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Topic: Sci-Fi Space Opera
Platform: Powerpoint or Keynote
Curriculum: MYP Language & Literature Year 3; Victorian Curriculum Level 08: English Mode: Writing; English Strand: VCELT419 – Create literary texts that draw upon text structures and language features of other texts for particular purposes and effects; VCELY422 – Use a range of software, including word processing programs, to create, edit and publish texts imaginatively,
Rationale: I am a huge fan of the Kaufman/ Kristoff space opera series’ ‘The Illuminae Files’ and ‘The Aurora Cycle’, each a trilogy full of tricky pace changes, mad adventures, quantum physics, romance and drama. The vastness of space and its known and unknown quantities are wonderfully open-ended and are a perfect backdrop for a choose-your-own multi-layered hyperlinked story.
Using Powerpoint or Keynote (I’m still yet to complete testing on each platform) is easy enough to create a complex story without learning a new program or storytelling tool, flexible enough to include a variety of media (images, text, video, audio, sound effects, etc) and a choice of design themes, and is a universal platform that many people are already very familiar with, so reader should have no trouble navigating the different choices.
Although the Kaufman/Kristoff series are written in third person, an inherent element of a choose-your-adventure is that the reader IS the main protagonist and is, therefore, written from a second person point of view. This better facilitates the reader immersing themselves in the story and the action and offers a certain level of apparent autonomy to the reader, who makes their own decisions about which choice to make – albeit within the limited scope of the author’s decisions as a writer.
The adventure begins by dropping the reader into the middle of the story: waking alone in a dormitory, somewhere in space, and being late for breakfast – again. From that point on the reader makes all their own choices about what happens next, having been given two or more options to choose from, some possible, some improbable, and some entirely outlandish. But that’s half the fun – seeing how wacky the plot can get!
Hi Miffy, thank you for sharing your creative explosion of ideas for your fabulous digital story. I think this idea is fantastic and, quite frankly, the whackier the better! I can see clear links to Amie Kaufman’s and Jay Kristoff’s incredible ‘The Illuminae Files’ series, and the setting of space is perfect for a digital sci-fi tale due to seemingly endless possibilities for intergalactic escapades. It’s great that you’ve included the curriculum links as well.
I think that the choose-your-own adventure format is well suited to your planned digital story, especially if you are posing questions to the read in second person… e.g. “You spy a grumpy octopus, wearing an eyepatch, hurtling through the ether. What do you do next?”
I think that either PowerPoint or Keynote could work well for this story. I would also put a vote forward for Google Slides, though! I’ve personally found that it offers more in terms of online functionality and getting students to follow a link to a Google Slides presentation could be less fraught than downloading a bulky PowerPoint. It’s super easy to embed multimedia resources too, such as YouTube videos or audio files. You can also easily hyperlink between slides or different presentations, and it’s easy to connect with other Google apps if needed.
By the way, I love that you are dropping readers straight into the action, so that they can hit the ground running… after finally making it to breakfast. I always take comfort in Oscar Wilde’s words, “only dull people are brilliant at breakfast” (or make it there on time).
Best of luck with your project – I can’t wait to read the finished product!
Emma 😊
Reference List:
Google. (2022). Google slides. https://www.google.com.au/slides/about/
Penguin Books Australia. (2022). Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast. https://www.penguin.com.au/books/only-dull-people-are-brilliant-at-breakfast-9780241251805
WOW this sounds like a lot of fun. It sounds like something I’d thoroughly enjoy doing myself. I’m not particularly familiar with the space dramas you mentioned but they sound very fascinating. You mention the romance, drama and Quantum physics of the world, I’m just wondering whether that comes into play in your choose your own adventure story? If so, we might want a little older audience than year 3.
PowerPoint is a great option, it’s incredibly versatile and grants a fair amount of freedom when creating slides (although it can be confusing to utilise ALL of it’s tools). I’m not particularly familiar with Keynote though.
I can’t believe I didn’t think of the choose your own adventure format, as it makes such perfect sense for this task. if the goal is engagement and Interactivity, your narrative structure has already got that built into it. it makes a lot of sense to integrate digital tools into a tried and tested method like that.
Thanks Daniel.
“Year 3” refers to a level in the IB MYP program that equates to Year 7 & 8 VicCurric. 😉 Although there’s nothing in the story (so far) that a Year 3 couldn’t read.
Choose Your Own – such a fabulous but undervalued genre.
Cheers for the feedback.
AMENDED COMMENT WITH REFERENCES:
Hi Miffy, thank you for sharing your creative explosion of ideas for your fabulous digital story. I think this idea is fantastic and, quite frankly, the whackier the better! I can see clear links to the incredible ‘The Illuminae Files’ series (Kaufman & Kristoff, 2019), and the setting of space is perfect for a digital sci-fi tale due to seemingly endless possibilities for intergalactic escapades. It’s great that you’ve included the curriculum links as well.
I think that the choose-your-own adventure format is well suited to your planned digital story, especially if you are posing questions to the read in second person… e.g. “You spy a grumpy octopus, wearing an eyepatch, hurtling through the ether. What do you do next?”
I think that either PowerPoint or Keynote could work well for this story. I would also put a vote forward for Google Slides, though! I’ve personally found that it offers more in terms of online functionality and getting students to follow a link to a Google Slides presentation could be less fraught than downloading a bulky PowerPoint. It’s super easy to embed multimedia resources too, such as YouTube videos or audio files. You can also easily hyperlink between slides or different presentations, and it’s easy to connect with other Google apps if needed.
By the way, I love that you are dropping readers straight into the action, so that they can hit the ground running… after finally making it to breakfast. I always take comfort in Oscar Wilde’s words, “only dull people are brilliant at breakfast” (or make it there on time).
Best of luck with your project – I can’t wait to read the finished product!
Emma 😊
Reference List:
Google. (2022). Google slides. https://www.google.com.au/slides/about/
Kaufman, A., & Kristoff, J. (2019). Illuminae: Illuminae Files Book 1. Allen & Unwin.
Penguin Books Australia. (2022). Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast. https://www.penguin.com.au/books/only-dull-people-are-brilliant-at-breakfast-9780241251805