Transmedia Storytelling Edutainment and the Contemporary Textbook in Higher E-Education

Introduction

The importance of narratives in education is evident by the new media rich environments that are supported by technology, the online global educational models, which embrace worldwide presence, and the storytelling production process that has been democratized. Jenkins theory of convergence culture (2006) provides a window to examine how transmedia storytelling can emerge within education as a product and as a practice in technology-supported environments. Jenkins (2006) described convergences in his book Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, ‘by convergence, I mean the flow of content across multiple media platforms, the cooperation between multiple media industries, and the migratory behavior of media audiences who will go almost anywhere in search of the kinds of entertainment experiences they want’ (p. 2). Using Jenkins’ theory of convergence culture as a toolkit, this paper examines how entertainment can emerge within education and how it can facilitate student-centered, technology-supported approaches to learning in the age of media convergence.