Prospero

Worcester, United Kingdom

An online distance learning tool driven by drama and theatre pedagogy, enabling creative, global learning collaborations.

Want to fuse creativity and technology? Prospero enables the building of interactive dramas, curating the web into fictions populated with characters, dilemmas, conflicts and challenges designed to provoke ‘players’ into taking part in these digital dramas It co-ordinates collaborations between participants across remote locations, using the power of internet to connect people creatively.

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HundrED 2019

Overview

HundrED has selected this innovation to

HundrED 2019

Web presence

2012

Established

15K

Children/users

8

Countries

Organisation

Not-for-profit

Updated

November 22nd, 2022

Prospero is cutting edge technology with the possibility of revolutionizing the way in which teachers engage with professional development. We are so excited about the possibilities of Prospero. It radically alters the way in which you can shift classroom practice. We are planning to work with C&T as we believe there is no other company in the world with the same blend of deep knowledge about the arts, technology and learning. C&T are genuine world leaders in arts based learning through mediated platforms. -Professor Peter O’Connor, University of Auckland, NZ In my work with theatre teachers and students in New York City I have seen the frustrations and pain points technology implementation can have in theatre education. But every time I see C&T work with Teaching Artists I see students using smart devices, programs designed to help tell personal stories, and technology that mobilizes, instead of crippling the classroom. When I hear my colleagues in the city talking about impactful theatre and technology workshops and professional development opportunities, C&T is used as the model. C&T is doing the work others want to be doing. – Mitch Mattson, Associate Director, Education, Roundabout Theatre, Broadway, NYC

About the innovation

Prospero: driving global collaborations, through drama, pedagogy and technology.

Prospero is a system created by applied theatre and educational drama company C&T. It innovatively marries theatre, learning and digital technologies in an online utility. Prospero operates online, through web browsers, in particular Google Chrome and Firefox.

Prospero enables the building of interactive dramas, curating the web into fictions populated with characters, dilemmas, conflicts and challenges designed to provoke ‘players’ into taking part in these digitally enabled dramas by creating and sharing their own live theatre. It can also co-ordinate collaborations between participants and players across remote locations, using the power of the internet to build global collaborations between children, young people and often marginalised communities. PAC can also control smartphones, tablets, games consoles - even drones.

Prospero digitises theatrical pedagogies, techniques and processes, finding their digital equivalents to enable the making of drama at distance. They can also reverse this process, taking aspects of the digital realm and enabling their synergistic use in live theatre and drama. These can be used independently of Director or in combination.

As a consequence Prospero is powerful paradigm of educational theatre practice and Online Distance learning (ODL) tool, ideally designed for use in educational contexts, but equally for use by anyone who wants to build online participatory theatre/arts experiences in community, social or arts contexts.

Impact & scalability

Impact & Scalability

Innovativeness

Prospero is an applied theatre company - using drama for social and efficacious practices - power of participating in theatre and drama work.

Impact

There is an evaluation module built into the platform -young people can use simple tools to evaluate their experience.

Scalability

Currently work with partnerships internationally, in NY, UK, Auckland, Nairobi, Australia and more. Additionally, the platform is used globally.

Media

Prospero by C&T

http://www.prospero.digital

Digital Theater.mp4

Prospero in NYC

Implementation steps

Identify a local agent

First, we identify potential partners who want to act as local agents to help make Prospero available to local participants. Ideally these are stratetic partners who can help reach a network of local users: a local authority or council, education board, university, professional association or arts organisation. These agents help to identify who would like to collaborate using Prospero locally: schools, youth centres, community groups or perhaps youth theatre. Big or small, if they share our values and ambitions they can be agents.

Bring together teachers, theatre and comunity practitioners.

Next, the agent brings together local people who want to implement Prospero and collaborate with other partners around the world. C&T provide local based training, either at distance or in person. Then everyone is ready to go.

Here, New York City Department of Education bring teachers from NYC schools together at Carnegie Hall.

Teachers and users register on the Prospero website and sign up to the project. Now they're ready to go. They can either practice with the online resources in advance of leading classroom/workshop activities or get ready to get to work.

You just need a PC, Mac or Chromebook. Smartphones and tablets work too. If you have a whiteboard or screen and projector, that's great, but they are not essential.

Here, young film makers work using Prospero as part of a theatre project in schools in Leeds, Yorkshire, UK.

Get to work

Prospero cascades interactive drama, media and digital technology workshops to all participants. These happen in real time, modelling examples of techniques, framing kinaesthetic tasks and activities and co-ordinating activities between all global locations.

Collaborate, share, respond, evaluate.

Once the collaboration is complete - over several weeks or months - participants share the fruits of their creative learning, using Prospero to reflect and evaluate.

Because Prospero is browser based anyone with an inter connection can participate. You don't need expensive equipment: a cheap Chromebook will In Korogocho a slum district of Nairobi, a local charity called Smiles Africa, run by local volunteers, access Prospero with a Chromebook and a basic smartphone.

Make and share your own workshops

Prosprero is accessible and intuitive. Anyone can use the system to create and share their own kinaesthetic and arts-=based workshops and share them online with a potential global audience.