passions and selecting nonfiction texts to match their passions. Students then created their own heartpacks reflecting their passions which can be seen in the gallery. Our english language learners in Kindergarten and 2nd grade collaborated with their parents on writing and drawing one thing about their country they would teach Laika (they are writing this in their native language) and one thing they would teach Laika about the US (they are writing this in English). These families also designed their own versions of Laika to reflect the dress of their native countries. And finally, in conjunction with a research unit of my own, my students created Google Search Stories. We dove into a 'rabbit hole' and extended Laika's story by imagining that while with the children in Montreal, Laika had the opportunity to use a computer and to do a google search. We brainstormed what kinds of searches Laika may have performed. In the process, we had a mini-lesson on effective searching techniques. One of their Google Search Stories can be seen below:

Through Robot Heart Stories, I have been reminded of the power of narrative and how a quality story and the effective use of media channels can engage our students and immerse them in their learning in a powerful way.

Transmedia Workshop

2011-10-06T16:24:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend JeffGomez's transmedia workshop in his hometown of New York City. In hisworkshop, Jeff gave us a deep overview of his transmedia development process. Hearing Jeff kick off the workshop by telling his personal story of howhe came to embrace transmedia was inspiring enough, but the rest of theworkshop was incredibly powerful and informative as well. It consisted offour parts:

I. Defining Transmedia Storytelling as it relates to BrandedEntertainment

II. Entertainment Franchises & BrandedEntertainment

III. Creating Positive Links Between the Brand and theBranded Entertainment

IV. Producing Branded and Franchised Content forMultiple Platforms

V. Respect the Audience and Create Stories Worth Telling

The workshop attendees were a diverse group ranging fromfilmmakers, to writers, to marketers, to even a lawyer! I would like toshare the core education insights I took away, that were spurred by Jeff'stalk.

Perhaps what one of the most important things I walked awaywith is the importance of expanding and extending the learning world beyond thehours of just the school day and the confines of the four walls of a classroomand how we can use transmedia techniques to do so. Learning can no longertake place in the four walls of a school building. We need to create arich world with global reach.
The deep, immersive experience that transmediastorytelling provides should convey emotion which is so often left out of ourinstruction.
The process of transmedia broadens the life cycle ofcontent- when and where learning.
Do not use educational technology tools for the sake of thetool itself; think about how the content plays to the strengths of the media sothat the story can be told well.
Transmedia techniques create a totality of learningexperiences that encompass learning both in school, in the community, and athome.
Celebrating the participation of the learner is validatingand will lead to further engagement with the content.
Transmedia learning worlds reach a broader learner base in awider variety of ways, over a longer period of time.
Telling quality, positive stories is vital; children willalways go to where the stories are.
Assessment driven learning makes it challenging to tell goodstories but that should not stop us increating layered, multi-touchpoint learning experiences.
Storytelling can create a powerful connection betweencontent and learners.
A non-linear approach to learning allows for a living,ever-evolving learning world
Effectively implementing transmedia techniques intoeducation requires listening to hear andmeasure learner response and feedback allowing for adjustments and a moreorganic learning experience.
The prominence of ‘aspirational drivers’ typically refers toaudiences and connecting them with an IP. These same principals areessential is connecting learners with content. (Inner pride, outerappreciation, mastery, winning, empowerment etc.)
Jeff often speaks about the concept of 'distant mountains'. Transmedia storytelling in education, and the layered learningexperiences it provides, plants seeds that will grow into valuable opportunitiesfor learning in the future.

Jeff was a recent guest speaker for Henry Jenkins during hisTransmedia Storytelling class. During that class he said that transmediais about dialogue, listening, acknowledging presence/participation andcompared that directly with what it sounds like to be a good teacher. Hecouldn't be more right.

Transliteracy and the Young Child

2011-09-22T13:31:00.000-07:00

Transliteracy and the Young Child

Today I presented at the School Library Journal Leadership Summit where the theme was 'The New World of Reading'. My session, Transliteracy & the Young Child was moderated by Buffy Hamilton and our panel also included librarian Andy Plemmons. Buffy kicked off the presentation by unpacking the term transliteracy. Andy gave some fantastic real world examples of transliteracy in action. My piece focused on transmedia and rather than presenting the varying definitions of transmedia, I pointed out what transmedia is NOT- not one-dimensional, passive, or disjointed. I presented transmedia as an experience and used Pottermore as a prime example of this. Through Pottermore, I hoped to draw upon what the librarians in my audience know and know well- story- and move them deeper into this by introducing the concept of Storyworlds and how JK Rowling has taken her traditional, linear narrative and has created this non-linear experience around them. I asked the audience to think of those StoryWorlds and think of them with a participative, constructivist, connectivist, transformative pedagogy overlaid on them in which we arrive at LearningWorlds. I defined Learning Worlds as:

The use of storytelling techniques combined with the use of multiple platforms that create an immersive learning landscape which enables multivarious entry and exit points for learning and teaching.

