Long before the COVID crisis, local communities have faced daunting economic and social challenges. Civic storytelling helps address them.

 

Human-Centered Design

The spring 2020 Cornell English and Media Studies course, “Design Thinking, Media, and Community,” explored methods of human-centered design and transmedia knowledge in collaboration with high school English and Art classes in Ithaca and Dryden, New York. Project-based learning combines student-driven research, collaboration, and communication to address these issues. Our goal has been to use design thinking to support project-based learning through transmedia civic storytelling projects: real stories about real issues for real audiences.

Civic Storytelling

Civic Storytelling is a multi-year initiative supporting professional development of teachers, creation of online resources, and innovative curricula that help students address issues such as health and well-being through video, info comics, and other transmedia genres. In collaboration with local schools and community organizations, this Spring 2020 course used design thinking to translate media and performance research into practices of project-based learning.

In particular, the course sought to translate transmedia knowledge into civic-minded, research-based projects presented to a public audience. Cornell design teams worked with students and educators at Dryden High School (DHS), Ithaca City School District (ICSD), Tompkins-Seneca-Tioga Board of Cooperative Education Services (TST BOCES), The History Center in Tompkins County (THC), and the Rural Schools Association of New York (RSA).

Project-based Learning, Live and Remote

ICSD and BOCES are interested in how transmedia knowledge can enhance project-based learning and its emphasis on research, collaboration, and public presentation of work. The five design teams created information comics and PechaKucha to reflect on their early work with educators and students. Once campuses closed, Cornell students extrapolated from their early fieldwork and later online experience to design transmedia projects for virtual learning.

Team A	Team Bee	Dream Team	Girl Squad	THC Team

COVID-19

COVID-19 interrupted our work in mid-March, as local students were beginning research on their own topics. With classes suspended, their media projects stalled. The Cornell teams dispersed from New York to Singapore, so we reframed our design challenge to include distance learning, ways that students and educators can use transmedia across virtual platforms. We designed and produced this site, with its partner and team reports and its Make Media! resources, by collaborating in Zoom. Teams presented their final reports, videos, and website for feedback with partner educators in mid-May.

Community Engagement

ENGL 3741 serves Cornell’s long-standing mission of community engagement, as embodied in the Department of English, the Mellon Rural Humanities Initiative, Engaged Cornell, Cornell Cooperative Extension, and the Bronfrenbrenner Center for Translational Research.  You can find out more about the course and the Civic Storytelling project through the Engaged Showcase and this Cornell Chronicle story.

Kaplan Fellowship

In June 2020, the Cornell Public Service Center awarded the Civic Storytelling Project one of two Kaplan Family Distinguished Faculty Fellowships. Many thanks to the educators and students who made this project possible, as well as to the PSC and the Kaplan Family. Thanks also to the Office of Engagement Initiatives for an Engaged Opportunity Grant and long-term advice and guidance.

English 3741 Spring 2020

Professor: Jon McKenzie
Students: Nana Antwi, Vanessa Barragan, Megan Chang, Emily Chen, Marinna Chung, Anna Cummings, Jeremy Dingle, Marissa Gailitis, Sosna Gellaw, Lara Harvey, Emmanuel Herskovits, Aditya Jha, De’Vonte Parker, Natalie Slaiman, Gwen Stark, Jessica Strauss, Ellie Walsh, Zoe Watkins, Natalie Yeh, Benjamin Yeo