• Navigating through Inanimate Alice is like a puzzle. This is partly on purpose, but
also partly due to the complexity of the multilayered story and the transmedia
outreach aspects more of which I will talk about later.
• Inanimate Alice is also a journey that you, the educator needs to undertake so that
you can relay it to your students. I have spent quite some time with the title,
presented it to kids on many occasions and still I am identifying new facets that
help enliven student conversations. When people talk about rich-media this is the
depth of audio-visual content they are referring to…much to explore and discuss.
• So in this webinar, we are going to look at Alice's journey through the episodes and
a special Australian Season as well as the education resources that are available.
My presentation will be a highly visual one, not many words on the slides- the
pictures will help tell the story. After the webinar is over, you will get a copy of my
bullet point notes.
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Inanimate Alice has been selected as a Best Website for Teaching and
Learning because it:
• enhances learning and curriculum development for school librarians
and their teacher collaborators
• fosters the qualities of innovation, creativity, active participation and
collaboration
• is user-friendly and encourages a community of learners to explore
and discover.
• provides a foundation to support AASL’s Standards for the 21st-Century
Learner.
• offers tools and resources in media sharing, digital storytelling,
managing and organizing, social networking and communication,
curriculum collaboration, content resources with lesson plans and
more.
• is linked to the four strands of the Standards for the 21st-Century
Learner – skills, dispositions in action, responsibilities and selfassessment strategies.
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Transmedia is defined as the art of conveying messages, themes, or
storylines to mass audiences through the artful and well-planned use
of multiple media platforms.
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Transmedia Learning: The use 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
Transmedia is important in education today because:
•
young people are surrounded by platforms and devices, transmedia
storytelling meets students where they are ready to learn. They
want to share, participate in, create, shape and personalize their
learning experience.
•
education across multiple media allow for learning in continuity
• every piece of the puzzle works to engage the learner
• standards, content, messages, storylines are
disseminated in bits and pieces across different media
platforms
• it helps students construct knowledge and convey
complex messages through meaningful, challenging,
technology-enhanced experiences.
• Proliferating content across different media platforms
allow us to be successful with all learners
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• The core narrative of increasingly complex and interactive episodes will continue to grow the story and
audience from a solid foundation on the home website, while further adventures appear as outreach
experiences elsewhere.
• Content is used by teachers across wide age groups and competencies, teachers-in-training, researchers
and librarians on an international basis.
• Designed from the outset as a story that unfolds over time and on multiple platforms, the episodes are
available on all devices capable of running Adobe’s Flash Player. ‘Alice’ connects technologies, languages,
cultures, generations and curricula within a sweeping narrative accessible by all. As Alice’s journey
progresses, new storylines appear elsewhere providing more details and insights, enriching the tale
through surprising developments.
• Young people read from screens - it is, or is becoming, their primary word delivery platform.
• They play video games – reading from printed books is ‘boring’ for many.
• E-books are printed books transposed to screens – they do not deliver for the videogame generation.
• Multi-layered experience that assails every part of the child’s senses through video, text, image, animation,
music, gaming
• we have seen students across the world remix, mashup and create their own next episodes of Alice in the
widest transliterate sense. The gaps in Alice’s story have allowed for a high level of participation within
and around the narrative of Alice’s journey.
• Students are encouraged to co-create developing episodes of their own, either filling in the gaps or
developing new strands.
• Global Story: Content is used by teachers across wide age groups and competencies, teachers-in-training,
researchers and librarians on an international basis.
Multilingual: in French, German, Italian and Spanish too.
Mission: Children will grow up with Alice, from class-to-class from year to year, engaged with an evergrowing story in which they become part of the narrative.
• Game-simulated, multi-tasking environment they inherently connect with and understand
• Learners are engaged and understand the meld of media because of their own experiences with TV, film,
games, web, etc….
• Complex, layered environment provides depth, inspires enquiry and multi-tasking.
• Born-digital - written first for and specifically to be read and viewed from the screen.
Multimedia - uses text, images, music, sound effects, puzzles and games to illustrate and enhance the
narrative.
Interactive - requires user action to drive the story forward.
Episodic - each a self-contained story, the chapters become more complex as the narrative unfolds
reflecting Alice’s age and competency as she develops towards her calling as a game animator and
designer.
• Novel - A reading-from-the-screen experience for the “always on” generation.
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• Teach the students to interpret the world beyond just traditional texts
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Experience of reading is changing- The importance of ‘you’ in the reading of
books- the immersion and social aspects possible in the digital world
• IA provides an immersive learning experience
• The transmedia experience of IA allows teachers/librarians to use technology and
resources in a unified way immerse students in the story because of their
immersion into a storyworld, participants in transmedia narratives are inspired to
repurpose the content and generate their own; thus encouraging creativity and
innovation. With Inanimate Alice, it is the inspiration of her story that motivates
students to want to create next episodes of the series. As co-creators of content,
our students actively participate in and take control of their own learning.
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• Many teachers are working to find Common Core-aligned content that provides
their students with materials to help them learn and review.
