[new media demands new literacies]

Today we seem to face a quandary. On the one hand there are anxieties about the reliability of internet sites and concerns of how to educate students to make informed online decisions. On the other hand we have the National Curriculum in England and Media Literacy outcomes in Canada as evidence of the important role technological skills play in all sorts of learning environments. But how can teachers successfully integrate new media literacies into classrooms? I have found Inanimate Alice as an exemplar new media fiction that is easily assimilated into learning environments. With its use of multimodality (images, sounds, text, interaction) students have the opportunity to see storytelling in a new, multisensory light. Being able to interact with the fiction and explore and critique how all the modes interact has given students an opportunity to develop their new literacy skills. As one of my students said after reading Episode 1 for the first time: "Inanimate Alice is a very innovative way of telling as story." In my teaching experience Inanimate Alice has proven to be an excellent new media fiction which allows students to develop multiple literacies (literary, cinematic, artistic, etc...) in combination with the highly collaborative and participatory nature of the online environment.

Check out the brand-spanking new Inanimate Alice Education Portal! Live from 4th December 11:20am GMT.

Fancy adding the catchy iTeach Inanimate Alice button to your course site or blog? Just copy this code into your template:

<a href="http://www.inanimatealice.com/education">
<img src="http://www.inanimatealice.com/education/images/iteach.png"
alt="iTeach Inanimate Alice" title="iTeach Inanimate Alice" border="0">
</a>

Keep up to date with lesson plans, interviews, tips, suggestions, etc... at the newly launched iTeach Inanimate Alice blog.