Cross-media Storytelling and Transmedia Narrative in Education

Transmedia Narrative and Cross-media Storytelling are ancient learning methods that have found a foothold in the modern, technological world of online education. 

Before the invention of most modern methods of media (internet, film, online games), important information would have been taught to the masses across various, more "primitive," platforms, such as storytelling, plays or cinema, events, and even artwork.

Transmedia Narrative refers to the use of the "story" and the narrative as it is found across multiple platforms, such as books, film, cinema, etc. and how these various "media" interact with one another.

Cross-media Storytelling refers to the utilization of various types of media (books, movies, video games, music, etc.) to tell the same story.

As teaching methods, Transmedia Narrative and Cross-media Storytelling are both interesting and effective ways of engaging and educating the adult, online learner.

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World of Warcraft, Sociology, and the Classroom

Continuing along the path of online learning and the use of MMORPGs, Blizzard's World of Warcraft has been used frequently as a model for teaching students a variety of subjects. 

In fact, there are a multitude of textbooks in print designed to aid educators in the proper way of using the game to teach sociology and other topics to their students.

                

With the increasing popularity of such MMORPGs as World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, and Second Life, educators are discovering the usefulness of these types of games in the design of their curriculum.

What better way can there be to "reach and teach" today's learners (who are becoming more immersed and experienced in the workings of online gaming), than to use their familiar games to help them understand the workings of human society.

Online Learning Communities: Using MMORPGs to Teach English Literature

Online Games: Literature, New Media, and Narrative is an excellent online course offered by Vanderbilt University through the free online learning community called Coursera.

Located at https://www.coursera.org/course/onlinegames, this course places emphasis on storytelling, cross media representation, and remediation of various works of literature and art.

The main focus of the course is to explore the changes that occurs to a story when it has been converted to a movie and an online video game.

This course mainly involves J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings books and movies, and The Lord of the Rings Online MMORPG.

Students taking this course spend time interacting with one another within the game and keeping logs of their gameplay; reading various books, short stories, and poems; watching a selection of plays and movies; and attending video classes taped at Vanderbilt University.

                   

Coursera Week 3 Lord of the Rings Online Video

            

A video of gameplay from Vanderbilt's Coursera course Games: Literature, New Media, and Narrative.