• The Common Core State Standards Spiral
Common Core State Standards are designed to spiral. When a curriculum spirals, it
essentially does three things.
First, it revisits old ideas or instructional content.
Second, it increases the depth and level of this content.
Third, in Jerome Bruner’s words, it “re-construes” old content, connecting it with
“other knowledge.”
And this is the same structure Alice was created in.
• The Common Core Standards are emphatic that students experience increasingly
complex tests with increasing independence as they progress toward college and
career readiness– a “Staircase” of growing text complexity across grades. Each
episode increases in complexity with learners visiting and revisiting with Alice at
appropriate times and places within the timeline. The goal is for teachers to work
with the title over the years and to collaborate with other teachers teaching
different subjects and ages.
• Media and Technology are integrated throughout the standards, as with the series.
• Kids will grow up alongside Alice, from class to class, from year to year
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• As a School Library Media Specialist, storytelling is at the core of what I do each
and every day. Over the years, I have seen many children who struggle with
reading because of a lack of engagement with traditional books and stories. The
new media that surrounds educators and learners forced me to rethink the
concept of storytelling for our 21st-century learners. After some experimenting
within my classes, I found a way to successfully engage and capture the attention
of all of my students. As a result of this, a new model of storytelling emerged for
me: Transmedia.
• My most transformational moment as a teacher occurred when my students and I
experienced Inanimate Alice. It was that experience that led me to want to help
others have the same revelatory journey that I did.
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By design, Inanimate Alice is a digital story that interacts with readers in new and exciting ways. With my
own classes, the infusion of the interactive whiteboard immersed my students even deeper into the story.
For students to get the most from their Inanimate Alice experience, I found that, as the teacher, I was most
effective as the facilitator of student learning and the guide through the story. —helping students process
information across platforms/media, supporting learning/reading across platforms and media forms
Prior to viewing episode one, I immersed my students in "digital story" as a genre by taking time to view
and discuss Alice's homepage. We previewed the text and pointed out the elements of story. I used the
spotlight tool to focus my students' attention on just the screenshots of each episode. My students drew
upon their knowledge of traditional fictional chapter books, and determined that the episodes were similar
to chapters
Also prior to viewing episode one, a brief introduction was given as to how to read the story. Students
were told that they were going to get the chance to come up to the whiteboard and with the touch of their
finger/pen, they were going to help the story unfold. Right away I could feel the excitement in the room!
Next, to stimulate my students' curiosity and to further pique their interest, I guided them through a
"picture walk" of the episode. We navigated through the story one time without sound and without
reading the words. Using the Magic Reveal tool, students viewed just the illustrations and made predictions
about the plot. We predicted who Alice is as a character and recorded our thoughts into a t-chart on our
whiteboard.
Following our picture walk, we viewed the episode with the sound on the whiteboard speakers. During the
viewing, many students had a turn to come up to the whiteboard to participate in advancing the narrative
by interacting with games and puzzles. They told me they would never forget the shivers down their spine
they felt at the end of the episode.
After viewing the episode, we discussed how the element of sound contributed to the tone of the story
and how it helped them learn about Alice as a character. We recorded our determinations onto the t-chart
on our whiteboard that we began to fill in during our picture walk. This allowed us to easily compare and
contrast our ideas.
Following the story, I taught a series of mini-lessons to my students. This was done effectively by using
screenshots of the series to help us focus on specific scenes or events from the story. For one such minilesson, we focused on the scene in episode one in which Alice was looking out the Jeep window. We
discussed how we could tell Alice's emotions from that scene and how it was a metaphor for how she felt
about not being able to find her father. My students then chose one scene from their own personal
narratives and we rethought them in terms of a digital story. Students drew that scene from a first person
point of view, decided on the music and the sounds that would be playing during the scene, and then
described what this scene tells us about themselves as a character in their story.
After our journey through episode one, and with the inclusion of our whiteboard, I felt my students truly
understood how to read a digital novel and were connected to Alice as a character. In the words of one of
my students:
"We have always been told that when we read, we should walk in the shoes of the
main character and make
movies in our minds as we read. I can honestly say that I didn't understand that until
Inanimate Alice."
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• Transmedia served as the bridge for many reluctant readers
• Students connected with Alice’s multicultural life and friends
• Were able to effectively implement the series because of the excellent teaching
resources and exemplars gave them the confidence to just do it
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Learning Objectives:
• identify and discuss similarities and differences between different types of text
• model, identify and apply reading strategies (inferring, questioning, wondering) to
make sense of both printed and digital texts.
• consider the impact that layout and presentation will have on
my reader, selecting and using a variety of features
appropriate to purpose and audience.
Working in groups, pairs, whole class, individual, they blogged their progress, wrote
imaginative episodes and created wonderful, original episodes of 'Alice’
The class loved this work and said that it changed their views of reading forever.
Their work can be found on his blog, ‘Just Trying to be Better Than Yesterday’:
http://justtryingtobebetter.com/
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Students in New Zealand explored digital storytelling with Inanimate Alice. In small
groups they then created their own Episode 5 using PowerPoint.
In addition they Skyped the author of Inanimate Alice, Kate Pullinger.
