Sunday, 19 January 2014
Week 3: Inanimate Alice
Alongside the critical readings for this week, I'd like you to make your way through as much of Inanimate Alice as you can. I recommend *reading* all available episodes (four) so that you can trace the changing trajectory and requirements on the part of the reader - one needs to become more and more *transliterate* to read the work.
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I watched all 4 Episodes of this Digital Novel. Really well done - the audio, visuals and digital technology are very engaging. These were created between 2005 & 2008 for use in schools. Worth reviewing. Transliteracy at its best.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Lynne. I hope more episodes come...I know Inanimate Alice has branched out a bit and created a few other things but these stories are a great way to get into it. I love how as Alice ages, her transliteracy skills evolve as must the reader's.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think I’ve ever seen storytelling quite like this before… it really does combine a bit of everything (text, animation, video, games, music, etc. By looking at the teacher’s guide it sure becomes apparent how this type of media can help students develop a range of literacies.
ReplyDeleteExactly Jonathan. One of the amazing things of stories written/developed in this way, is the pedagogical range. I think we can really reach a wide spectrum of learners with a text like this. I especially like it that Alice and the story become more intricate and technologically advanced as she ages and as the reading progresses. Something students would parallel in their own learning and refining of transliterate skills.
DeleteI would have loved Inanimate Alice when I was a teen. I can see how this interactive and multimedia narrative would reach young audiences in ways that books or short written stories might not. The mix between music, visuals, short sentences, a young girls perspective and the way the viewers interaction is needed to help her out, is quit successful. I noticed Inanimate Alice is also used at school for teaching and to get children to enjoy putting stories together. What a great idea.
ReplyDeleteHowever I am clearly not the audience and I found it a bit to rigid and a little contrived. I believe that one of the pleasures of literature is allowing words to help you imagine the places, habitats and characters. Inanimate Alice is successful partly because it doesn’t really tell the whole story and it leaves lots of room for the imagination. We never see the characters and the multimedia is mainly focused on providing a sense of the present environment Alice is living on. It will be interesting to see the next episodes, but even more interesting to hear from the teachers how these has helped them get younger students to tell stories.
I think the most interesting part of Inanimate Alice was how very little text was present throughout the story. The sensory information provided by the changing soundscape, visuals and interactive "rewind/flip back" are stimulating to the senses. Did anyone else find that the graphics were really pixelated (or perhaps that was the intention)?
ReplyDeleteHi Diana - you're right the graphics were a bit fuzzy or hard to see - but I think that was the intention - to make the eposides dramatic and kind of scary...in my opinion anyway!
DeleteI loved Inanimate Alice. I guess this was my first experience with this type of digital literature – or multimodal literature. The interactivity in each of the episodes was really interesting, and I loved how the interactivity became more sophisticated as Alice got older in each episode (and the stories got scarier). I really liked that it wasn’t narrated by a traditional narrator but that the music, sound effects and graphics really helped bring the story to life with minimal text. This would be a great teaching tool, and this type of storytelling would also work well for adult learners. I actually showed the Alice web site to my colleagues at my office – we create online courses for our clients – and we’re always look for new innovative ways to display content in interactive ways. The fact that you had to solve problems in the Alice episodes (or later episodes) and the game play really added to the learning. I also liked the fact that you could choose to take part in the game or just read the story. This really allows the audience to take control of how they want to learn or interact with the literature/game.
ReplyDeleteMandeep, thanks for sharing your reaction. Can you give me an example of where you found the noise/information overwhelming? Did it parallel an important emotion or understanding in Alice? I know when the men are knocking on the door it is very loud and that aligns well with Alice's fear.
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