Transmedia Classroom -

Read over this interesting post on transmedia and the classroom transmythology.com/2010/10/05/the-transmedia-classroom-of-tomorrow

Left a comment (posted here too)

MY comment

very nice post on a topic I am very interested in - I am teaching for the first time this year a curriculum I wrote for Juniors and Seniors in high school generically labeled Environmental Literacy and Transmedia education - yes I snuck in a course in my school that uses transmedia and other concepts and actually lists those in the curriculum content ;) I teach environmental awareness AND transmedia concepts (aka how to navigate content across platforms and to build understand and story as you go, yes I see education as nothing more than many stories to be told and learned ;-)

Your post, IMO, is only the tippy, tippy top of a very exciting and dangerous iceberg (Titanic analogies inserted here).

Game Mechanics in education has actually been around for a bit, but as with other industries, is just now gaining a larger awareness. Our school was fortunate to have Dr. Rebecca Hines come and speak and she discussed game mechanics and I know she was planning on taking her sabbatical to research this more. Florida now has the virtual K-12 program and she discussed some of the curriculum and ARG structured content figures in many of the programs. So there are lots of examples out there, kinda, sorta (insert the what is transmedia discussions here :P

But then, you move to the rural, smaller districts such where I teach and I get hunh and blank stares (from the students, not just the teachers) and oh all those sites are filtered, we just signed AUP agreements that we can not engage in any social media type of interaction with students and, well, everything in many ways associated with transmedia is VERBOTEN in the classroom (We have these standards that have to be met and curriculum we have to follow what do you mean allowing the "user" to contribute and participate ala participatory culture we have to get all this in and have students pass the test)

And digital literacy, digital etiquette and ethics are lacking in all aspects (students/staff/administrators/parents) and that makes for all those sensational news stories that scares an educator back into the closet and away from non-traditional media and content delivery strategies.

And I could go on, I have been working on putting out there what I am doing and trying to look for others doing what I do (not just the ok this is an idea but the hard, cold activities and examples and content because today's teachers are so buried they need that more than the show and tell on what this is type of professional development) - So, I'll stop, for now, but transmedia navigation, the New media literacy skills and the like are very exciting topics for me.... I hope this stirs up many conversations and I look forward to listening and maybe even participating