Inanimate alice uses gamification to add playful design elements that engage the learner, and help the story unfold. Throughout this unit of work the students were very aware of the importance of accountable conversations. New media literacies march 16, 2011 hilery williams education childrens writing, dyslexia, inanimate alice, literacy, power of story, transmedia navigation leave a comment. A 21 stcentury educator reflects on teaching, classroom life and channeling her inner alice guest column by kristal doolin. She then confronts the mimi but it remains inanimate.
Beginning in china when alice is eight years old, and told over ten increasingly complex episodes, the series follows the journey of alice and her closest friend brad. Nov 28, 2014 a resource for teaching inanimate alice created for final assignment unit 6 semester 2, 2014. We talked about setting and character development, noting that inanimate alice can be read as a bildungsroman. She and her parents have ended up in a multicultural city in the middle of england. It has been a long time since episode 4 appeared online. What would an episode look like with a deeper and more complex story and characters, an expanded creative team, and a more robust tech platform. Using our internal conversation skills to read and. It has been used successfully in teaching contexts across the world and has inspired students to create their own digital novels. Now, she finds that the socalled stable hometown life she yearned for is far from. Six episodes have been completed and a virtual reality experience. Jun 24, 2008 inanimate alice is a wonderfully innovative online text that tells the story of alice, a young girl growing up in the first half of the 21st century.
Add what you have learnt about alice, to the list you started from episode 1. Inanimate alice episode 4 electronic literature collection. Leaving black picture of hall is on the right with the white text on the left. Tldl program written by leslie holwerda, teacherlibrarian. This clip shows catherine sophie lee terrified by a mimi sculpture that has come to life in her apartment.
Watch inanimate alice episode 2 worksheet questionsclass activity another example is incorporating games in the lesson. Life after death experience nde with steve gardipee, vietnam war story one of the best ndes duration. Inanimate alice digital storytelling and creating your own. For the first time ever, alice has friends her own age, and they do all the things that 14 year olds everywhere do. The teachers edition suite is available to licence for individuals and classrooms. Thanks to inanimate alice, i was able to bridge the gap and take students from averse, to reading with enthusiasm, in a short period of time. A resource for teaching inanimate alice created for final assignment unit 6 semester 2, 2014.
Peer pressure and bullying, for example, is the core theme of episode 4. This was inspired by the inamimate alice digital story. Alice accepts the dare but nevertheless is frightened. These resources have been written to provide teachers with starter activities and ideas relating to episode one of inanimate alice. We agreed to spend the remainder of the lesson reading episodes 1 and 2. Scootle provides australian teachers with access to more than 20,000 qualityassured digital learning resources aligned to the australian curriculum. From time to time inanimate alice is referred to as a game. Teaching in wonderland a 21 stcentury educator reflects on teaching, classroom life and channeling her inner alice. This blog was begun as an inquiry project for edes 540 university of alberta m. Inanimate alice consists of four episodes that reside online, with a further six episodes planned. 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.
Lesson 1 2011 78 december 4 november 32 october 39 september 3. Episode 4 of inanimate alice finds alice going to school at last. May, 20 inanimate alice tells the story of a girl called alice, growing up in the near future, surrounded by technology. Catherine is shown surveying the bloodlike tracks that have appeared on the walls. The teachers only version of this episode provides a skip intro option and opens up all of the navigation icons from the beginning so that educators can focus on the sections of the narrative appropriate to. Inanimate alice is an ongoing digital novel, an interactive multimodal fiction, relating the experiences of aspiring game designer alice field and her imaginary digital friend, brad, in episodes, journals, social media, and virtual reality in development. Each episode takes place in a different country china, italy. Fill in the visualising worksheet using all 5 of your senses. Airplanning there are the pictures of the airplane on the backgrounds and the sky. Inanimate alice halton district school board, burlington.
A picture walk through inanimate alice episode 1 china youtube. Each episode of inanimate alice become increasingly interactive and gamelike, reflecting alice s own developing skills as a game designer and animator. The purpose of this group is to share ideas and tips for using inanimate alice in the classroom or curriculum. She spends time hanging out with friends, roaming the city and going to night clubs. So, you know, anyone can go in here and look and listen and do stuff. The students did so without viewing the actual episode 4 until after completion. Set in a technologyaugmented nearfuture, inanimate alice tells the story of a young girl who grows up to become a videogame designer at the biggest games company in the world. Then, he allowed us to be among the few to view episode 5 prepublication to provide critical feedback. Mar 03, 2016 inanimate alice is a wonderful combination of audio and visual text features which lures in reluctant readers and leaves them wanting more. Alice through the looking glass bill boyd the literacy adviser. The conference focus this year is on the use of ict in classrooms for teaching and learning.
