Another fascinating post from Jess Laccetti’s blog at Frontline that uses Inanimate Alice as the basis for a lesson on digital literacy. What I find amazing is that Jess has managed to clearly discern and articulate a range of decisions that were made as part of an organic design process: ‘this looks/sounds right’, rather than an explicit ‘this should go here because…’. You always hope that these decisions make narrative and multimedic sense – and a lot of thought goes into them – but it is very encouraging to know that they make some kind of theoretical and pedagogical sense too.

One thought I have when reading the lesson plans is the difference between sound and music… does a distinction need to be made there? What influence does the music have on the narrative compared to the ‘incidental’ sound effects?

Another is the role of Brad: is he real, imaginary? What is the relationship between Alice and Brad? How does he know where Alice’s Dad will be found? (This is difficult to discuss without giving the plot – congrats Jess for managing to avoid that!)