To begin to answer that question, I’m leading a class called “Expanding Learning via Interactive Online Storytelling, Out of Time” as part of an online learning series called Connecting Online 14 (CO14), coming up this Saturday, Feb. 8, at 4 p.m. ET. And frankly, I need your help. Because this whole idea–that the characters, plot and themes of a story could make learning more engaging, especially when YOU can help control the action–is a dramatically different approach to learning.
I call it “learning through interactive engagement in story.” And I’m looking for your advice in how to bring this to life, to the classroom, and to the world. So, by attending this online class, I’m hoping you’ll become as passionate as I am at the possibility to make learning through story a rich, resonant and engaging experience. And help me turn this experiment into a reality.
What is Interactive Storytelling Out of Time? Out of time is a young adult time-travel adventure told across multiple platforms: novel, screenplay, Web, and Twitter.
What’s it about? A modern teen’s ambition to hack time travel, meet her Renaissance idol Leonardo da Vinci and return to today to win the middle school science fair, Charley Morton is determined to learn life’s lessons from the superheroes of history.
Story Sets the Stage in Developing Minds for Interactive Learning, Enhancing Memory. This transmedia, interactive storytelling adventure is taking disruptive learning to a new level by allowing contemporary teens to construct a world and learn from experts through the eyes of strong and compelling characters from Out of Time (www.outoftimemedia.com). Flipped learning, social learning and storytelling can map to a new level beyond STEM, to promote learning MASTERY.
The formula? 
Join Our Online MOOC this Saturday. Learn how to integrate story into learning through interactive media.
What: Expanding Learning via Interactive Online Storytelling “Out of Time”
When: Saturday, February 8, 2014, 4 p.m. ET, for Connected Online 14 (CO14)
Where: Online at WizIQ http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/1562874-co14-transmedia-storytelling-learning-through-narrative-engagement
Who: Teachers, teens and YOU!
About. Author and creator Robin Stevens Payes envisions expanding the serial storytelling adventure across media–from screenplay to novel, social media to Web. She envisions building out an educational platform that uses the story as a jumping-off point to tackle learning from the physics of time travel to the history of the Renaissance.
Participants in the class will gain additional insights into how to engage in the interactive storytelling experiment through social media.