Its the part of me that is, after 18 years in the classroom, more curious than ever and. As a little girl, alice likes to draw and create games on her handheld device. Spatial skills are considered essential for math learning, and with the common cores greater emphasis on math and stem, inanimate alice can be used as a gateway to develop those skills. Allow students to work in pairs and navigate the story on their own. You may need to lower your gatekeeper settings temporarily to accept files from anywhere as well as apple trusted sources. Reading inanimate alice, episodes digital literacy lesson plan. Alice is 16 years old and has been living in england for almost three years a lifetime record. For the first time ever, alice has friends her own age, and they do all the things that. Episode 5 was created by andy campbell and written by kate pullinger with music by chris joseph. Five characteristics make gamification a success in inanimate alice. To play inanimate alice teachers edition suite you need a pc or mac with an integrated or dedicated graphics card, 2gb or 4gb memory 4gb recommended, a keyboardmouse and speakers or headphones. Nov 20, 2014 he graciously answered a load of student questions and provided inspiration for their own transmedia projects by talking about the creation process for inanimate alice episodes 1 4.
She is living with her parents in a remote area of northern china. For years, early adopters have presented the inanimate alice series to their students, capturing their imaginations and inspiring them to create their own versions of the story. Her friends have dared her to climb to the top of an abandoned building. To think that only a few years ago we lived in a world with no social networks. As a part of our presentation on digital literacy for the explicit teaching of readers and writers in the middle years yr 59 we have created a wikispace for sharing our planning and the students amazing work using inanimate alice as the stimulus. Inanimate alice can be used as an educational tool for cultural literacy. Episode 5 is more mediarich than the previous episodes and contains some 3d graphics that may slow down on older systems. Italy, italian alps, saudi arabia, chalet and snowcat. Inanimate alice in afghanistan is an example of a student made new episode, based on the original text, made by students luke, sahashra and burak in cathie suttons year 6 classroom melbourne, australia. The best bit i thought was in episode two and it was the part where alice was going to go to ski school, but she fell in the snow.
In episode 4, alice gets lost in an abandoned building, which is essentially a 3d labyrinth that you must navigate through in order to end the story. In my english class we used netbooks for the second episode of inanimate alice. Her friends dare her to climb to the top of an abandoned building, but as she climbs the stairs give way. Have you been surprised by the uptake from teachers around the world, and how do you account for its tremendous.
The challenge we put to the students in grade 6 at pascoe vale primary school was to analyse episodes, identifying authors writing techniques and style for a digital narrative, to then create and present their own episode 4 using powerpoint. I couldnt take my eyes away from the screen, it was that good. Inanimate alice is a digital, interactive, graphic novel set in the 21st century. A 5th episode for animate alice created by year 67 students. Teachers can use inanimate alice as a springboard to create guided discovery lessons on the cultures and countries represented. Alice is fourteen years old and living in a small town in the middle of england. Inanimate alice is an ongoing digital novel, an interactive multimodal fiction, relating the experiences of alice and her imaginary digital friend, brad, in. The ultimate goal is to complete 10 episodes spanning alice s life from age 8 to her midtwenties. Clearly frightened, she grabs a kitchen knife and tries to dial emergency services. Inanimate alice combines text, sound, imagery and game elements to tell the story of a girl growing up dreaming of. Inanimate alice is an innovative text because it combines all the features of digital technology that is of interest to our 21 st century students walsh, 20. I decided to share this journal of my gap year travels with some little games i made to help me speak bahasa indonesia and make friends.
Inanimate alice is an ongoing digital novel, an interactive multimodal fiction. In episode 4, alice must also deal with peer pressure. Alice s fears help students create stronger emotional connections with the character, and open up. Created by myself and web artist chris joseph, inanimate alice was commissioned and financed by bradfield ltd producer ian harper. Over ten episodes, each a selfcontained story, alice grows from an eightyear old living with her parents in a remote region of northern china to a talented midtwenties animator and designer working. Inanimate alice is a wonderful combination of audio and visual text features which lures in reluctant readers and leaves them wanting more. As a teacher of 21stcentury digital natives in a time of major educational shifts, i often sit before my online plan book channeling my inner alice. Build a mental image of alice as you view both episodes. Digital literacy and inanimate alice linkedin slideshare. Despite all the inefficiencies of browserwifi access, those teachers have.
