Proposal for an Interdisciplinary Solution
Synopsis
To increase awareness about interdisciplinarity and create a sense of ease around the terminology used within the field, I propose a targeted multimedia/multichannel learning campaign. As a step towards this goal, I will produce a series of shorts video clips called “Interdisciplinary Voices” that can be used flexibly on a variety of platforms. The video clips will feature animal puppets talking casually about their personal experiences with interdisciplinarity. The goal is to make it light, fun, and accessible. This would be a foundational step as part of the larger plan to create a multichannel/multimedia campaign, anchored by a fleshed-out TED Talk.
Justification & Stakeholder Impact
Puppets are disarmingly simple yet capable of amazing feats of communication. Puppets have often been used to explain difficult concepts to children. The humorous nature of the medium is likewise a powerful tool in teaching difficult material (Rousell, 2021). In the past year, Sesame Street has been called upon to explain the pandemic, coronavirus, and racism (Sesame Street, 2020 and 2021). The Broadway Hit, Avenue Q, was similarly designed to explore concepts of adulthood and difficult topics (e.g. sexism, racism, and pornography) with young adults.
Reaching K12 teachers/educators and education leadership is a primary goal. Teachers are increasingly using Instagram to research teaching methods for various topics, share information, and generate ideas for lesson plans (Carpenter, 2020). A quick check on Instagram in April of 2021 shows over 25 million posts using #Education. For educators and administrators who are typically lacking in time, short video clips that communicate a lot of information quickly are a practical solution. Instagram best fits the portion of the solution that is proposed for this project.
Interdisciplinary Connections
Puppetry is an interdisciplinary art form that straddles the worlds of performance and visual arts. I have been a professional in this field for over twenty years and have used puppetry as a communication tool in many educational settings. The proposed solution is also related to my Arts Integration degree focus, which encapsulates art, art history, and education. Arts Integration leverages the arts to increase engagement with other subject areas – in this case, explaining interdisciplinarity in a way that is fun and leverages the power of humorous narrative in a way that “hides” the academic nature of the goal.
Deliverables
I will deliver 4 short video clips (mp4 files) produced using VideoLeap on my iPhone 11. The clips will be under 2-minutes in length to optimize viewing. The number of clips will be determined by the availability of the puppets and the complexity of the storylines. These video clips will be posted to YouTube (unlisted), unless another format is requested. I would include an outline of a plan for an Instagram Campaign as one piece of the overall marketing campaign. I will include a plan for #hashtags to use within an Instagram Campaign.
Workflow
April 5-10: Brainstorm characters to use for the clips (i.e. tortoise, pig, bat, worm, chicken, etc…) with basic story outlines/snapshots for 15-20. Select the best five. Inventory puppets available and develop a plan for using puppets or a “sketch” idea.
April 11: Process 8 would include the original brainstorm list that was developed (15-20 characters), the five selected characters (with visuals, probably sketches), and the story outlines for each character.
April 11-17: Scripts and storyboards for the video clips to be developed. If needed, I will build a puppet. (Realistically, I am planning to use puppets on hand, but it might be possible to build one puppet for the project.) I will also explore settings/backdrops to be used for the final video shoot.
April 18: Process 9 would include draft audio/written clips of the scripts for each proposed video short with visuals of the puppets.
April 19-24: Create the backdrops/set/virtual backgrounds to be used for the characters. Work with my videographer (Tegwyn Rugg) to produce the clips.
April 25: Submit completed video clips and Instagram plan.
REFERENCES:
Carpenter, J., Morrison, S., Craft, M. and Lee, M. (2020). How and why are educators using Instagram?.Teaching and Teacher Education, Volume 96, 103149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2020.103149. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0742051X20313408)
Foland, R. (2017, April 7). Everything you need to create an epic TEDx talk. https://www.influencive.com/everything-need-create-epic-tedx-talk/.
Rousell, M. (2021, February 13). Humor Boosts Neurological, Cognitive, and Physiological Elements to Learning. Medium. https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/humor-boosts-neurological-cognitive-and-physiological-elements-to-learning-cc9e5d8d75f7.
Sesame Street. [Sesame Street In Communities]. (2020, October 20). The ABCs of COVID 1 part 1 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzLdX3HYLvU&list=PLQJaFRtaBs0ruCW2bhP4KTfpWwFQZ4Pep
Sesame Street. [Sesame Street In Communities]. (2021, March 23). Explaining What is Race? | #Coming Together [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk_HYAiS26I&list=PLQJaFRtaBs0prN4mQYAA3SXPbGWjaasi5&index=2
Lugmayr, Artur, Sutinen, Erkki, Suhonen, Jarkko, Sedano, Carolina Islas, Hlavacs, Helmut, & Montero, Calkin Suero. (2017). Serious storytelling – a first definition and review. Multimedia Tools and Applications, 76(14), 15707–15733. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-016-3865-5
To increase awareness about interdisciplinarity and create a sense of ease around the terminology used within the field, I propose a targeted multimedia/multichannel learning campaign. As a step towards this goal, I will produce a series of shorts video clips called “Interdisciplinary Voices” that can be used flexibly on a variety of platforms. The video clips will feature animal puppets talking casually about their personal experiences with interdisciplinarity. The goal is to make it light, fun, and accessible. This would be a foundational step as part of the larger plan to create a multichannel/multimedia campaign, anchored by a fleshed-out TED Talk.
