Using the Digital Transmedia Magazine Project to Support Students With 21st-Century Literacies

Abstract

Digital technologies have had a significant impact on how educators have come to understand and define literacy, and on the types of literacies and literacy practices that are required in the 21st century. In response, organizations such as the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) have designed frameworks that attempt to articulate practices required to be literate in the 21st century. Although educators often turn to the NCTE framework to define the characteristics of a 21st-century literacies curriculum, missing from the professional literature are examples of student projects that have the potential to embody these characteristics. This article describes 1 such project, a digital transmedia magazine, in which groups of students transmediated a story or novel into a magazine using digital technologies. The article illustrates ways in which this project can be used to support students with the 6 elements of the NCTE framework.