Inanimate alice episodes 1 4 were designed by chris joseph and written by kate pullinger. Write a short blog entry to think about your reading experience. Inanimate alice tells the story of a young girl who grows up to become a videogame designer at the biggest games company in the world. Inanimate alice teachers edition suite is digitally signed with an apple id but sometimes still struggles to get past gatekeeper. Alice s fears help students create stronger emotional connections with the character, and open up opportunities for conversations about feelings. A picture walk through inanimate alice episode 1 china.
We meet alice at the age of eight and follow her episodic story into her midteens when she becomes a world class animator and designer. Inanimate alice just trying to be better than yesterday. Beginning in china when alice is eight years old, and told over ten increasingly complex episodes, the series follows the. Inanimate alice is a digital novel with text, images, music, movie elements, and games suitable for students in grades 512. Inanimate alice digital storytelling and creating your. While it does not include interactive elements, it shows interesting use of media elements drawn from the original text. They claim that the view from the top is the best in town. There are so much teachers and students can do with it. We meet alice at the age of eight and follow her episodic story into her midteens when she bec. An introduction to teaching with inanimate alice inanimate alice.
Ian harper had written a screenplay for a feature film and had the idea that he could generate interest in the script by publishing a series of short, interactive, online multimedia stories that provided a backstory to the script itself. Episode 5, released in 2015, was developed by digital artist andy campbell from a. Episodes 1 4 of the series were written by novelist kate pullinger and developed by digital artist chris joseph as a prequel. Well, because im sure ill make the episode even cooler the better i get as a storyteller. Alice is 16, an aspiring game designer who grew up constantly on the move. The ultimate goal is to complete 10 episodes spanning alices life from age 8 to her midtwenties. Exploring character development, inanimate alice as kunstlerroman. Cameron steltmans class using inanimate alice in the halton district school board, burlington, ontario, canada.
The stories are told through text, music, games, images, sound effects, and video and are available for free. Inanimate alice is a digital novel with text, images, sound, and interaction narrated by a girl named alice who travels the world with her family and her virtual friend brad. Flash player, or get the episodes 15 teachers edition suite no web browser or plugins. Discovering inanimate alice came at an opportune time for my stage 3 students who were just introduced to byod at school and were eager to use any kind of technology in their learning. The teachers only version of this episode provides a skip intro option and opens up all of the navigation icons from the beginning so that educators can focus on the sections of the narrative appropriate to their needs. Active listening and accountability in partnerships, small group and whole class discussions. China, inanimate alice this will take approximately five minutes. I look forward to more episodes created by the alice team and students in schools. Kirsten panton the pace of change and development in education has picked up substantially in recent years largely because of the key role ict is increasingly playing in both teaching and learning. There is a picture of the pocket of coat and the animated picture of a boy. Inanimate alice is used by teachers and students across the world. If you love to read, try this awardwinning, interactive narrative. Jul 07, 2012 inanimate alice provides such an impetus for students to create a continuing narrative and their own interpretation of alice that i think its a fabulous text for the classroom.
Homeschooled until she was 14 years old, alice proves to be a model pupil that students can relate to whether learning at home or in the classroom. In inanimate alice, the games are part of the story. As a non gamer i also liked catching the dolls in episode 3. Episodes 1 4 of the series were written by novelist kate pullinger and developed by digital artist chris joseph as a prequel to an. The first five inanimate alice episodes were created on a very low budget and kept simple and short as a result, with very linear narratives. Each episode takes place in a different country, and reflects a different culture. The teachers edition suite of inanimate alice episodes 15 provides engaging, fullscreen high definition experiences with no internet browser restrictions or download waiting times. Extract chapter nine inanimate alice the bradfield company, 200520 is an exemplar of digital fiction and is a borndigital text see thomas, chapter 3 this volume, meaning it was conceived of and produced solely in digital form. Then, he allowed us to be among the few to view episode 5 prepublication to. Alice grows from an eight year old living with her parents in a remote region of northern china to a talented midtwenties animator and designer with the biggest games company in the world.
Using our internal conversation skills to read and analyse. As writers of episode 4 the students were involved in many conversations with their writing partners, with each other and with us. Episode 4 is the largest and most complex episode in the series to date. Their familiarity with the interactive world of the internet allowed students to be at ease with the digital features presented within the story and empowered students to be in control. Inanimate alice tells the story of alice, a young girl growing up in the first half of the 21st century and her imaginary digital friend, brad.