I hope most important to those in attendance considering the future of reading, I explained that Transmedia LearningWorlds enable us to expand the definition of literacy and allow for new opportunities to experience reading in a transmedia environment. Then I shared my personal transformational journey with Inanimate Alice and how the story meets students where they are ready to learn. I focused on the powerful impact of Story-guided User-Generated Content and how students around the world are creating next episodes of Alice in the widest transliterate sense. Learners become producers of content- teachers and learners learning together, shaping new narrative possibilities.

My Year in Transmedia

2011-08-21T14:01:00.000-07:00

One year ago this month I started blogging, and in a post on August 23rd, almost one year ago, I first mentioned transmedia. Not only was Transmedia Storytellers my first post about transmedia, but it was the first time I had ever heard of the term. As a school librarian with a degree in technology, and a storyteller by trade, it wasn’t a far leap for me to embrace transmedia and all of its potential.

Sometimes I feel like I have been immersed in this transmedia world for a lifetime and oftentimes have to remind myself that it has been just a year. Looking back on my own blog, I realize it has been a personal journey of awareness and discovery- an awakening of sorts. A few years back I saw the profound impact Patrick Carman’s Skeleton Creek novel had on my students. Half traditional print text and half online videos, this hybrid story captured my students in ways I had never seen before. After contacting him to tell him what I saw, and having an inspiring conversation, he encouraged me to start blogging some of my thoughts on interactive literature. I didn’t start to blog then, but did decide to research all things related to interactive storytelling. A few years later, I felt I had learned enough to start writing about my experiences. Just as I started to blog, I discovered the concept of transmedia storytelling. I was so excited about the educational applications of transmedia that I began to research incessantly and found that there wasn’t much out there related to transmedia and education at the K-12 level. It was at that time I was lucky enough to speak with the inspiring Jeff Gomez who motivated and encouraged me to keep on my path. At that time, I also found Inanimate Alice, which to me is the best example as to what is possible with transmedia implementations in education.

At the footer of my blog, I have a quote that drives what I try and do every single day.

"If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes."

Andrew Carnegie, Scots-American Industrialist and Philanthropist

This sentiment so perfectly reflects my commitment to transmedia. What I have seen happen with transmedia just in the past year alone makes me happy and gives me the energy and drive to continue. The mission of my blog has been to draw connections between transmedia and learning. I have tried to create an awareness amongst the transmedia community about the potential applications of these techniques to education, and I have tried to create an awareness amongst the education community about the powerful impact these techniques can have on learning. I smile every time I see people from countries all over the world arrive on my blog because of googling ‘transmedia and education’. I look forward to seeing what the future holds for learning in a transmedia world.

More and more I see people writing about how to harness these techniques into making the world a better place. Most recently this post by Nedra Weinreich on Changing the World with Transmedia Storytelling and of course, this post by Jeff Gomez titled Reawakening the Grand Narrative. This September in Rome, there is a TedX event focusing on extending transmedia properties beyond simple 'entertainment' to shape a better future. It is my hope that all in attendance will embark on the same journey I have, and realize that making a difference begins and ends with the education of our children.

Practical Transmedia in Action

2011-08-16T13:20:00.000-07:00

With a new site and a newly announced partnership with the whiteboard company Promethean Planet, Inanimate Alice continues to prove that transmedia in education is a powerful force. Through these recent developments, they have established a community to share news and resources that help to expand Alice’s story world.

One of the most exciting features of these developments is the use of one of Alice's gadgets. They have pulled the gadget out of an episode and have brought it to life. It can be seen in the upper left hand corner of Alice's home page. Once you have registered as a member on Planet (it’s free) a click will take you directly to Alice's User Group page where you can interact first-hand with the gadget itself.

From the gadget on Planet, and the seamless transition across platforms, you will be able to access a wealth of free new resources related to the series. These resources include a trailer, a teacher’s guide, a literacy resource pack, a mind map ideas pack, a university schools of education pack, a whiteboard guide, introduction to and showcase for user generated content and whiteboard friendly lessons

The gadget and the Mindmap are a transmedia interface that functions as a digital index for a digital text. It shows that things can become more discoverable through the power of digital indexing. This feature expands on one of Alice’s goals of making suitable digital literacy materials all the more discoverable to better address specific curriculum objectives.

This Promethean Planet User Group was created with teachers in mind. It is not just for whiteboard users it’s for all educators and for whatever resources they have. With a discussion forum and focus on showcasing User Generated Content, Alice has created a community of educators around the world around her story.

For me personally, an exciting part of this launch was the team of people around the world that made it possible. Along with myself, this includes creatives and contributers from Australia, Scotland, Canada, the United States, England, Spain, and New Zealand.

Inanimate Alice has shown that implementing transmedia in learning can be done practically and powerfully.

