Harvard Cross-Media Project: Leveraging the Educational Power of Stories and Bringing Local K12 Campuses Global

 "Education Technology and Language Learning," a seminar hosted on November 19, 2018, by Doris Sommer, Professor of Literature at Harvard University, and Perry Gao, Co-founder of the Harvard XMedia Lab, invited the participation of world-renowned scholars and experienced industry professionals from Gogokid, a leading EdTech enterprise in China.

During the seminar, Perry Gao discussed the research work of an internationally recognized educational scholar, Prof. Yong Zhao. Prof. Zhao argued in his book World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students that educators should not just use technology to improve instruction efficiency. Instead, a more creative use of technology is connecting students with their international peers to create a collaborative and project-based learning experience, which he calls the "global campus."

Inspired by Prof. Zhao's "global campus" idea, Perry Gao presented the Cross-media Interactive Learning Website Project, developed by Gao, Prof. Bob Selman, Randy Testa, and their colleagues at the XMedia Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, with strong support from Pai Technology, and the U.S.-China YES Foundation.

Gao expressed that he strongly believes in the power of storytelling--a good story can not only entertain children, but it can also inspire and enlighten children to think deeply about social, ethical, historical, and aesthetic issues. Stories can have a huge impact on the development of knowledge and skills. When a story is presented across multiple media forms--from print to movie, and maybe to VR and beyond in the future--we call it "cross-media." Educational opportunities using cross-media-based resources can offer both students and their educators an engaging, multi-dimensional learning experience.

In previous works, under the leadership of Prof. Selman, the XMedia Lab has collaborated with film production companies to create printed educator resource guides for the popular novels and adapted films The Giver and The Watsons Go to Birmingham. The XMedia Lab designed resources that guide teachers to use media materials to develop engaging learning activities that target knowledge and skill development in key educational, aesthetic, and ethical areas.

Now, with the support of technology, Gao said the XMedia Lab is able to integrate the idea of the "global campus" into its cross-media projects. The XMedia Lab is working on creating an interactive website, on which students from around the world will have the opportunity to experience student-centered learning with their peers in other schools and even in other countries. Students will interact through well-designed educational activities--they will engage in discussions and debates around topics raised by their favorite movies and novels, create collaborative projects such as rewrite scripts and re-act dramas, etc. 

Gao hopes this innovative project can leverage the power of storytelling and internationally collaborative learning enabled by technology.