Abstract
This chapter tells the story of #engl481, an upper-level undergraduate seminar on Joss Whedon that took place at McGill University in Fall 2017. McCormick designed this course using a transmedia framework: Through tweets, blog posts (online and offline), group work, and creative projects, students engaged across platforms and participated in an active exploration of the Whedonverse. In this chapter, McCormick shares the #engl481 course design and the teaching philosophy behind it, discussing how Whedon’s oeuvre allowed the class to frame questions of authorship, genre, narrative form, and fandom through the broader lens of transmedia culture. Additionally, this chapter includes student reflections that demonstrate how the transmedia classroom enabled different forms of learning, research, and creation. McCormick ultimately argues that transmediating the classroom creates a uniquely dynamic and collaborative learning experience.
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Notes
- 1.
Henry Jenkins, “Transmedia Storytelling 101,” Confessions of an Aca-Fan (blog), March 22, 2007, http://henryjenkins.org/2007/03/transmedia_storytelling_101.html.
- 2.
Henry Jenkins, “Transmedia Storytelling 202: Further Reflections,” Confessions of an Aca-Fan (blog), July 31, 2011. http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2011/08/defining_transmedia_further_re.html.
- 3.
Ibid.
- 4.
Christopher Orr, “Watch This Now: ‘Cabin in the Woods’,” The Atlantic, July 17, 2013, accessed August 22, 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/09/watch-this-now-cabin-in-the-woods/262495/.
- 5.
See Jodie A. Kreider and Meghan K. Winchell, eds., Buffy in the Classroom: Essays on Teaching with the Vampire Slayer (Jefferson: McFarland, 2010).
The Slayage Conference on the Whedonverses also regularly features teaching-focused panels.
- 6.
Jenkins, “Transmedia Storytelling 202.”
- 7.
Jenkins, “Transmedia Storytelling 101.”
- 8.
The idea of transmedia pedagogy resonates with other popular theories about teaching, such “hybrid pedagogy” (Stommel) and the “remix classroom” (Howell).
Katherine Anderson Howell, ed. Fandom as Classroom Practice: A Teaching Guide (University of Iowa Press, 2018).
Jesse Stommel, “Hybridity, pt. 2: What Is Hybrid Pedagogy?” Hybrid Pedagogy (Online Journal), March 10, 2012, http://hybridpedagogy.org/hybridity-pt-2-what-is-hybrid-pedagogy/.
Bibliography
Howell, Katherine Anderson, ed. Fandom as Classroom Practice: A Teaching Guide. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2018.
Jenkins, Henry. “Transmedia Storytelling 101.” Confessions of an Aca-Fan (blog), March 22, 2007. http://henryjenkins.org/2007/03/transmedia_storytelling_101.html.
———. “Transmedia Storytelling 202: Further Reflections.” Confessions of an Aca-Fan (blog), July 31, 2011. http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2011/08/defining_transmedia_further_re.html.
Kreider, Jodie A., and Meghan K. Winchell, eds. Buffy in the Classroom: Essays on Teaching with the Vampire Slayer. Jefferson: McFarland, 2010.
Orr, Christopher. “Watch This Now: ‘Cabin in the Woods’.” The Atlantic. July 17, 2013. https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/09/watch-this-now-cabin-in-the-woods/262495/.
Stommel, Jesse. “Hybridity, pt. 2: What is Hybrid Pedagogy?” Hybrid Pedagogy (Online Journal), March 10, 2012. http://hybridpedagogy.org/hybridity-pt-2-what-is-hybrid-pedagogy/.
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McCormick, C. (2019). Transmediating the Whedon Classroom. In: Kitchens, J., Hawk, J. (eds) Transmediating the Whedonverse(s). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24616-7_4
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