The questions the students asked were:
Where did the idea for inanimate Alice come from?
Who inspired the names of the characters?
Why do you never show the faces of the characters?
What is Brad supposed to represent?
Has inanimate Alice been recognized internationally?
Will there be new main characters in the next episode?
What has been the most exciting part of creating this story?
What has been the hardest part of creating inanimate Alice?
What advice would you give for telling a good story?
When will the next episode - (5) come out?
Shaun Wood’s students’ work can be found here:
http://inanimatealice-aperspective.wikispaces.com/
Their Skype session can be found on Youtube here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eliJOj0-jlA
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As someone who works with and advises teachers on student literacy and how to
develop it, Bill recommends using Inanimate Alice as a context for learning because:
• it is a quality narrative with a very strong central (female) character, which is quite
rare
• as a born-digital story it appeals to a techno-generation
• it engages all students, even those who might usually be labeled ‘reluctant
readers’
• it encourages collaboration and discussion, as students debate where Alice might
go next or how she should behave in a given situation
• it develops writing skills as well as reading skills, as students can’t wait to create
their own episodes, set in their own town.
• it encourages a sense of global citizenship, as Alice travels the world and
encounters a range of cultures and issues.
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• As you explore the series, you will find that Inanimate Alice hits upon endless
educational and social emotional aspects. For example, such as in Episode 4
where the main theme is one of peer pressure and bullying.
• It is easy to come to the conclusion that Alice is a lonely kid....talking to her device
all the time. But look at the places she has visited, the peoples she has come
across and you can conclude she is a citizen of the world. It is the experiences of
other places, of other cultures that make us more aware more considerate
humans.
• We encourage you to go outside the materials that we provide, and explore some
of these things as they relate to you in your environment with your learners. We
also encourage you to share your findings with us and other participants through
our social media channels.
• Inanimate Alice develops empathy in students - everyone feels lonely and isolated
at some time. Arguably this is the main purpose in storytelling
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• 90 minutes of interactive adventure depicting the life of a young girl growing up in
the 21st century.
• Complexity and interactivity increase with each episode – mirroring Alice’s age and
developing skills.
• Initially, watch the trailer found on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf5_kSTsub8
• In terms of the timeline, the story begins with Episode 1, there follows a Season of
12 interstitial stories "Season 1: Alice in Australia" 12 stories - one per month for a
year. Episode 2 comes after the 12th story.
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• Through a free downloadable iTeach education resource pack, Inanimate Alice is
supported by lessons, which include making connections with the story and the
medium.
• Teachers have available to them interactive whiteboard lessons that are hands-on
and address the needs of all learners.
On Promethean Planet, Alice’s gadget is brought to life, propelling users through the
Alice’s world. The starting point for your journey with Alice is the trailer, which will
give you an overview of the power of the series and hopefully inspire you to
undertake a similar journey of your own. Next is the Mindmap, which provides a
glimpse into the thought processes of digital literacy exploration. The resources page
is your next stop, which offers lessons plans, teacher success stories, user guides to
help you navigate your way through the series. The flipchart has been specially
designed to enable teachers to enhance the already immersive experience of reading
Alice’s story, through activities optimized for whiteboard use. After experiencing and
being inspired by the episode, please visit our User Generated Content Gallery. It is
here that you can view selected next episodes of Inanimate Alice created by learners.
Finally, through Alice’s gadget, you will be led to the Forum where you can follow
threads, ask questions and contribute to the ongoing discussion about Alice with
fellow educators both near and far
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• Vibrant communities that allow for educators to share their success stories as well
as to find opportunities for collaboration globally
• Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/inanimatealice
Twitter: @inanimatealice
Edmodo: http://www.edmodo.com/publisher/inanimatealice
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/source/inanimatealice.com/
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• This interactive fiction - this "digital novel" - is a new kind of reading-from-thescreen experience with depths to be explored.
• There is a lot of discussion around how Inanimate Alice is best consumed. We
don't just Read it....neither do we just View it. We EXPERIENCE it.
• Time and time again, people are surprised that digital can be literary. But it can be
and Alice proves that. Books in print do not connect with other sites, with social
media. They don't have the outreach. Inanimate Alice endures and is durable. We
are embedding Alice within the curriculum. So much is being invested in the digital
domain that even the first iterations of this story will be with us for a generation or
more. It's a pivotal moment.
• We need to ensure that our students are skilled consumers and producers of
digital media and that the transliteracies learned through experiencing Inanimate
Alice (ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools, and
media) should be a part of all library programs.
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• Opportunities to trade email, video and SKYPE with
other Alice classrooms?
• hosting the register of schools and teachers interested in connecting
Name: Tim Rierden
Email: [email protected]
School or Institution: Wood River Middle School, Exceptional Child
MYP
Country: USA
• Global following of around 10,000 teachers connected through a variety of
channels in over 100 countries -- The IA audience is largely in AU, NZ, UK, CAN as
well as the US
• Document takeaway
• Coming soon, more content from other early adopters like Bill, Kenny and Shaun:
follow-up presentation and the virtual conference.
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