Digital Arts Alliance Project curriculum

Digital Arts Alliance Project curriculum

This is a very nice unit and it could be useful in a transmedia setting as it would roll into working with the crossmedia aspects and also could be used to introduce how to plan a large scale project. I also like how this unit I organized and I hope to develop a structure similar to this for the transmedia units I develop.

The unit starts here - digitalartsalliance.org/getting-started.html and contain how to physically organize a classroom for this type of project, how to plan a curriculum and a nice overview of digital arts.

Clicking on the Pre-Production bring you to some awesome tools and even ready to use in the classroom materials. The section entitled - Developing Effective Narratives – goes right into transmedia concepts and there is a nice video ready to use. It goes from the standpoint of a voiceover – but this is right in the overview – " Ask your students if their stories are meant to inform, entertain, explain? Who is the intended audience? Then begin with an outline." And to me those are the same questions you want students asking at the start of a transmedia lesson. There is also a great script activity and handout – again, these items are already made and ready to be used.

The other topics in pre-production are wonderful as they hit important thought to consider such as – Storyboarding, Finding and Saving Images, Connecting Devices to the Laptop, and Making a Checklist. Once again this highlight why I think a transmedia approach can be valuable, you mix content with skill development in a logical way (what do I need to do a project/solve a problem).

The next step is Production – again from the nuts-n-bolts aspect this is a great unit. Depending on what platforms your students use, they can find useful lessons such as – recording a narration, keyframing, editing video, but than the wonderful curriculum designers throw in a unit on working in groups.

I take an aside here – working in groups is the BANE of students and yet IMO, is one of the MOST important skills a person needs to master to be successful in a global world. I like the video the unit provides and will have my students watch it and talk about it.

Presentation is the next step. The unit is a bit light, but the topic of Distribution is brought up, which falls into the multiplatform moving of a transmedia project.

There is a section on Housekeeping, which I like, as too often projects become oohh-ahh in the classroom and the essential details are skipped over. There is a Permissions form and that concept tie in perfectly with the overall theme of copyright, piracy, intellectual property and so on. Plus we are in a school, so we have to watch certain legal aspects.

And there are some nice samples, take a few moments and appreciate the students' hard work. The site as a whole has a lot of resources and I suggest if you are bringing a transmedia/crossmedia/project-based lesson to your classroom; take a gander.