Developing the scales on evaluation beliefs of student teachers

The purpose of the study reported in this paper was to investigate the validity and the reliability of a newly developed questionnaire named ‘Teacher Evaluation Beliefs’ (TEB). The framework for developing items was provided by the two models. The first model focuses on Student-Centered and Teacher-Centered beliefs about evaluation while the other centers on five dimensions (what/ who/ when/ why/ how). The validity and reliability of the new instrument was investigated using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis study (n=446). Overall results indicate that the two-factor structure is more reasonable than the five-factor one. Further research needs additional items about the latent dimensions “what” ”who” ”when” ”why” “how” for each existing factor based on Student-centered and Teacher-centered approaches

The Effect of Rule-Based Scaffoldings on Second Grade Students\u27 Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling is a powerful method for revitalizing literacy instruction. Past research suggested that digital storytelling activities improve students’ writing skills through construction of various types of stories. However, little research has investigated in what ways educators can promote students’ interests and actual abilities to express narrative discourse in a digital format. Recent research indicated that the use of story grammars help students develop sophisticated stories. From this perspective, Labov’s story grammar emphasized two functions of good story structure: reference—the listeners (or readers) are told what happened, and evaluation—the speakers (or writers) reveal their attitude toward the events of the narrative. Meanwhile, current practitioner based research suggests that Lambert’s seven elements approach of digital storytelling emerged as a practical guideline for creating effective digital stories in elementary classrooms. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the potential of three instructional approaches: Labov’s story grammar only, Lambert’s seven elements only, and both instructional approaches, as scaffolding(s) for students’ digital storytelling. Specifically, a quantitative research design with three experimental groups and one control group, pre-test and post-test, was employed. Participants included 104 second-graders (largely from high socioeconomic status families), with 26 in each of four classrooms. Therefore, the three instructional scaffold approaches and one non-scaffold supported approach were randomly assigned to each of four classrooms respectively to support students’ story writing, storytelling, story design and construction using Movie Maker software. Students’ understanding of narrative writing was assessed before and after the implementation of the intervention. The results indicated that the instructional scaffolding positively enhanced students’ performance in story writing, storytelling, as well as verbal and visual expression. In particular, the story grammar scaffolding motivated students to produce coherent, more sophisticated stories. The seven elements scaffolding sparked students’ creative verbal and visual expressions and stimulated them to elaborate using a variety of adjectives in their digital stories. When both scaffolding approaches were implemented, students significantly outperformed the other groups on the quality of story content, story coherency and narrative knowledge. The implications of these findings and recommendations for future research are discussed

Interactive Technologies for the Public Sphere Toward a Theory of Critical Creative Technology

Digital media cultural practices continue to address the social, cultural and aesthetic contexts of the global information economy, perhaps better called ecology, by inventing new methods and genres that encourage interactive engagement, collaboration, exploration and learning. The theoretical framework for creative critical technology evolved from the confluence of the arts, human computer interaction, and critical theories of technology. Molding this nascent theoretical framework from these seemingly disparate disciplines was a reflexive process where the influence of each component on each other spiraled into the theory and practice as illustrated through the Constructed Narratives project. Research that evolves from an arts perspective encourages experimental processes of making as a method for defining research principles. The traditional reductionist approach to research requires that all confounding variables are eliminated or silenced using methods of statistics. However, that noise in the data, those confounding variables provide the rich context, media, and processes by which creative practices thrive. As research in the arts gains recognition for its contributions of new knowledge, the traditional reductive practice in search of general principles will be respectfully joined by methodologies for defining living principles that celebrate and build from the confounding variables, the data noise. The movement to develop research methodologies from the noisy edges of human interaction have been explored in the research and practices of ludic design and ambiguity (Gaver, 2003); affective gap (Sengers et al., 2005b; 2006); embodied interaction (Dourish, 2001); the felt life (McCarthy & Wright, 2004); and reflective HCI (Dourish, et al., 2004). The theory of critical creative technology examines the relationships between critical theories of technology, society and aesthetics, information technologies and contemporary practices in interaction design and creative digital media. The theory of critical creative technology is aligned with theories and practices in social navigation (Dourish, 1999) and community-based interactive systems (Stathis, 1999) in the development of smart appliances and network systems that support people in engaging in social activities, promoting communication and enhancing the potential for learning in a community-based environment. The theory of critical creative technology amends these community-based and collaborative design theories by emphasizing methods to facilitate face-to-face dialogical interaction when the exchange of ideas, observations, dreams, concerns, and celebrations may be silenced by societal norms about how to engage others in public spaces. The Constructed Narratives project is an experiment in the design of a critical creative technology that emphasizes the collaborative construction of new knowledge about one's lived world through computer-supported collaborative play (CSCP). To construct is to creatively invent one's world by engaging in creative decision-making, problem solving and acts of negotiation. The metaphor of construction is used to demonstrate how a simple artefact - a building block - can provide an interactive platform to support discourse between collaborating participants. The technical goal for this project was the development of a software and hardware platform for the design of critical creative technology applications that can process a dynamic flow of logistical and profile data from multiple users to be used in applications that facilitate dialogue between people in a real-time playful interactive experience

