The project proposed will use Microsoft Sway to create a digital story that supports the Australian Curriculum cross curricular priority of sustainability; encouraging audiences “to develop an appreciation of the necessity of acting for a more sustainable future and so address the ongoing capacity of Earth to maintain all life and meet the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations”(ACARA). The digital story proposed seeks to achieve this goal by creating narrative pathways that connect the cultural significance of the now extinct native species of the thylacine to digitised natural history and archival documents collected in the Biodiversity Heritage Library Australia. Applying digital animation to historical documentation, the work seeks to serve as an engaging access point to the collection and encourage exploration of this excellent resource for information documenting the history of biodiversity and study of native species in Australia. Digital object identifiers are intended to be embedded throughout the digital story to create greater intertextual penetration by readers, revealing historical encounters and interpretations of endangered species across centuries. Digitally remixing narrative elements with archival materials in a decidedly non-linear manner, the tragedy of loss of species presented is intended to encourage audiences develop an appreciation of the necessity of acting for a more sustainable future through a sense of wonder, intrigue and mystery.
Reference
Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. (n.d.). The Australian Curriculum v5.1 Sustainability – sustainability capability across the curriculum. Retrieved December 19, 2013, from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/generalcapabilities/pdf/sustainability
I like the idea of using a narrative to have students learn to engage with a non-fiction website. I’m interested in the kind of narrative you might use to accomplish this. Rettberg (2002), suggests that interactive fiction, such as non-liner hypertext, are most compelling when the narrative is presented as a riddle or mystery to solve. Might you consider the students using the external website to find the clues needed to solve the mystery of the thylacine extinction?
I’m also curious what age group this text will be targeted at. From your description it feels like this text may be for upper primary or lower secondary. Which age group do you envision this text being used by?
I look forward to seeing your completed text. Best of luck.
References:
Rettberg, S. (2002). The pleasure (and pain) of link poetics. Electronic book review. https://electronicbookreview.com/essay/the-pleasure-and-pain-of-link-poetics/
I am not familiar with Microsoft Sway, does it present your digital story as a document/book style or everything laid out to click on for further information? I am a little unclear on how this would look (on my way to Google it further myself!)
Is your narrative on the thylacine going to include stories (such as Indigenous stories) to move it along, or is it presented as information, or timeline? I would just like to understand a bit better how your audience will read/view this text.
I like that you’re including links to additional information (historical encounters or interpretations) and digital library collections. This helps supports students by giving them opportunity to interchangeably use navigating, browsing, hyperlinking, searching, interpreting, and responding skills (Walsh, 2010). It also seamlessly integrates digital literacy general capabilities as well (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2022).
Will you provide students with opportunities to respond to your artifacts?
References
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2022). Understanding this general capability: Digital Literacy. Australian Curriculum.
Walsh, M. (2010). Multimodal literacy: what does it mean for classroom practice? Australian Journal of Language and literacy, 33(3), 211–239. Retrieved from http://www.alea.edu.au/documents/item/63
This sounds like a really fascinating approach. I too have chosen a non-fiction route, but I am curious how this might be given a “narrative” type of approach, rather than a research task. Personally, I have chosen to turn my research into a feature article, that explores the topic with a bit of drama and intrigue. Microsoft sway has tools built in for this, like the “scrollytelling” approach. I know you said you want to remix the digital content into a “non-linear” approach, but I wonder if you will successfully create the mystery, tragedy, wonder and intrigue your aiming for if there is no linearity.
Incorporating cross-curriculum priorities is fantastic, and I am always struggling to find seamless ways to do that with my own work so well done! I was wondering what the original curriculum outcomes were that you intended to utilise? As in, which was the initial subject area that your content was designed for.
You mention incorporating doi’s into your sway page, but I am unsure what these doi’s will link to. Was the intention to link directly to primary sources that shed light on the content? Or will you be creating your own content that the doi’s will link to? It sounds very interesting, I am just unsure what will specifically be imbedded into these sections.
Hi Jacob,
What a great topic for your storytelling proposal! I may be a little bias as I have also chosen sustainability for my digital storytelling project.
I have come across an article by Spearman and Eckhoff (2012) titled Teaching Young Learners about Sustainability that may be useful for your Digital Storytelling Project. This article echoes your views about how proactive attitudes and real-life agency towards sustainable practices is dependent on students’ empathy and respect for the natural world. The tragedy and loss of species in your storytelling proposal certainly sounds like one that could have the power to motivate students beyond the screen and lead to some authentic teaching and learning experiences.
I believe your story has the potential to align to numerous outcomes across the curriculum in addition to the cross-curriculum priority of sustainability. For example, the investigation of physical habitats and how the growth and survival of living things is affected by changing physical conditions effortlessly aligns to biological science outcomes (AC9S6U01) (ACARA, 2022).
I hope this comment has been helpful. I look forward to seeing this wonderful proposal come to life!
References
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2022b). Science: Year 6. https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/learning-areas/science/year-6?view=advanced&hide-ccp=0&hide-gc=0&detailed-content-descriptions=1&side-by-side=1&strands-start-index=0&subjects-start-index=0
Spearman, M., & Eckhoff, A. (2012). Teaching young learners about sustainability. In Childhood Education, 88(6), 354-359.