participatory education

enough procrastinating, I'm back to the blog...

I've been exploring the notion of transmedia, particularly in relation to it's potential in engaging learning experiences. A little late maybe; it's interesting how we operate in our communal shared discourse and miss what's happening elsewhere.

I've been talking about multimodal education, digital storytelling etc for years and in a sense transmedia is simply putting a label to those thoughts. Too often though we think of multimedia as a means for offering choice to students; a variety of means to access the same information. and what's worse it typically aligns to discussions around catering for diverse 'learning styles'. SO what I particularly like about the discussions about transmedia is its participatory nature; different ways of engaging with aspects of a concept (or story). It's about developing a comprehensive understanding by looking at the concept through a variety of lenses and piecing together the 'learnings' from each. It allows individuals to explore aspects that are of particular interest to them and to articulate what has been learned to a shared group understanding. So, in an learning context this might include design, video, mapping, fiction, reports, interviews, history, scenarios, quiz development, opinion etc. Kind of like a 'choose your own adventure'.

I'm not sure if 'transmedia' adequately captures the concept and potential but it'll do as starter. I'm looking forward to watching the TedxTransmedia videos for further inspiration