Gaming

Bradfield Updates Transliteracy Ed Game

• By Joshua Bolkan
• 12/04/14

The Bradfield Company has released a new episode of it transliteracy resource, Inanimate Alice, and a new pilot program for schools and districts with 1-to-1 computing programs.

"Inanimate Alice is a storytelling project that marries text with sound, movie and gaming elements to create an experiential story crafted to build digital literacy skills for today's youth," according to a news release. "In this digital-born story, readers are transported into the world of Alice Field, a globetrotting girl who wants to be a game designer."

Aimed at students interested in careers in digital production, game making or creative arts, Inanimate Alice is designed to help build critical, digital, information, media and visual literacies.

Features of the newest episode include:

• An upgrade from Flash to Unity3D, a game engine free to download;
• "A mix of engaging and atmospheric 2D and 3D graphics";
• A video game, created by Alice, according to the storyline, involved in part of the narrative;
• A 22-page journal, also a creation of Alice's, that offers behind the scenes info on the development of the episode, tips and cheats; and
• Images, video footage, scripts, music, sound effects, artwork and animations for lesson planning or remixing by students.

"Inanimate Alice is a universal story with the power to engage students of all abilities and nationalities," said Ian Harper, series producer, in a prepared statement. "Students can learn a lot from Alice who having traveled widely from an early age she is sympathetic to the plight of others. Multi-cultural, multi-lingual and a would-be multimedia artist, Alice is a champion of ICT education and the empowerment of girls in a male-dominated world."

As part of the new pilot project, the company is allowing districts to download the program onto their own servers or computers, and offering customized support for district-wide deployments. Educators in those pilots will also be able to work with the Inanimate Alice team to develop new lesson plans.

"With the explosion of one-to-one programs and mobile devices in the classroom, educators have expressed an interest in having content that captivates and motivates students. Inanimate Alice does both. It also brings creativity back to learning by giving students an opportunity to roll-up their sleeves and write their own endings," added Harper.

More information is available at inanimatealice.com.