{"id":1037,"date":"2021-11-08T17:32:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-08T17:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/?p=1037"},"modified":"2026-06-29T14:09:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T14:09:05","slug":"designing-with-transmedia-watch-this-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/?p=1037","title":{"rendered":"Designing With Transmedia: Watch This Space"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Source: Stockphoto<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

I used to fly back and forth to Salt Lake City, a lot. I stopped
\ncounting after 26 trips. Statistically, it’s bound to happen on those
\nflights. And it did.<\/span><\/p>\n

I sat next to Donny Osmond.<\/span><\/p>\n

I didn’t bug him, talk with him, or ask for a photograph with him. Because I was focused on something else, something much<\/i> more important to me. I was focused on a book.<\/span><\/p>\n

To this day, the book sits within arm’s reach of my working space. What book is so important? The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning<\/b>,
\n edited by Richard E. Mayer, 2009 edition. What held my attention so
\nstrongly? The disciplined and codified research that says no matter how
\nfancy you make the learning method, the learning is the same.<\/span><\/p>\n

How could this be? Bigger, better, faster, happier learning is my raison d’etre. What’s going on here?<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I
\n started my doctoral program with one focused idea: that I believe in
\nthe power of transmedia. The entire field of virtual reality is still in
\n the wild wild west stage, and here, anybody can do anything. Hence, I’m
\n calling it all transmedia. But I don’t mind what it is called*. I’m
\njust fascinated with what we can do virtually that fools the mind and
\nbrain into thinking an experience actually happened.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The
\n Cambridge Handbook is 616 pages of deliciousness of what we do know
\nabout learning and how it intersects with multiple forms of media. Said
\nanother way, there are definitely ways of doing technology-enhanced
\nlearning right and ways of doing it wrong. I’m looking at you,
\nPowerPoint slides that are clearly speaker notes.<\/i> Grr. One of
\nthe main thoughts that Mayer wants you to walk away with is that if try
\nto compete instructional approaches against each other, you’ll almost
\nalways find:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The newer approach will be preferred by the learner (novelty effect).<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Both approaches will score the same learning gains (yay neuroplasticity).<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. It’s
    \n almost impossible to design an apples-to-apples research study to
    \ndetermine which approach is best. Why? Because different approaches work
    \n best for different learners. Also because different approaches
    \nare…well…different. Duh.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    All that being said, instead of
    \n saying goodbye to my love for transmedia and what it could do for
    \neducation, I’m all the more vigilant that it must be used only in those
    \nsituations where it fits best. By now some researchers summarized by
    \nBailenson (2018) are pointing the way to where transmedia is used best:<\/span><\/p>\n