Alice’s site:

www.inanimatealice.com

Tips for Using Inanimate Alice in the Classroom – written by me:

http://community.prometheanplanet.com/en/blog/b/blog/archive/2011/08/16/tips-for-using-inanimate-alice-in-the-classroom.aspx

Official News Story:

http://www.prometheanplanet.com/en-gb/community/news-events/inanimate-alice-lands-on-planet.aspx

Partner Page:

http://www.prometheanplanet.com/en-gb/resources/partner-resources/inanimate-alice/inanimate-alice.aspx

User Group:

http://community.prometheanplanet.com/en/user_groups/inanimate__alice/default.aspx

Transmedia LearningWorlds: Writing the Book

2011-08-08T11:33:00.000-07:00

At the end of 2010, I co-authored, with John Connell, a piece for the GETideas blog on transmedia in education – Considering Transmedia: Literature ‘Born Digital’. Over the next few months, that one piece garnered more readers than every other post on the site combined. As a consequence of the interest raised by the blog post, GETideas set up a virtual round-table on the subject – entitled Transmedia Storytelling & New Media Literacies. The resulting discussion was rich and opened up a number of issues that are key to an understanding of the place of transmedia in learning, including, amongst many others, the eternal power of storytelling, the nature of knowledge and literacy in a post-literate society, the shifting locus of control in education from teacher to learner, the need now to consider a spectrum of literacies for our young people, and the merging of storytelling with the current crop of digital and networking technologies.

My own involvement with Inanimate Alice has also given me a wealth of insights into the depth of thinking and of imagination that goes into the conception and realization of a powerful transmedia text.

So, between John and myself, we came to the conclusion that there is a real and urgent need for a book that will open up the world of transmedia to teachers and learners. As a result, we have decided to co-author a book that takes learning as its starting point and sets out to describe the potential of transmedia for educators across the world. The book is provisionally titled:

–Transmedia LearningWorlds–

The aim will be to take the familiar transmedia concept of StoryWorlds and translate it for an educational setting, hence LearningWorlds. Where a StoryWorld might be defined as an immersive experience that allows for myriad entry points into a narrative, a LearningWorld, in our minds, will be an immersive learning landscape that enables multivarious entry and exit points for learning and teaching.

Our plan is to structure the book around what we see as the full range of critical questions to be considered by any teacher hoping to bring the power of transmedia into his or her teaching. Equally, we want the book to have value both for learners as they think about their own learning in transmedia LearningWorlds and for the creators and designers of transmedia implementations. We want to start with the educational philosophy and the pedagogy that can underpin transmedia in learning, a definition of transmedia in the educational context, the power of narrative, the transmedia classroom, transmedia beyond the classroom, the new literacies, the conception, creation and dissemination of transmedia, the major affordances offered to education by transmedia, the potential of transmedia in generating social change, and of course some examples of effective transmedia currently available in education across the world.

We intend to make special mention of Inanimate Alice, the prime mover in this burgeoning field, and to use its example as a springboard for thinking about the multiple directions that transmedia in education might take into the future.

We have set up a Twitter account at @transmedialearn, which we have already begun to populate – please feel free to follow us there.

We would also love to be able to gather lots of exciting examples of teachers and learners making interesting use of transmedia in their learning and teaching from all over the world – anyone with a story to tell or an idea to share can get in touch with us via the Twitter account or simply email us at:

transmedialearning@gmail.com

Transmedia Collection

2011-07-28T04:18:00.000-07:00

Open publication - Free publishing

In June, I posted about a transmedia collection I developed for the National Writing Project's Digital Is site. This collection focuses on the production and consumption of transmedia and what that means for our readers and writers. Here it is brought together in a single online document.

Defining a Common Vocabulary

2011-07-19T05:07:00.000-07:00

When I first began blogging about transmedia and education, I found the terminology I used to be irrelevant at first instance. My initial objective was to draw attention to and get people to embrace this powerful way of teaching and learning. Gradually, I have seen writing about transmedia and learning increase significantly. I feel enough is out there at this point that we now need to define a common vocabulary. These terms, although most likely more familiar to those in the transmedia community, are probably less familiar to educators. A common vocabulary amongst all is important to help us understand the core principals of transmedia and learning and to continue to build upon them as a foundation. In no way am I suggesting that mine is a comprehensive list. These are just the top ten terms I feel have been most significant to me in my research and writing and have helped me envision a transmedia learning environment.

Pervasive: connects content and spreads and extends learning into real life by allowing learning to occur in any environment anytime and anywhere.

Ubiquitous: learning becomes so pervasive that it is fully integrated and embedded into learners’ lives.

Interactive: brings learning to life by maximizing engagement and stimulating learners' minds through proactive participation allowing learning to grow organically.

Transparent: learning by being able to watch others learn and by capturing them by being upfront and clear about what it is you are doing. Connecting learners directly to the storytellers allows for powerful opportunities for co-creation.

Immersive: full-sensory learning experiences that break limits and boundaries between teacher and student, therefore leveraging the distribution and proliferation of knowledge.

Authentic: meaningful, genuine narratives engage learners through their intent and enhance the depth of knowledge students will attain.

Fluid: through multiple modes of communication and participation, learners and content flow naturally from one platform to the next.

Empowering: learners share, contribute, and create by making discoveries through their own interpretations, which encourages passion and responsibility for their own learning.

Engaging: through direct participation, learners connect with content and have a deeper understanding allowing them to make meaning from their learning.

Interconnectedness: the connection of platforms and content fosters a dialogue, which connects learners with learners and learners with teachers all around the globe. This global interconnectivity allows for the collaborative sharing and proliferation of knowledge.