November 2018 – Kate's Korner

Considering all I can think about is my brother coming to visit and a home cooked Thanksgiving meal, bare with me with this blog post on Transmedia 🙂

WHAT IS TRANSMEDIA?

Transmedia is the technique of telling a single story or story experience across multiple platforms and formats using current digital technologies. Prior to class we read articles on trans media. The definition was pretty much the only thing I could wrap my head around after reading these articles. It wasn’t until I was provided a visual in class of what transmedia actually looks like, that I understood its purpose. (For more insight on transmedia and its uses click on the word trans media to be connected to an extremely informative article and podcast.)

EXAMPLES OF TRANSMEDIA

The examples of transmedia that we were shown in class were interactive websites like Pottermore and the Capitol. Each interactive website we got the chance to explore, gave us an extension of the original story it derived from. For example, Pottermore is an interactive platform that developed from the Harry Potter series. This transmedia website allows you to dive right into the world of Harry Potter and become part of the plot yourself. It emerges you in this online experience through a quiz to discover your Hogwarts house, applications to create your own wand, and other wizardly games. On the other hand, The Capitol is a sight representing the government of Panem. Panem is a fictional place from The Hungergames book series. This website allows you to go more in depth with the story. Not only do you get to see past victors, but you get to learn more about each faction within the government itself. Both sites are incredibly beneficial in engaging with the books itself. Image result for the capitol website

Link to Pottermore: https://www.pottermore.com

Link to the Capitol: https://www.thecapitol.pn

WHAT I DID USING TRANSMEDIA

I was so intrigued after playing with Pottermore and the Capitol, that I decided I wanted to create a similar platform. For my trandmedia project I wished to create something for the book Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief. This book was my favorite as a child, so I saw fit to bring it to life for others who want to be part of this world in which I’ve dreamed of as a child. I know my aspirations might appear too large to complete within such a short amount of time, but with the help of my friends it began to all come together. My group consisted of Spencer, Anna, Autumn, Sarah, and Myself. Each of us worked hard on a separate part of this platform that would extend the book. Autumn worked on creating your own weapon to fight in battles. Spencer worked on a messaging system to the gods for complaints from immortal creatures on Earth. Anna worked on an interactive game, and Sarah worked on a virtual reality quest. Each part equally awesome, but my addition to the group is of course is my favorite part of the project. I created a personality quiz on Buzz Feed that sorts which greek god you’re descended from and what house you would live in at Camp Half Blood. The quiz that I constructed is akin to the one in Pottermore that sorts which house you live in through asking questions about your daily life. I loved every or shall I say most minutes of creating this quiz. With a few minor technical errors, my quiz is finally perfected and I couldn’t have been more proud of myself.

If you’re interested, please feel free to try out my quiz!! linked right here:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/kswehrhe/demi-god-housing-quiz-3nnt1?utm_source=dynamic&utm_campaign=bfsharecopy&utm_term=.geY7o7Q12

For a great perspective on transmedia and its transformative qualities watch the attached video below

!!!!Considering Thanksgiving is on the way, I’d like to give a quick shout out to my professor Ms. Davis who I am extremely grateful for. She challenges me in every possible way, but never fails to give me guidance, and without her none of this would be possible!!!!

IF YOUR READING THIS I ENCOURAGE YOU TO SHOUT OUT SOMEONE WHO HAS MADE A DIFFERENCE IN YOUR LIFE AS WELL

share it with me on twitter: @KateWehrheim

Sources:

https://images.google.com

https://www.youtube.com

When I walked into my ECI 201 class last Thursday, I was prepared for a normal day of power points and note taking. What I wasn’t expecting was a whole itinerary of a day filled with games. When I saw all the games layed out on a document to play that day, I had to do a double take. Although I was beyond excited to play all these games during class, I did not understand how this was going to relate to education.

My Face When I Had to Do a Double Take on Today’s Lesson

Image result for double take gif

Just as my confusion escalated, Ms. Davis reintroduced the idea of gamification that we briefly went over the class prior.Gamification is the application of typical elements of game playing like point scoring, competition with others, rules of play to other areas of activity for engagement. For more on gamification and how to gasify things in your life visit: https://www.shoutmeloud.com/how-to-add-gamification-to-your-website-to-increase-engagement.html

Last class we were taught our lesson by Ms. Smith while simultaneously playing a game for badges on an excel sheet. You would earn each badge by doing certain tasks that coincided. In addition to this, yips could also earn badges by completing Radom tasks which made the class more entertaining. For example, one of the badges in last class’s lesson was for standing up randomly and dancing during the lesson. Not only is this humoricav to the students, but it also gives them a quick brain break from the lesson at hand. At the end of the lesson, Ms. Smith announced a winner to give credit to the winner. Considering my extremely completive personality, it was no suprise that I won with a total score of 24 badges. The whole time I was so caught up in earning badges, I didn’t realize how much I was learning along the way. It is easy to day that I gained more information from thus activity than I have from other standard powerpoint in the past.

This Thursday, my class continued with this idea of gamification in the classroom with a whole day filled with games. As a class, we divided into four groups to play four different games. This games included VAX!, Lemonade Stand, Oregon Trail, and Kinect Disneyland (All shown at the bottom of the post). Although these games were your standard kid games, each one brought more tot he table than just entertainment. Instead of just playing these games like I originally thought, we speculated how each could be used in a classroom setting. For example, the first game I played with my group was Disneyland Kinect (Shown on the right).
To me this game reminded me of the days I use to come home and play Xbox Kinect games to get a break from my homework. Little did I know, this game could bring so many positive elements to a classroom setting. For one, I could use this game to work on narrative stories and detailed writing by making students write down what they saw while playing the game. Then using what they write down and compare it with other students to show how each student brings different elements and perspectives to the table. I could also use it in a social studies lesson about geography and maps, by using the Disneyland Kinect map, and so on.

For more on gamification watch the TED talk below:

Video games have become an important part of our students’ lives outside of the classroom. After a long day at school, kids turn to their Xbox, Wii, Playstation, or Nintendo consoles to have fun. This event is now repeated to the point that some kids return home from school and go straight to their video games every single day. According to a study by Pew Research Center (linked here)97% of teens ages 12-17 play computer, web, portable, or console games. If you really think about it, there are so many possibilities games can open up in education. Therefore If more teachers recognize this and start to incorporate video games into their lesson plans, students will show more interest in school.