Designing With Transmedia: Watch This Space
Image source: Stockphoto.com
I used to fly back and forth to Salt Lake City, a lot. I stopped counting after 26 trips. Statistically, it's bound to happen on those flights. And it did.
I sat next to Donny Osmond.
I didn't bug him, talk with him, or ask for a photograph with him. Because I was focused on something else, something much more important to me. I was focused on a book.
To this day, the book sits within arm's reach of my working space. What book is so important? The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning, edited by Richard E. Mayer, 2009 edition. What held my attention so strongly? The disciplined and codified research that says no matter how fancy you make the learning method, the learning is the same.
How could this be? Bigger, better, faster, happier learning is my raison d'etre. What's going on here?
I started my doctoral program with one focused idea: that I believe in the power of transmedia. The entire field of virtual reality is still in the wild wild west stage, and here, anybody can do anything. Hence, I'm calling it all transmedia. But I don't mind what it is called*. I'm just fascinated with what we can do virtually that fools the mind and brain into thinking an experience actually happened.
The Cambridge Handbook is 616 pages of deliciousness of what we do know about learning and how it intersects with multiple forms of media. Said another way, there are definitely ways of doing technology-enhanced learning right and ways of doing it wrong. I'm looking at you, PowerPoint slides that are clearly speaker notes. Grr. One of the main thoughts that Mayer wants you to walk away with is that if try to compete instructional approaches against each other, you'll almost always find:
- The newer approach will be preferred by the learner (novelty effect).
- Both approaches will score the same learning gains (yay neuroplasticity).
- It's almost impossible to design an apples-to-apples research study to determine which approach is best. Why? Because different approaches work best for different learners. Also because different approaches are...well...different. Duh.
All that being said, instead of saying goodbye to my love for transmedia and what it could do for education, I'm all the more vigilant that it must be used only in those situations where it fits best. By now some researchers summarized by Bailenson (2018) are pointing the way to where transmedia is used best:
- Where the learner needs to collect and interact with information within a 360 sphere.
- Where all other attempts to satisfy a learning sphere would be impossible, dangerous, expensive, or damaging to the environment.
I'm part of a research project right now that is writing about the future of science and math education and I'm specializing on the impact of cross-reality (XR). We're more than 10 years into these technologies and still it feels like the first days. If you are reading this, you are part of the generation that will remember life before the ubiquity of transmedia. We are part of the bridge generation, which means that we see the benefits and detriments most clearly.
I'm thrilled that the entertainment industry is really leading the way with figuring out the best uses for transmedia. When they find out what works and what doesn't, education will follow and I'll be part of that. Watch this space.
After all, if Donny Osmond couldn't distract me, nothing will.
#Transmedia #virtual reality #virtualworlds #crossreality #mixedreality #augmentedreality #design #instructionaldesign #cambridgehandbook #richardemayer #bailenson #sorrydonny
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*Oh the names for these! Partial list, because these are all slightly different.
- Virtual reality (VR)
- Augmented Reality (AR)
- Mixed reality (MR)
- Cross-reality (XR)
- Transreality
- Hyper Immersive Virtual Experience (HIVE)
- Multimediated Reality Continuum
- Collaborative Virtual Environment
Bailenson, J. (2018). Experience on Demand: What Virtual Reality Is, How It Works, and What It Can Do. W. W. Norton & Company.
This post originally appeared on LinkedIn on June 27, 2019
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/designing-transmedia-watch-space-heather-dodds