Unforgetable Learning: What Master Storytellers Can Teach Us About Designing Transformative Learning Experiences

This post is the story of the dissertation I didn't write, the book I would like to edit to make up for it, and how you can help.

Have you ever been channel surfing and came across a documentary about a topic that, until this pivotal moment, was of mild interest and found yourself, within 10 minutes, fully engrossed in every aspect and detail of say, the life cycle of a shrew, the mating rituals of the common slug or the travails of a nomadic Mongolian family whose camel has rejected her calf? Do you find yourself telling your co-workers the next morning with great enthusiasm about the way computer chips are manufactured or how FedEx sorts packages or how sea turtles migrate thousands of miles to the exact same beach on which they were born to lay their eggs having never visited it again in the intervening decades?

My dissertation was going to be a deep study of the structure of the most engaging, memorable documentaries designed for a general audience. I wanted to extract principles of how to engage and enthrall learners who only have a passing interest in a subject. It seemed to me that our field could learn a lot from those outside the field who had mastered this craft. Alas, I couldn't muster enough interest among my faculty and had to move on to another topic.

Master storytellers design their narrative to completely invest their audiences in their story; and audiences willingly give their rapt attention and full emotional involvement in return. I want to know how that is accomplished by the best storytellers in (at least) the following genres:

• Documentaries
• Feature Films
• Television Series
  
• Plays
• Musicals
• Dance Performances
• Poetry
• Short Stories
• Novels
• Video Games
• Role Playing Games
• Theme Park Rides

I believe much could be learned from a minute by minute analysis of the structure of some exemplars, by interviewing their creators, by interviewing their loyal audiences (or eavesdropping on their public online discussions), and by carefully studying those who experience these for the first time. I also believe that the narrative traditions, folk wisdom, and design tools of the individual genres could be mined for insight. For example, I did a minute-by-minute analysis of the NOVA episode on the Wright Brothers and found very clear and compelling structures designed to draw in and hold audiences with different levels of familiarly and interest in the topic.

I would love to serve as editor or co-editor on such a book, with chapters written by you or people you know who would be ideal candidates. I would be interested to hear from those who would like to participate or who know people who would like to submit a chapter or could recommend a publisher that would find such a book particularly interesting. Actually, I would just plain like to know what you think of the idea.

What do you think?

The Hidden Park: Great Concept, Cool Technology, Careful Narrative Design

Imagine a portable learning toolbox with these capabilities:

• GPS
  
• A digital camera
• An accelerometer

Now bring to it a conceptual framework:

• Alternative reality gaming
• Geochaching
  

What are the possibilities? What if you added a bit of story, a bit of fantasy, and loads of imagination?

You or I probably still wouldn't come up with The Hidden Park, but, luckily for us, the people at Bulpadok did. Here is a brief description from their press kit:

The adventure begins when the children receive a video call from a troll named Trutton, head of the Magical Wildlife Protection Association. Trutton explains that their park is in danger of being bulldozed by greedy developers. The kids must collect evidence to prove the existence of magical animals in their park.

The children navigate their way through the park by following a map that lets them know where the magical creatures live. Of course, Trutton’s map is magical – as they move past landmarks in the park the map tells them where to go next. The children must solve puzzles and riddles on their way to the next destination. Clues to the answers can be found on the signposts in the park.

Following Trutton’s directions, the children take photos of various landmarks. As if by magic, Trutton’s fantastical friends appear in the photos – sometimes right next to the children! The photos are stored in a gallery, so at the end of the day the children have an album of their adventure.

Very, very cool. So: Great concept. Smart, innovative people thinking outside of the box. Nifty technology. Contemporary aesthetic look and feel. That's what it takes, right? But what role did narrative design play? Narrative is clearly an element, but did it matter? Did they just hit the jackpot of a serendipitous cross over of cool technologies and a neat concept and then threw in a fun story as the frosting on the cake?

Oh, no. Not even close.

If you go to the blog of the creators of the game and look up the post titled Shaping the Story, you will see that they took the narrative element very, very seriously. These cutting edge game designers discuss Aristotle's classic three act structure, the narrative arc, and several modern storytelling theorists. Narrative design, it appears, was a central consideration of their game design, and, I would venture, central to the success of the product. These people thought long and hard about what the right narrative structure for the product should be, and have some very interesting thoughts on the mapping of a story arc to physical geography. An excerpt:

One of the really fun things about writing The Hidden Park was being able to physically map the narrative shape over the landscape. Many of the pathways that we plotted actually physically drew an arc through space. While this was satisfying at some theoretical level, it also became important for storytelling. We didn’t want people to double back over territory they had already covered and we didn’t want people to cross back over their path. The Hidden Park is a simple linear narrative and it was important for that to be reflected geographically. We wanted to create the feeling of physically moving forward through the story.

