A digital manipulative for embodied "stage-narrative" creation

This paper presents a study of the use of a digital manipulative developed to promote creative narrative construction and storytelling. The study was carried with 27 groups of preschoolers, of five years of age, who interacted with the digital manipulative during free-play time, during a period of six months. The study sought to assess aspects of children’s embodiment of the narratives, and how they shaped the creation of stories. We observed that by using the digital manipulative, children’s narrative construction occurred in two levels, as children shared the stage, (controlling the characters, the location, the props, and the nature elements) and simultaneously performed on this stage. The sharing of the input devices (blocks) gave children equal control of the performance and orchestration of the story, while promoting and supporting peer collaboration. We conclude that the digital manipulative enables the performance of what we call embodied stage-narratives, promoting children’s imagination and creative thinking, as well as fostering early literacy skills and metalinguistic awareness.Fundação para a Ciência e TecnologiaCIEC – Research Centre on Child Studies, UM (FCT R&D 317

M&M - MONNOM meets MOBEYBOU: digital interfaces for children's embodied interaction

We present M&M, a digitally enhanced narrative environment for children that resulted from the collaborative projects Monnom and Mobeybou. M&M aims at offering children open-ended interaction scenarios to collaboratively create narratives through their bodily movements, voices, and the use of physical objects in space. M&M consists of sensors that collect data from the physical environment, an operating system that transforms the collected data into digital visualisations, and a projection that displays the output of the narration. In the physical environment, children can use objects and move with them to interact with the digital narrative elements. By interacting with the story elements, children connect with different cultures and environments, in an intercultural embodied storytelling experience.This project has been in part supported by TUBITAK Department of Technology and Innovation Support Programs (Project Number: 2210750). We would like to thank the children who participated in our study and their parents. This work has been in supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), reference PTDC/CED-EDG/0736/2021 - and by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the reference POCI/01/0145/FEDER/03258

A close look into the storytelling process: the procedural nature of interactive digital narratives as learning opportunity

Differently from traditional narratives, which focus on the output, i.e. the oral or written text, interactive digital narratives provide a more holistic view of the storytelling process, considering as integral part of it the system, the user, the process and the output. In this framework, the procedural nature of IDN as a reactive and generative system becomes prominent. Such an approach is particularly interesting when considering educational appli- cations of IDN and how they can support early literacy practices in pre-and primary school children. Here, we take a close look into the procedural nature of IDN, presenting observations and results from two pilot studies carried out with six to seven-years old children, arguing that interactive digital narratives can provide a window into (i) how the children plan their story, (ii) how, along the storytelling process, the children learn the rules and constraints provided by the IDN system, which they appropriate and incorporate in their storytelling to achieve a certain output, (iii) how the children empathize with the story characters, diving into the story world and (iv) how the system provides opportunities for mediating new knowledge in a meaningful way, which was visible e.g. in the way the children immediately appropriated and used the new conveyed vocabulary.This work has been financed by national funds through the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) - and by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Competitiveness and Internationalization Operational Program under the reference POCI/01/0145/FEDER/032580

Untangling the complexity of designing tools to support tangible and digital intercultural story telling in troubled times: a case in point

In this paper, we present a descriptive case study of the Mobeybou materials, a kit of tangible and digital tools aimed at offering young children opportunities to read, create and share intercultural stories. The tools comprise a set of story apps that present interactive, multimodal and intercultural stories for children to make meanings with, a digital manipulative (DM) and a storyMaker (a digital replication of the DM) that offer the possibility for embodied, collaborative and creative construction of stories by the children them- selves. After presenting the materials, we describe how they evolved as an interface of convergence of several complementary theories. By doing this, our major intention is to contribute to the understanding that the design of tools and technologies aimed at creating meaningful and inclusive opportunities for digital story telling in troubled times is a complex, de- manding endeavour, but can also be a powerful tool to address the complexities of the troubled times we are living in.This work has been financed by national funds through the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) - and by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Competitiveness and Internationalization Operational Program under the reference POCI/01/0145/FEDER/032580. As well as by CIEd – Research Centre on Education, Institute of Education, University of Minho, projects UIDB/01661/2020 and UIDP/01661/2020, through national funds of FCT/MCTES-PT

Investigating the use of digital manipulatives for storytelling in pre-school

Prova tipográficaResearch has identified a need for design of interactive products for children, as well as long-term studies that investigate the effects of its use in the classroom environment. Following the design and development of a digital manipulative system for storytelling, which involved preschool children and teachers, the investigation presented here reports findings from a four-month evaluation of the system that was carried in a Portuguese preschool involving 24 pairs of children. During the four months the researchers were able to observe children’s interaction with the digital manipulative system that was not biased by the novelty of the system or by time constrains. The gathered data showed that children used the digital manipulative system to create stories and play language games, which are activities that foster the development of oral language and emergent literacy, and are formally targeted in the preschool curriculum. The system provided challenge and adventure, motivating children to collaboratively explore and create narratives, empowering each child to actively participate in the task.CIEC – Research Centre on Child Studies, IE, UMinho (FCT R&D unit 317), Portuga

Play platforms for children’s creativity

Serie : Springer series on cultural computing, ISSN 2195-9056Children’s imagination and their natural need for exploration and discovery can be stimulated when they are in contact with rich contexts and environments (Van Scoter et al. 2001; Van Scoter 2008); this inherent tendency offers an enormous opportunity for researchers and designers to develop tools that unleash children’s potential, involving them in creating meaningful projects (Papert 1993). Research on this field has highlighted that well-design technological tools for children need to be compelling, support exploration, encourage creativity, develop curiosity and promote interaction and collaboration with peers while being simple and intuitive to use (Plowman et al. 2012; Resnick et al. 2005; Resnick and Silverman 2005).FCT, QREN, COMPETE, FEDRCIEC – Research Centre on Child Studies, IE, UMinho (FCT R&D unit 317), Portuga

Digital manipulatives as scaffolds for preschoolers’ language development

The study reported here aims at contributing to a deeper understanding of the educational possibilities offered by digital manipulatives in preschool contexts. It presents a study carried with a digital manipulative to enhance the development of lexical knowledge and language awareness, which are relevant language abilities for formal literacy learning. The study took place in a Portuguese preschool, with a class of 20 five-year-olds in collaboration with the teacher. The digital manipulative supported the construction of multiple fictional worlds, motivating children's verbal interactions, and the playing of words and sound games, thus contextualizing the learning of an extensive collection of vocabulary and language awareness abilities. The degree of engagement and involvement that the manipulative provided in supporting children’s imaginative play as well as the imitation, in their own play, of the playful pedagogical interventions that the teacher had designed, shows the importance of well- designed materials that support a child-centered learning model. As such, it sustains a discussion on the potential of digital manipulatives to enhance fundamental language development in the preschool years. Further, the study highlights the importance of multidisciplinary teams in the creation of innovative pedagogical materials.This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for the Science and the Technology within the Post-Doctoral Grant SFRH/BPD/111891/2015