Immersive Journalism as Storytelling

"This book sets out cutting-edge new research and examines future prospects on 360-degree video, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR) in journalism, analyzing and discussing virtual world experiments from a range of perspectives. Featuring contributions from a diverse range of scholars, Immersive Journalism as Storytelling highlights both the opportunities and the challenges presented by this form of storytelling. The book discusses how immersive journalism has the potential to reach new audiences, change the way stories are told, and provide more interactivity within the news industry. Aside from generating deeper emotional reactions and global perspectives, the book demonstrates how it can also diversify and upskill the news industry. Further contributions address the challenges, examining how immersive storytelling calls for reassessing issues of journalism ethics and truthfulness, transparency, privacy, manipulation, and surveillance, and questioning what it means to cover reality when a story is told in virtual reality. Chapters are grounded in empirical data such as content analyses and expert interviews, alongside insightful case studies that discuss Euronews, Nonny de la Peña’s Project Syria, and The New York Times’ NYTVR application. This book is written for journalism teachers, educators, and students, as well as scholars, politicians, lawmakers, and citizens with an interest in emerging technologies for media practice.

Building The Ark: Text World Theory and the evolution of dystopian epistolary

Told through a series of interrelated documents (including emails, text messages, newspaper clippings and blog posts), Annabel Smith’s interactive digital novel The Ark epitomises the contemporary hybridity of the dystopian genre. Designed to be fully immersive, the story can be engaged with across media, enabling readers to ‘dive deeper into the world of the novel’ and challenge how they experience dystopian texts. Taking a Text-World-Theory perspective, I examine the implications of this challenge, investigating the impact of transmedial storytelling on world-building and exploring the creative evolution of dystopian epistolary more broadly. In analysing both the ebook element of The Ark and certain facets of its companion pieces (which take the form of a dynamic website and a smartphone app), I investigate the creation of the novel’s text-worlds, considering the process of multimodal meaning construction, examining the conceptual intricacies of the epistolary form and exploring the influence of paratextual matter on world-building and construal. In doing so, I offer new insights into the conceptualisation of ‘empty text-worlds’, extend Gibbons’ discussions of transmedial world-creation and argue for a more nuanced understanding of dystopian epistolary as framed within Text World Theory

Digital stories as a tool for learning at work

This dissertation examines the use of digital storytelling in learning in different types of work environments. The research focuses on representations of identity, agency and positioning in visual narratives. The digital stories are two-to-three-minute-long autobiographical minidocumentaries told with the support of the group and facilitators. Digital storytelling is regarded as both a method and movement that promotes the democratic storytelling of individuals. Digital stories have become more popular because of social media and technological developments in the area of personal devices; hence, it is now possible to produce and share digital stories for anyone, from anywhere. The research data for the three studies of this dissertation were collected during two digital storytelling workshops. The first workshop was organised in a business organisation, and eight participants took part after a long-term staff development project. In the second workshop, nine university teachers studied the education for sustainable development with digital storytelling while simultaneously considering digital storytelling as a teaching method suitable for their own students. Study I was a 1.5-hour group discussion. Stories developed from modes of closed, open or ante-narratives when the participants made facilitation or inhibition along the discussion and presented the preliminary ideas of their digital stories. Stories in open and ante-narratives especially tended to be co-authored. Future thinking was equally involved along with reflection of the past and present. In the group discussions, there was collaborative meaning-making and reflection of identities. The visuals of the stories enabled the storytellers to express things difficult to verbalise, allowing the participants to experience that the method of digital storytelling was a creative way to evaluate the staff development project both individually and as a community. In Study II, three digital stories produced in a business organisation workshop were analysed with social interactional narrative analysis (SIA) and with multimodal transcription and text analysis. There were three modalities in agency enhancement at work that differed from each other among others in their timing. Sociocultural agency enhancement was the slowest modality and had its roots in the employee’s childhood, studies and earlier work. Transformative agency enhancement showed the changes and renewing of established ways in thinking and in work practices, while situational agency enhancement was found to be the resiliency in the rhythm of daily work and its practices. Different modalities of agency enhancement overlapped, and there was also other things in life outside of work that impacted agency enhancement. Study III examined education for sustainable development and teachers’ positioning as sustainable development educators as they worked through their own digital storytelling process. In the interviews of nine university teachers, the method of digital storytelling was experienced as a challenging method, even though it was noted to be immersive. The teachers learned media skills they could use in their studies. In better understanding sustainable development, the teachers broadened their thinking, and after the course, they included all dimensions of sustainable development under the holistic umbrella concept, including ecological, economic, social and cultural aspects. Before the course, they mostly focused on the ecological aspect. The three studies of this dissertation help deepen the understanding of the digital storytelling process and the role of group and social interaction when the aim is to enable professional identity, agency and positioning in communities and organisations. To tell a story is a social process, even though the voice and autonomy of individual storytellers is highlighted. Digital storytelling is a suitable method for learning with complex and multidisciplinary items, especially when the aim is to build relational agency among multiprofessional experts. KEYWORDS: agency, agency enhancement, identity, identity work, professional identity, positioning, relational agency, digital storytelling, narrative research, narrative, work, higher education, pedagogical methodsVäitöskirjassa tutkittiin digitaalisen tarinankerronnan käyttöä oppimisen välineenä erilaisissa työyhteisöissä. Tutkimuksessa tarkasteltiin visuaalisia narraatioita erityisesti identiteetin, toimijuuden ja asemoitumisen representaatioina. Digitaaliset tarinat ovat 2–3 minuutin pituisia omaelämäkerrallisia mini-dokumentteja, joiden tekemisessä ovat tukena ryhmä ja työskentelyn fasilitaattorit. Digitaalista tarinankerrontaa voidaan pitää sekä menetelmänä että suuntauksena joka korostaa yksilöiden mahdollisuuksia demokraattiseen tarinankerrontaan. Sosiaalinen media ja teknologinen kehitys ovat tehneet kenelle tahansa mahdolliseksi omien videotarinoiden tekemisen ja jakelun jopa globaalisti. Tutkimusten I, II ja III aineistot kerättiin kahden