On Promethean's Planet

Ian harperWhen we refreshed the website back in August at the same time we announced our association with key partners with whom we will start to demonstrate how Alice delivers on the interactive classroom promise.

Promethean Planet, the world’s largest online community of educators, helps deliver on our vision that students will grow up with Alice…from class to class from year to year.

Go to Planet and register – it’s FREE.

Access the additional resources there that outline where we are heading in terms of digital literacy and a platform that provides the basis for language training and ICT education. It is surely a cross-curricular title for the digital age.

The former movie producer David, now Lord, Puttnam spends much of his time advocating for the use of new media technologies in education. He echoes many voices in the commonly held view that surprisingly little progress has been made in the many years since ‘digital’ first hit the agenda. You’ll find his welcome view inside.

A reading from the screen

experience for the videogame

generation

“”DAVID PUTTNAM

Digital outcomes need to be dynamic and vivid. They need to leap off the screen. Moreover they need to work across platforms in a virtual student playground. We have yet to embrace the entire learners journey, from school to home to social media on mobile devices and back to school again, but that transformation to student-centric learning is fast taking shape.

Time is a flexible dimension. I must emphasise that, after all this time, we are in the early stages of this considerable adventure. We will be calling for contributions from time to time, making this an ever more collaborative journey. Join us.

Although it wasn’t originally written for the education market, the more enlightened teachers around the globe have seen the potential of Inanimate Alice as a learning environment for their young students. As young people

almost immediately feel empathy

towards Alice and her changing circumstances, it is not difficult to

involve, motivate and engage them

in Alice’s world, where, along with

Alice, the smart teacher can support

the child to develop in any number

of ways – socially, emotionally and

intellectually.

Digital literacyon whiteboards

A reading from the screen

experience for the videogame

generationDAVID PUTTNAM

The nature of Inanimate Alice’s

transmedia text means that it is relevant

in every curricular area, and the MindMap

demonstrates how each of these curriculum

areas will ultimately be addressed in the

planned Teachers’ Edition of IA, where

teachers will have access to a wealth of ideas

and resources to suit their needs. In addition,

Alice’s own development through each of the

episodes of the story, and the progressively

challenging nature of the text, means that the

young learner is developing his or her literacy

skills at an appropriate rate, while growing

with Alice and Brad as trusted companions.

The fact that Alice already exists in five languages highlights the universality of the story and provides incentives for the young learner to develop a genuine feeling of global citizenship, a feeling which is enhanced through collaboration and sharing in the User-Generated Content Section of the resource.

Apart from being a high-quality novel in its own right, IA also provides the perfect stimulus for writing and creativity, with young learners eager to show what they can do when it comes to storytelling, using whatever means available to them. Whether it’s using paper and pencil, or more sophisticated digital media, it’s the narrative that counts, and there’s nothing that young readers like to do more than have an episode of IA set in their own back yard!

A high quality literate

text that teachers can

rely on

“”

Bill BoydLiteracy Advisor

I’ve talked at length, and on many occasions, about children

and young people needing to be smarter, more adaptable,

better prepared than ever before. I’ve talked about the need

to harness the immense power of digital technology in order

to capture the imaginations of today’s students. Brought up

on television and video games, they feel they have to power

down when attending school. That is a problem.

Here is a terrific reading-from-the-screen experience that

talks the language of digitally literate educators. Kids will

read this when they won’t read from books. It’s vivid moving

imagery embracing some of the techniques used in both

film and video-games. It’s authentic rich-media, yet it is

a high-quality text that teachers can rely on. Surprisingly

intimate, the feeling for the characters forms in your head,

just like reading a book, all the more so for those who prefer

engagement with “born digital” material.

The kids will love reading with Alice and, surely, that is the

point.

DAVID PUTTNAM

Comment

Imagine students seeing this pin-

sharp trailer on an ActivBoard before

getting down to reading and creativity

with Alice...

Click to view the trailer

The teacher launches an episode of Inanimate Alice, displaying it on the Promethean ActivBoard. The pages come alive with rich imagery, text and sound, keeping the students engaged throughout the session. The students feel energized and motivated as they become immersed within the story. Students must use their cognitive skills as well as their imagination to solve puzzles, play games and find hidden items all helping uncover what happens next.

Upon completion of the episode, the teacher pulls up an available flipchart from Promethean Planet. Flipcharts provide additional hands-on, collaborative learning opportunities. Promethean Learner Response devices provide for a quick assessment to gage student understanding.

Based on the results of the assessment, the teacher then assigns students to a team for a homework assignment. Their assignment is to use the clues that were uncovered in the class review to determine Alice’s next steps. The students are able to access the story via their computer or mobile device for reference and work together as a team to complete the assignment.

DAVID PUTTNAM

cOLLABORATION

Assessment

Mobile Learning

Engagement

Ali

ce c

om

es a

liv

e - a

use

ca

se

The next day the students are asked to present their findings on the ActivBoard to the rest of the classroom. Examples of developed classwork are available for review.

Teacher Training

In an age where our students are

required to be transliterate, and adapt

to the multimodal environment of the

online world, new media narratives like

Inanimate Alice are prime pedagogical

material.

Not only does Inanimate Alice employ the

well-recognised form of a Bildungsroman,

but it is imbued with new media qualities

of sound, image, video, text and,

importantly for kinesthetic learners:

varying degrees of interaction. The

strong narrative writing along with the

crafted multimodality provide educators

and students with a myriad of learning

opportunities. In fact, Inanimate Alice has

been on my secondary, undergraduate

and graduate syllabi since it’s inception!

Dr. Jessica LaccettiUniversity of Alberta, Canada

Jess Laccetti

USER GENERATEDCONTENT

The inspiration of Inanimate Alice has

motivated students around the world to

want to create their own next episodes of

the series. Learners have used critical

literacy skills to deconstruct the digital text

as readers, and have used the knowledge

they gained to write and create. They

have become producers of content in

the widest transliterate sense, shaping

new narrative possibilities. Students

are encouraged to co-create developing

episodes of their own, either filling in the

gaps or developing new strands of the

narrative. These next episodes have

taken Alice all over the world and on some

extraordinary adventures. In addition,

students have created interstitial episodes

that fill in the gaps in Alice’s story.

Inanimate Alice has created a virtual circle

of storytelling where transmedia meets co-

creation inspiring many learners to write

and create. User Generated Content has

enabled learners to participate, grow and

be an integral part of the story.

We are always excited to see

Take Alice on her next adventure! We are seeing many

exciting examples of stories inspired by

the series. After viewing the episodes,

challenge your students to create their

own “what happens next” episode. It is

a thrill to see Alice travel the world and

to see how inspired learners take her

on further adventures. Teachers are

encouraging students to use a variety of

technologies to do this, with PowerPoint

seemingly the most popular. Please

share your next episodes with us by

emailing to istories@inanimatealice.

com. Selected student episodes will

be featured on Promethean Planet in

a gallery for parents, teachers, and

learners from around the world to see,

experience, and admire.

Jess LaccettiLaura Fleming

Media Specialist

WanderingsAndy Campbell will be presenting

Alice at Narrative Futures in

association with Tate Liverpool.

Venue: The Box/FACT - Liverpool -

17 November Find out more

Susan Dupre presents Technology

meets Literature, a hands-on session

at the Lacue 2010 conference in New

Orleans, 28-30 November.

Find out more

Dr. Angela Thomas, UTAS, will be

giving a presentation focusing

on Alice at the AATE National

Conference Melbourne, December

2011 Find out more

Powering Learning at BETT, Olympia,

London, January 11-14, 2012

Find out more