Educational content is being transformed. Laura Fleming, an educational consultant and librarian, discussed Inanimate Alice, one of the more innovative current projects. Inanimate Alice is a born-digital, multimedia, and interactive story for young children. It is interactive because it requires user interaction to move the story forward. As the story unfolds, the episodes become more complex, and the level of interactivity increases, holding the child’s interest. The system has several unique features: it is multimedia and can be viewed in several languages and it is an example of “transmedia” because it can be viewed on any device that is capable of running Adobe’s Flash player. According to the Alice website:
” ‘Alice’ connects technologies, languages, cultures, generations and curricula within a sweeping narrative accessible by all. As Alice’s journey progresses, new storylines appear elsewhere providing more details and insights, enriching the tale through surprising developments. Students are encouraged to co-create developing episodes of their own, either filling in the gaps or developing new strands…children will grow up with Alice, from class-to-class from year-to-year, engaged with an ever-growing story in which they become part of the narrative.”
A downloadable education pack is available for teachers and educators to accompany the story.
Inanimate Alice is a a unique and different example of how education and e-books will advance in the future.
Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor