January theme:  Education and Animation
Deadline: December 27th, 2016

January’s theme, which springs from an idea of animator Peter Lay, examines the intersections between animation and education, with particular attention to digital literacy. The rise of virtual reality (VR), and more broadly of digital animation, has had new and exciting pedagogical implications in various sectors of our everyday. For instance, such technologies can help engage students in a subject, as well as contribute to accelerating literacy itself, stimulating learning even in those developing countries where essential literacy levels are often challenging. At the same time, creative skills curriculums, such as digital coding or animation production, incites articulation and creative origination, fosters individual and collaborative media, design, animation and film content production. Digital technologies, particularly around animation and VR, enable pedagogical creativity in the classroom, and our everyday lives.

What we seek to address this month is thus the educational potentials of animation and VR and as well as the challenges that are faced when using them at a pedagogical end.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

  • The ways in which VR and digital animation are changing and re-defining the concept of education
  • Animation, and animation in virtual reality, acting as a potential alternative space for for the classroom
  • The challenges of using animation at a pedagogical end
  • The uses of digital animation and VR in the classroom
  • The pedagogical implications of animation and VR
  • The pro and cons for animators in shaping creative digital education
  • The opportunities, practical considerations and applicability of introducing animation into mainstream primary and tertiary education
  • National challenges and specificities in employing animation and VR at a pedagogical end

Posts of between 300 and 500 words, which discuss any aspect of the above topic are welcome. Contributors are encouraged to include clips and images to support their posts. Please also include a short bio to accompany the post. All permissions are the responsibility of the contributor. Please contact the editors Cristina Formenti (cristina.formenti@unimi.it) and Jacqueline Ristola (jacqueline.ristola@gmail.com) with submissions or questions.