- The multichannel/multimedia campaign would encompass Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest – all heavily used by educators and parents. (Carpenter et al., 2020)
- There could be a TikTok component to reach high school students/college students, but it seems that the primary focus should be educators, administrators, parents, and “thought leaders” in education.
- The TED Talk would emphasize the importance of interdisciplinarity and use metaphor (and puppets) to distinguish between disciplinary, multi-disciplinary, and interdisciplinary.
- There would be a plan for IG, complete with hashtags specific to the project (i.e. #interdisciplinaryvoices #interdisciplinarityismysuperpower) plus hashtags identified as high-usage among educators.
Justification & Stakeholder Impact
Puppets are disarmingly simple yet capable of amazing feats of communication. Puppets have often been used to explain difficult concepts to children. The humorous nature of the medium is likewise a powerful tool in teaching difficult material (Rousell, 2021). In the past year, Sesame Street has been called upon to explain the pandemic, coronavirus, and racism (Sesame Street, 2020 and 2021). The Broadway Hit, Avenue Q, was similarly designed to explore concepts of adulthood and difficult topics (e.g. sexism, racism, and pornography) with young adults.
Reaching K12 teachers/educators and education leadership is a primary goal. Teachers are increasingly using Instagram to research teaching methods for various topics, share information, and generate ideas for lesson plans (Carpenter, 2020). A quick check on Instagram in April of 2021 shows over 25 million posts using #Education. For educators and administrators who are typically lacking in time, short video clips that communicate a lot of information quickly are a practical solution. Instagram best fits the portion of the solution that is proposed for this project.
Interdisciplinary Connections
Puppetry is an interdisciplinary art form that straddles the worlds of performance and visual arts. I have been a professional in this field for over twenty years and have used puppetry as a communication tool in many educational settings. The proposed solution is also related to my Arts Integration degree focus, which encapsulates art, art history, and education. Arts Integration leverages the arts to increase engagement with other subject areas – in this case, explaining interdisciplinarity in a way that is fun and leverages the power of humorous narrative in a way that “hides” the academic nature of the goal.
Deliverables
I will deliver 4 short video clips (mp4 files) produced using VideoLeap on my iPhone 11. The clips will be under 2-minutes in length to optimize viewing. The number of clips will be determined by the availability of the puppets and the complexity of the storylines. These video clips will be posted to YouTube (unlisted), unless another format is requested. I would include an outline of a plan for an Instagram Campaign as one piece of the overall marketing campaign. I will include a plan for #hashtags to use within an Instagram Campaign.
Workflow
April 5-10: Brainstorm characters to use for the clips (i.e. tortoise, pig, bat, worm, chicken, etc…) with basic story outlines/snapshots for 15-20. Select the best five. Inventory puppets available and develop a plan for using puppets or a “sketch” idea.
April 11: Process 8 would include the original brainstorm list that was developed (15-20 characters), the five selected characters (with visuals, probably sketches), and the story outlines for each character.
April 11-17: Scripts and storyboards for the video clips to be developed. If needed, I will build a puppet. (Realistically, I am planning to use puppets on hand, but it might be possible to build one puppet for the project.) I will also explore settings/backdrops to be used for the final video shoot.
April 18: Process 9 would include draft audio/written clips of the scripts for each proposed video short with visuals of the puppets.
April 19-24: Create the backdrops/set/virtual backgrounds to be used for the characters. Work with my videographer (Tegwyn Rugg) to produce the clips.
April 25: Submit completed video clips and Instagram plan.
REFERENCES:
Carpenter, J., Morrison, S., Craft, M. and Lee, M. (2020). How and why are educators using Instagram?.Teaching and Teacher Education, Volume 96, 103149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2020.103149. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0742051X20313408)
Foland, R. (2017, April 7). Everything you need to create an epic TEDx talk. https://www.influencive.com/everything-need-create-epic-tedx-talk/.
Rousell, M. (2021, February 13). Humor Boosts Neurological, Cognitive, and Physiological Elements to Learning. Medium. https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/humor-boosts-neurological-cognitive-and-physiological-elements-to-learning-cc9e5d8d75f7.
Sesame Street. [Sesame Street In Communities]. (2020, October 20). The ABCs of COVID 1 part 1 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzLdX3HYLvU&list=PLQJaFRtaBs0ruCW2bhP4KTfpWwFQZ4Pep
Sesame Street. [Sesame Street In Communities]. (2021, March 23). Explaining What is Race? | #Coming Together [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk_HYAiS26I&list=PLQJaFRtaBs0prN4mQYAA3SXPbGWjaasi5&index=2
Lugmayr, Artur, Sutinen, Erkki, Suhonen, Jarkko, Sedano, Carolina Islas, Hlavacs, Helmut, & Montero, Calkin Suero. (2017). Serious storytelling – a first definition and review. Multimedia Tools and Applications, 76(14), 15707–15733. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-016-3865-5