Transmedia
Transmedia learning is the use of multimedia, videos, video games, and movies as a tool for teaching. Further, I argue that the future of classroom lessons will (and should) incorporate a variety of digital and non-digital resources. As digital media permeates deeper into our cultural norms, our students (and teachers) desire interactive media within lesson plans. These resources have increased student motivation and brought today’s classrooms in the 21st century.
The Electric Company Project
The Electric Company Summer Learning Program:
Vocabulary Learning Program over 24 lessons
Teachers Guide with Lesson Plans (PDF)
YouTube videos for all 12 Summer Learning Episodes
See also: The Electric Company Extended Learning Program
Other PBS Kids .ORG Educational Resources:
PBS.org has a wealth of educational resources that educators can use (and all free!). For science activities, PBS Kids has three excellent shows: SciGirls, DragonflyTV, and Zoom. Each show has videos (on Youtube), suggestions for teachers to run the activities in their classrooms, and suit primary school ages. Ideally, have a specific science topic you are teaching about, and do a search to see if any of the three shows has resources on it.
SciGirls show:
More info – http://www.pbs.org/parents/scigirls
Sample Gravity/Friction Classroom activity – http://www.pbs.org/parents/scigirls/activities/parachute-parade/
DragonFly TV:
Show info – http://www.pbs.org/parents/tvprograms/program-dragonflytv.html
Kid’s website – http://pbskids.org/dragonflytv/
Zoom:
Zoom info – http://www.pbs.org/parents/zoom
Activities – http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/index.html