[TIPS] inanimate Alice

Thanks to Aly Tapp for sharing this one via the Diigo list.

http://www.inanimatealice.com/

This one is hard to explain, but one that elementary and middle school teachers, especially, are going to want to check out. This is a set of ten stories (now just three, so far) which will take Alice on a wild adventure, starting when she is just 8 years old and ending when she is .. well... here is how the site describes itself:

"'Inanimate Alice' tells the story of Alice, a young girl growing up in the
first half of the 21st century, and her imaginary digital friend, Brad.

Over ten episodes, each a self contained story, we see Alice grow from an eight
year old living with her parents in a remote region of Northern China to a talented
mid-twenties animator and designer with the biggest games company in the world. "

In each episode you may be asked to perform some sort of function, but you'll be learning about the country while you're at it. It's VERY child-safe, and it promises to be quite interesting. I'm going to bet that the kids are going to want to be checking in on Alice to read about her adventures.

The first story takes about 5 minutes to complete, and I haven't yet tried the others. Each screen has just one or two sentences to read, which keeps up the pace very nicely. One word of caution, though - get headsets for the students. For YOUR sake, not theirs. :-)

I'd LOVE to hear back from some teachers who try this with the students as the year closes. This looks like it would be a great activity for writing prompts, geography lessons (teamed up with Google Earth or Flash Earth), and more.

And, if you're going to teach with it, get yourself the little banner logo to put on  your website. What a clever idea.