New Media Narratives and Pedagogy Neelam Parmar MS

New Media Narratives and Pedagogy Neelam Parmar (MS) http: //new-medianarrative. blogspot. com/ What is New Media Narrative? Narrative is the re-telling of a story. New Media Narrative, put simply, is the re-telling of the same story with the use of new media technologies. However, with new technologies come a new set of rules. Unlike the traditional Aristotelian definition of narrative where there is a definite beginning, middle and an end, new media narrative calls into question several interesting areas of non-linearity, fragmented arrangements of parts and the concept of wholeness associated with the other concepts. This type of narrative which gives the user to read in any direction, shifting forward and backwards in time and moving along smoothly in space is seen to marry itself to interactivity and the new age of digital media. What are its implications in Pedagogy and Learning? The use of narrative as an educational tool is still prevalent in learning and education. In fact, traditional narrative has enormous value in education; it provides coherence and structure for the learner. But this situation becomes more complicated with new media that has taken off with narrative and created its own sets of structures; accelerating the pace of creation and interactivity. Interactivity can lead to potential re-ordering of text and meaning which powers narrative to become independent storytellers. This produces a complex situation where students and narrative are no longer linear and guided in formal learning. In other words, autonomy is traded for the insights of someone (teacher/instructor) more experienced. Will New Media Narrative produce a new learning journey? New Media Narrative, powered by the use of new media technologies, and given its communicative nature; freed from the shackles of boundedness, space, time and structure will allow learners to connect new knowledge and weave it into existing narratives of meaning; thereby, producing independent learning and possibly, independent learners.