This book includes a short history of interactive narrative and an account of a small group collaboratively authored social media narrative: Romeo and Juliet on Facebook: After Love Comes Destruction. At the forefront of narrative innovation are social media channels - speculative spaces for creating and experiencing stories that are interactive and collaborative. Media, however, is only the access point to the expressiveness of narrative content. Wikis, messaging, mash-ups, and social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and others) are on a trajectory of participatory story creation that goes back many centuries. These forms offer authors ways to create narrative meaning that reflects our current media culture, as the harlequinade reflected the culture of the 18th century, and as the volvelle reflected that of the 13th century. Interactivity, Collaboration, and Authoring in Social Media first prospects the last millennium for antecedents of today's authoring practices. It does so with a view to considering how today's digital manifestations are a continuation, perhaps a reiteration, perhaps a novel pioneering, of humans' abiding interest in interactive narrative. The book then takes the reader inside the process of creating a collaborative, interactive narrative in today's social media through an authoring experience undertaken by a group of graduate students. The engaging mix of blogs, emails, personal diaries , and fabricated documents used to create the narrative demonstrates that a social media environment can facilitate a meaningful and productive collaborative authorial experience and result in an abundance of networked, personally expressive, and visually and textually referential content. The resulting narrative, After Love Comes Destruction, based in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, shows how a generative narrative space evolved around the students' use of social media in ways they had not previously considered both for authoring and for delivery of their final narrative artifact.

Play engages humans cognitively, emotionally, and physically at all ages. Using a historical framework, and focusing on play as represented by material artifacts such as toys and games, this book explores play as a form of somatic engagement that reflects cultural attitudes about development and learning as these have evolved over time in western culture. Theorists in the twentieth century such as Klein and Winnicott, Huizinga and Callois, Piaget, Bruner and Vygotsy brought different perspectives to our understanding of play's role in our society. In particular, Vygotsky's theories about process provide insight into how children attend to learning and assimilate new information. The increasing use of digital media as both an entertainment and learning environment at ever-younger ages, is generating new discussions about the nature and value of play in children's development, in particular, physical, or somatic play. The emphasis on games intended for children necessitates a discussion of the cognitive, behavioral, and neuroscience that supports play activities and physical engagement as a crucial aspect of development. The book then looks at the trajectory of digital games in contemporary culture and explores whether these artifacts (whether intended for learning or entertainment) have extended or are curtailing boundaries of somatic engagement. Finally, the book discusses alternative play and game design and, speculates on the future of new media play artifacts.

This book includes a short history of interactive narrative and an account of a small group collaboratively authored social media narrative: Romeo and Juliet on Facebook: After Love Comes Destruction. At the forefront of narrative innovation are social media channels - speculative spaces for creating and experiencing stories that are interactive and collaborative. Media, however, is only the access point to the expressiveness of narrative content. Wikis, messaging, mash-ups, and social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and others) are on a trajectory of participatory story creation that goes back many centuries. These forms offer authors ways to create narrative meaning that reflects our current media culture, as the harlequinade reflected the culture of the 18th century, and as the volvelle reflected that of the 13th century. Interactivity, Collaboration, and Authoring in Social Media first prospects the last millennium for antecedents of today's authoring practices. It does so with a view to considering how today's digital manifestations are a continuation, perhaps a reiteration, perhaps a novel pioneering, of humans' abiding interest in interactive narrative. The book then takes the reader inside the process of creating a collaborative, interactive narrative in today's social media through an authoring experience undertaken by a group of graduate students. The engaging mix of blogs, emails, personal diaries , and fabricated documents used to create the narrative demonstrates that a social media environment can facilitate a meaningful and productive collaborative authorial experience and result in an abundance of networked, personally expressive, and visually and textually referential content. The resulting narrative, After Love Comes Destruction, based in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, shows how a generative narrative space evolved around the students' use of social media in ways they had not previously considered both for authoring and for delivery of their final narrative artifact.

"Disney Stories: Getting to Digital" explores how Disney, the man and the company, used technological innovation to create characters and stories that engage audiences in many different media, in particular in Video Games and on the Internet.

Drawing on Disney films from the twenties and thirties, as well as the writings of historians, screenwriters and producers, "Disney Stories: Getting to Digital" explains how new film and animation techniques, many developed by Disney, worked together to evolve character and content development and produce entertaining stories that riveted audiences.

Through an insider's perspective of Disney's legendary creation process, the book closely examines how the Disney Company moved its stories into the "digital" world in the 1990s and the virtual, online communities of the 2000s. By embracing the digital era, Disney led storytelling and technological innovation by granting their audience the unique opportunity to take part in their creation process through their online games, including "The Lion King Animated Story Book," "Disney Blast" and "Toontown."

"Disney Stories: Getting to Digital" is intended for Disney fans and current practitioners looking to study the creation process of one of the most famous animation studios in existence. Professors teaching courses in new media, animation and interactive storytelling will also find this book a valuable asset.

