Here’s an article I wrote for EdTech Digest on Inanimate Alice. It’ll give you an idea of how transmedia storytelling can transform literacy and learning. Inanimate Alice is an exemplary of that (and it’s pretty awesome too!).
A playful approach to literacy and learning.
GUEST COLUMN | by Amanda S. Hovious
Maria Montessori observed it. Jean Piaget observed it. Lev Vygotsky observed it. What did they observe? All three made the observation that young children learn language and literacy skills through their interactions with the world around them. Play is the natural process by which children come to understand their environment. Learning through play does not end in early childhood. That is just the beginning. However, as children enter primary school today, they all but lose the opportunity to learn through play. Recess has been replaced with writing workshops. Learning is ‘not supposed to be fun.’ Teaching to standardized tests has become the norm. It doesn’t have to be that way.
The evolution of digital media has triggered a renewed interest in the link between play and learning. Interest in game-based learning is becoming more mainstream, thanks to the rhetoric…
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