Introducing cyberdrama and using digital technologies in drama for creating and sharing drama. Specific focus on school and educational contexts, drawing on MA and PhD p

1. Cyberdrama and digital technologies-
Exploring the possibilities
Sue Davis
s.davis@cqu.edu.au
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2. What do we love about drama?
• We want to recognise and hold on to what is
important about our live processes and
experiences
• And look at how they can be extended upon
and complemented as we embrace online
communications and digital technologies
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3. Why should we go there?
• 87% of kids ages 12-17, use the Internet
• 57% of teens who use the Internet have created a
blog or webpage, posted original artwork,
photography, stories or videos online or
remixed online content into their own new
creations.
PEW Internet & American Life Project
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4. Today‟s generation of youth have three core needs
community, self-expression and personalisation, and
that these core needs are met through their use of
media and technology. Key technology uses revolve
around music, the Internet and mobile devices.
Yahoo/OMD ‘Truly, Madly, Deeply’ Report
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5. Growth in participatory culture and spaces for sharing user-generated
content
e.g. youtube & myspace
Digital content creation key growth area in creative industries
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6. Why use cyberspaces?
• Encourage participation and collaboration
• Build a community of creative practice
• Create and build the drama using multiple
modes and media
• Talk about and reflect on the drama
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7. What can these tools and spaces add to the
drama experience and learning?
• Collaborative possibilities outside of the drama
„classroom‟
• Creative collaborations online to build drama and
content
• Potential for creating roles and the world of the
drama in a very rich way (profiles, imagery,
environment)
• Opportunities to communicate and reflect
• Build different kinds of skills – multi-media, online
communications, interactive processes
• Audiences for the work
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8. Cyberdrama –
Janet Murray 1997
“I have referred to these various new kinds of narrative under
the single umbrella term of cyberdrama because the
coming digital story form... Like the novel or the movie,
will encompass many different formats and styles but will
essentially be a single distinctive entity. It will not be an
interactive this or that, however much it may draw upon
tradition, but a reinvention of storytelling itself for the
new digital medium... As a new generation grows up, it will
take participatory form for granted and will look for ways
to participate in ever more subtle and expressive stories
(Murray 1997, 271)”
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9. Aspects from my experiences of cyberdrama
• participants taking on role
• engaged in a fictional world
• the potential for interaction
• development of a story or narrative
• enactment in a digital space
• drama unfolds over time, it is not just an image –
the notion of tension is related here.
• shared experience of the story, with audience and
participant being co-present at some point.
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10. Elements of cybdrama or
Place/space
interactive drama „Real‟ World <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Virtual World
Time
„Real‟ time <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Created Time
Characters
Predetermined, rehearsed <<<<<<<<<><<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Improvised, open
Embodiment
Live/human <<<< Mediated <<<<<<< Re-mediated>>>>>>> Artificial Intelligence
Text & lexia
Written Text or one kind of lexia<<<<<<>>>>>>> Multi-media/Multi-modal lexia
Narrative Flow
Closed <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Work in movement >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Open
Ergodic Intrigue/Dramatic Tension
Dramatic hooks & questions <<<<<<<>>>>> Searching for the pathway to the next lexia or out
Text Creation
Preconceived/fixed <<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Improvised/developmental
Playwright/Author Function
Single author function <<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>> Multiple participant author function
Audience
Clearly delineated audience <<<<<<>>>>>>> No audience other than participants
Audience/Interaction
Interaction through viewing only <<<<<>>>>> Interaction which changes the text
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11. Use of Computer-mediated communications
Out of role In role
• Forums • Blogs, wikis,
• Blogs & wikis, twitter • chats in role (skype,
• Talking to BB collaborate,
artists/leaders in waterwheel)
chatrooms • Online role play
• Documenting process (Upstage, second life,
• Planning & Reflecting some gaming sites)
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12. Components and content
• Character profiles
Images & Photo
Stories
Forums in
Video & clips Emails or out of
Wiki/blog diary role
style entries
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13. Key component – building role & narrative
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14. Interaction opportunities for
participants and users
• Laying trails (making offers) and seeing what the
participant and user groups respond to (Haseman 2001 and
Simons 2001)
• Weaving these into the developing drama
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15. Blog postings in role – reacting to others -
asynchronous
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16. Chats in role – real time synchronous
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17. Out of role
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18. Different kinds of learning that need attention when
working with Drama and Digital Technologies
Drama specific Social - group Multi-media e-learning Reflective
literacies practice
Roleplay & Skills audit – Taking photos, Accessing & Modelling journal
improvisation group formation resizing, using Blackboard writing
Role development ensuring skills in manipulating or online learning Contribution to
Monologue different areas Internet platform Communications
Skills of Collaboration vs publication issues ‘In role’ and ‘out spaces on forums
performance – group File compression of role’ spaces
acting for film Group norms and conversion Protocols for Learning about
(e.g. ANSN) uploading (jpg communication ideas and
format for photos, Copyright in experiences
mpeg4, quicktime schools/child
or wmv etc for protection
video) Using the blog &
Posting material the wiki, what’s
to the Internet the difference
(e.g. Youtube,
Ning, etc)
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19. Considerations
• For participant/creators, provide agency and control
through input into role creation, improvisation
within frames, performance framed by technology -
reduce time spent formally rehearsing, writing,
learning lines
• Need to build community and audience for Internet
based drama (possible convergence with other
events/forms of communications)
• If there is to be a user group outside of
participant/creator group, create ways to enroll
them and provide significant reward for effort
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20. In educational contexts – restricted internet access
within schools – societal expectations about what does
on in school as „educative‟
• Concerns about predators approaching young people
• Concerns about cyberbullying
• Concerns about nature of content young people will post
• Concerns about how young people will represent
themselves
• Expectations invested in the teacher, organiser, moderator
role to monitor young people’s interacions
• Copyright issues
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21. Implications??
• Different spaces for different purposes
• Protocols for communications
• Awareness of CMC consequences
(permanence) language and genres
• „Real tasks‟ for out of role & in role work
• Teacher modelling and interaction in the
processes
• Use the dramatic or fictional context
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22. Questions you need to consider for creating
your own drama
• What is the hook, question or problem that you want to explore?
• What kind of pre-text can you use or create
• What kinds of roles can participants create and operate from early on
to build their commitment to the drama? Who are the drama leaders
and what kinds of roles do they take on?
• Who is your audience – how will they find out about the drama, what
kind of interactivity will be possible?
• How might the characters be embodied and realized? What makes a
character interesting? How will this be expressed through text?
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23. • What kinds of different characters do we have and what kinds of purpose
will they have?
• What might be the initial complication or source of tension?
• What styles and genre/s will the drama use? Consider traditional dramatic
ones such as tragedy, mystery, farce as well as popular cultural genres
such as soap opera, mockumentary and television news.
• What kinds of dramatic and film conventions can be used for each frame
of the drama (these don‟t all need to be planned or finalized when you
begin the drama)
• How will the drama be shared? Only online or will there be a live
performance, presentation or sharing. If there are both live and online
components, how will they inter-relate?
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24. Examples of projects
• Lonely girl 15 – the classic webdrama http://www.lg15.com
My MA & PhD projects
• cleo-missing.com (2005 – pre YouTube) university students
using a website with options for posting texts, video and
audio content, audience input through forums
• The Immortals using Education Queensland Learning Place
project room and virtual classroom (including blog and wiki),
but also YouTube and Ning social networking site
• Noosa Scrubs & Shapeshifters using Ning sites & virtual
classrooms
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