The second edition of Disney Stories: Getting to Digital will be of interest to lovers of Disney history and also to lovers of Hollywood history in general. The first edition was planned as a short history of the companies evolution from analog storytelling to a digital online presence that closed the chapter on early Disney films with the release of the groundbreaking Snow White. The purpose of the new edition is to bring to readers a more complete view of the analog-digital story by including three new chapters on film that cover key developments from the live-animation hybrids of the 1940s to CAPS and CGI in the 1990s and VR in the 2010s. It also includes in the discussion of cross-media storytelling the acquisition of the exceptional story property, Star Wars, and discusses how Disney has brought the epic into the Disney Master Narrative by creating Galaxy's Edge in its US theme parks. Krystina Madej's engaging portrayal of the long history of Disney's love affair with storytelling and technology brings to life the larger focus of innovation in creating characters and stories that captivate an audience, and together with Newton Lee's detailed experience of Disney during the crucial 1995-2005 era when digital innovation in online and games was at its height in the company, makes for a fast-paced captivating read. Disney Stories first edition explored the history of Disney, both analog and digital. It described in detail how Walt Disney used inventive and often ground-breaking approaches in the use of sound, color, depth, and the psychology of characters to move the animation genre from short visual gags to feature-length films with meaningful stories that engaged audience's hearts as well as tickled their funny bones. It showed Walt's comprehensive approach to engaging the public across all media as he built the Disney Master Narrative by using products, books, comics, public engagements, fan groups such as the Mickey Mouse club, TV, and, of course, Disneyland, his theme park. Finally it showed how, after his passing, the company continued to embrace Walt's enthusiasm for using new technology to engage audiences through their commitment to innovation in digital worlds. It describes in detail the innovative storybook CD-ROMs, their extensive online presence, the software they used and created for MMORGs such as Toontown, and the use of production methods such as agile methodology. This new edition provides insight on major developments in Disney films that moved them into the digital world.

The second edition of Disney Stories: Getting to Digital will be of interest to lovers of Disney history and also to lovers of Hollywood history in general. The first edition was planned as a short history of the companies evolution from analog storytelling to a digital online presence that closed the chapter on early Disney films with the release of the groundbreaking Snow White. The purpose of the new edition is to bring to readers a more complete view of the analog-digital story by including three new chapters on film that cover key developments from the live-animation hybrids of the 1940s to CAPS and CGI in the 1990s and VR in the 2010s. It also includes in the discussion of cross-media storytelling the acquisition of the exceptional story property, Star Wars, and discusses how Disney has brought the epic into the Disney Master Narrative by creating Galaxy's Edge in its US theme parks. Krystina Madej's engaging portrayal of the long history of Disney's love affair with storytelling and technology brings to life the larger focus of innovation in creating characters and stories that captivate an audience, and together with Newton Lee's detailed experience of Disney during the crucial 1995-2005 era when digital innovation in online and games was at its height in the company, makes for a fast-paced captivating read. Disney Stories first edition explored the history of Disney, both analog and digital. It described in detail how Walt Disney used inventive and often ground-breaking approaches in the use of sound, color, depth, and the psychology of characters to move the animation genre from short visual gags to feature-length films with meaningful stories that engaged audience's hearts as well as tickled their funny bones. It showed Walt's comprehensive approach to engaging the public across all media as he built the Disney Master Narrative by using products, books, comics, public engagements, fan groups such as the Mickey Mouse club, TV, and, of course, Disneyland, his theme park. Finally it showed how, after his passing, the company continued to embrace Walt's enthusiasm for using new technology to engage audiences through their commitment to innovation in digital worlds. It describes in detail the innovative storybook CD-ROMs, their extensive online presence, the software they used and created for MMORGs such as Toontown, and the use of production methods such as agile methodology. This new edition provides insight on major developments in Disney films that moved them into the digital world.

Imagination is the Source of Creativity and Invention This series of essays has been collected expressly to bring readers new ideas about imagination and creativity in education that will both stimulate discussion and debate and also contribute practical ideas for how to infuse our daily classrooms with imaginative activities. In a world that values creative innovation, it is distressing that our schools are dominated by an educational paradigm that pays too little attention to engaging the imagination and emotions of students in the curriculum and the worlds challenges that the curriculum is designed to prepare students to meet. The ability of children to think creatively, to be innovative, enterprising, and capable, depends greatly on providing a rich imagination-based educational environment. It is only when we consider the imagination a vital component of our lives and one of the great workhorses of learning that we recognize the importance of adding the imaginative to the study of the affective, cognitive, and physical modes of our development. Doing so fills a gap that has led to incomplete accounts of childrens development, their subsequent learning needs, and indeed, how to fulfill these needs in educational environments.This discussion, about the importance of imagination and creativity in education, has been taken up by researchers and educators around the world. It is represented here by writings from authors from Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Italy, Israel, Japan, and Romania. In the first part of this book these authors explore and discuss theories of development, imagination, and creativity. In the second part they extend these theories to broader social issues such as responsible citizenship, gender, and special needs education, to new approaches to curriculum subjects such as literacy, science, and mathematics, and to the educational environment of the museum.