As GPS gaming evolves, it may be desirable to maintain a consistency between the shape of the narrative and its position in real space. Where a detective story leads the protagonist around in circles, a GPS mystery may literally lead the player back to where they started. Often in a story, a writer wants to revisit a particular theme and reveal something new to their audience. By requiring a player to physically return to a location, their path will trace the intricate folds and layers of sophisticated storytelling.

They go on to say that this mapping of physical space to the storytelling structure is not a hard and fast rule. But my point is to call attention to their careful consideration to the narrative structure of the product. They did their theoretical homework, and it pays off in the final product. Without a strong narrative, the product would have been gadgety cool and amusing. With the narrative, it becomes a compelling adventure that leads the player forward, as they state, "with direction and purpose."

So if we revisit the list of key features from their website, there seems to be a hidden element that didn't make the list:

• GPS
  
• A digital camera
• An accelerometer
• Alternative reality gaming
• Geochaching

and...

• ???

Go ahead, snap a photo with your iPhone and see what shows up...

Special Issue of Interactive Learning Environments Focuses on Narrative

I was recently had an article published as part of the December issue of the Interactive Learning Environments entitled "Designing video narratives to contextualize content for ESL learners: a design process case study." The issue was focused exclusively upon narrative and interactive learning environments and guest edited by Paul Brna and Rose Luckin. Below is the abstract of my article:

In this paper we discuss how the Brigham Young University Technology Assisted Language Learning Group (BYU TALL Group) develops video-based dramatic narratives to increase the amount of context we provide to English as a second language (ESL) learners. First, we discuss the problem of decontextualization in education, the contextualism alternative, and how narrative can provide crucial context. Next, using ESL instruction as a case study, we compare non-narrative video-based language models with narrative models and discuss some of the potential benefits of narrative models. We then discuss issues to consider when using narrative models, and outline a narrative-focused design and development process with particular attention to those aspects critical to creating narratives that are simultaneously pedagogically sound, aesthetically credible, and engaging for learners to watch.

"Smoking is [wags finger] not allowed on any delta flight."

Like a lot of people, sometime in the last couple of years, I was sitting on a Delta flight, bouncing out to the runway, when the heretofore totally ignorable safety video came on. But this time, it was different. Jazzy music. I looked up. Zippy editing. I kept watching. Amplified, stylized sound effects. Catchy. Then came the moment where all other safety videos got classified as boring and lame -- the finger wag, which you just simply have to see for yourself.

I laughed out loud. On it went with slick graphics, interesting camera angles and focus pulls, and even a post-production twinkle and audible "ding" on the life preserver demonstrator's smile.

This Delta safety video, in my opinion, is a great example of putting the engagement back into instructional design. While there has been a lot of talk about the attractiveness of the main actress (for the record, she is not an actress but an actual Delta flight attendant) as the reason people watch, I think it is more than that. Yes, she is striking, and that does increase engagement, but it is the sum of all the little touches mentioned above that raise the overall engagement level. One of those strategies (sound effect, focus change, unusual camera angle, etc.) is used about once every ten seconds or so. They are sprinkled throughout to (pleasantly) surprise you in every part of the video. If you doubt that this video is substantially different that other airline safety videos in terms of engagement, show me another safety video with over 1.2 million voluntary views on YouTube.

Now, we must remember that the content of the video did not substantially change from the previous safety video. In most cases, the exact same wording is used. The exact same action. It is all about the presentation, the pacing, the music, the little touches that draw the audience in. These "touches" are not touches at all. They are engagement strategies and should not be considered optional afterthoughts to the overall design. We tend to use pejoratives to describe them: window dressing or eye candy or Easter eggs. We think of the designers as being mischievous or even frivolous, of messing around after the serious work was done, by adding them. But they are the difference between whether people choose to watch the video or not. For many travelers, I would submit, they are the deciding factor in whether or not people read, sleep, or otherwise ignore the safety video or watch it.

As long as instructional design models continue to be derived from research in settings in which the audience is required to participate, our models will continue to exclude these pivotal factors in determining whether or not there is an audience at all. And it is a mistake to think that just because you have a bunch of people trapped in a classroom, or a training site, or an airplane, that you have an audience.

"Engagement [wags finger] is not optional in effective instructional design."