TRANSMEDIA PLAY
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Project Type: Transmedia Play
Role: Research Director Research collaborators: Rebecca Herr-Stephenson, Ph.D., Meryl Alper, Ph.D. and Henry Jenkins, Ph.D. @ USC Annenberg Innovation Lab / Children, Youth & Media Research-Design Track |
T is for Transmedia: Learning through Transmedia Play
In this research, we looked carefully at numerous children’s media properties, play spaces, and play and performance-based programs to tease out the characteristics of transmedia that seem to best foster learning. From Harry Potter to Project Lamp, Story Pirates to Minecraft, we surveyed numerous opportunities for transmedia play currently available, focusing on those designed for children between the ages of 5 and 11. One of the key characteristics we observed in our review of transmedia experiences is the existence of rich story worlds that encourage reading across media and digging deeply into narratives and topics of interest.
T is for Transmedia is our attempt to summarize, synthesize, and spark discussions about children learning through their engagement with transmedia. As media producers increasingly look to transmedia as part of a strategy for incorporating new media into new and existing properties and as educators look ever more to new media as a site for meaningful learning opportunities, we suggest ways in which transmedia can be a resource for learning in various contexts, including schools, expanded learning programs, and at home. We promote the idea of “transmedia play” as a way of thinking about children’s experimentation with, expression through, and participation in a transmedia experience that acknowledges their cultural engagement, respects their thoughts and feelings, and builds up and upon 21st century literacies.
While it is clear that transmedia is a regular part of many children’s media ecologies—and, to a growing extent, their learning ecologies—this report is the first to document the characteristics of transmedia play and to consider its role in children’s education beginning in preschool.
In this research, we looked carefully at numerous children’s media properties, play spaces, and play and performance-based programs to tease out the characteristics of transmedia that seem to best foster learning. From Harry Potter to Project Lamp, Story Pirates to Minecraft, we surveyed numerous opportunities for transmedia play currently available, focusing on those designed for children between the ages of 5 and 11. One of the key characteristics we observed in our review of transmedia experiences is the existence of rich story worlds that encourage reading across media and digging deeply into narratives and topics of interest.
T is for Transmedia is our attempt to summarize, synthesize, and spark discussions about children learning through their engagement with transmedia. As media producers increasingly look to transmedia as part of a strategy for incorporating new media into new and existing properties and as educators look ever more to new media as a site for meaningful learning opportunities, we suggest ways in which transmedia can be a resource for learning in various contexts, including schools, expanded learning programs, and at home. We promote the idea of “transmedia play” as a way of thinking about children’s experimentation with, expression through, and participation in a transmedia experience that acknowledges their cultural engagement, respects their thoughts and feelings, and builds up and upon 21st century literacies.
While it is clear that transmedia is a regular part of many children’s media ecologies—and, to a growing extent, their learning ecologies—this report is the first to document the characteristics of transmedia play and to consider its role in children’s education beginning in preschool.
Transmedia Projects: |