työpajan yhteydessä. Ensimmäisessä työpajassa yrityksen kahdeksan ihmistä osallistui digitaalisen tarinankerronnan työpajaan henkilöstönkehittämisprojektin päätteeksi ja toisessa työpajassa yhdeksän yliopisto-opettajaa perehtyi kestävän kehityksen opettamiseen ja digitaaliseen tarinankerrontaan sekä tekemällä henkilökohtaisen digitarinan että pohtimalla digitaalista tarinankerrontaa opetusmenetelmänä. Digitaalinen tarinankerronta on osallistava menetelmä ja digitaaliset tarinat soveltuvat narratiiviseksi tutkimusaineistoksi. Tutkimuksessa II digitaaliset tarinat toimivat tutkimusaineistona. Tutkimuksessa I tarkasteltiin digitaalisten tarinoiden rakentumista aiheista käydyn 1,5 tunnin ryhmäkeskustelun pohjalta. Suljetut, avoimet tai ja vielä esiasteella olevat tarinat kehittyivät eteenpäin ryhmän yhteisessä tarkastelussa, jossa ryhmän jäsenten tekemät erilaiset avaukset joko nostattivat tai sammuttivat tarinankertojien alustavia ideoita etenkin silloin kun käsikirjoitus oli vielä avoin ja jäsentymätön. Tarinoiden suunnittelussa myös tulevaisuus oli vahvasti läsnä menneiden kokemusten ja nykyhetken rinnalla. Tarinoista keskustelu ryhmässä synnytti yhteisöllistä merkitystenantoa ja identiteettien reflektointia. Visuaalisten tarinoiden ansiosta osallistujat pystyivät ilmaisemaan vaikeasti sanoitettavia asioita ja menetelmä oli yritykselle luova tapa arvioida henkilöstönkehittämisprojektin antia sekä yksilöiden että yhteisön tasolla. Tutkimuksessa II analysoitiin tarkemmin kolme liike-elämän työpajassa tehtyä tarinaa narratiivisen analyysin (SIA) ja multimodaalisen sisällönanalyysin avulla (multimodal transcription, and text analysis). Digitaalisista tarinoista erottui kolme toimijuuden muutosmuotoa, jotka erottuvat toisistaan mm. aikaikkunoiden perusteella. Sosiokulttuuriset toimijuuden muutokset alkavat rakentua jo lapsuudessa ja jatkuvat opiskelujen läpi työelämään. Transformatiivinen toimijuuden muutos on vakiintuneiden ajattelu- tai toimintamallien kyseenalaistumista ja uudelleenrakentamista ja situationaalinen toimijuus pyrkii mukautumaan työn arjen tapahtumiin. Toimijuuden kehittymisen eri modaliteetit lomittuvat osittain toisiinsa ja professionaaliseen toimijuuteen vaikuttavat myös työn ulkopuolisen elämän kokemukset. Tutkimus III keskittyi yhdeksän yliopisto-opettajan ymmärrykseen kestävän kehityksen opettamisesta ja eri alojen asemoitumiseen kestävän kehityksen edistämisessä samalla kun perehdyttiin digitaaliseen tarinankerrontaan oppimisen ja opettamisen menetelmänä. Haastatteluaineiston perusteella digitaalinen tarinankerronta koettiin haastavaksi, joskin mukaansatempaavaksi menetelmäksi. Opettajat kokivat oppineensa mediataitoja, joita lähtivät soveltamaan omissa opinnoissaan ja töissään jo koulutuksen aikana. Kestävään kehitykseen eri tieteenalojen edustajien digitaaliset tarinat aukaisivat näkökulmia holistisella tavalla ja koulutuksen jälkeen kestävän kehityksen kaikki neljä ulottuvuutta (ekologinen, ekonominen, sosiaalinen ja kulttuurinen) liitettiin kestävän kehityksen opetuksessa edistettäviin teemoihin alun ekologispainotteisen dimension sijaan. Osatutkimukset syvensivät ymmärrystä digitaalisen tarinankerronnan prosessista sekä ryhmän ja sosiaalisen vuorovaikutuksen roolista tilanteessa, jossa halutaan edistää professionaalista identiteettiä, toimijuutta ja uudelleen asemoitumista osana yhteisöä tai organisaatiota. Tarinoiden kertominen on sosiaalinen prosessi, vaikka yksilön ääni ja autonomia on digitaalisten tarinoiden kertojana korostunut. Digitaalinen tarinankerronta soveltuu tutkimuksen perusteella opetusmenetelmäksi myös monitieteisten ja monimutkaisten asioiden oppimiseen, samoin kuin moniammatillisen ja monitieteisen toimijuuden tukemiseen. AVAINSANAT: toimijuus, toimijuuden rakentaminen, identiteetti, identiteettityö, ammatillinen identiteetti, positiointi, relationaalinen toimijuus, digitaalinen tarinankerronta, narratiivinen tutkimus, narratiivi, työ, korkeakoulutus, pedagoginen metodi, kestävän kehityksen opetu

‘IMPLICIT CREATION’ – NON-PROGRAMMER CONCEPTUAL MODELS FOR AUTHORING IN INTERACTIVE DIGITAL STORYTELLING

Interactive Digital Storytelling (IDS) constitutes a research field that emerged from several areas of art, creation and computer science. It inquires technologies and possible artefacts that allow ‘highly-interactive’ experiences of digital worlds with compelling stories. However, the situation for story creators approaching ‘highly-interactive’ storytelling is complex. There is a gap between the available technology, which requires programming and prior knowledge in Artificial Intelligence, and established models of storytelling, which are too linear to have the potential to be highly interactive. This thesis reports on research that lays the ground for bridging this gap, leading to novel creation philosophies in future work. A design research process has been pursued, which centred on the suggestion of conceptual models, explaining a) process structures of interdisciplinary development, b) interactive story structures including the user of the interactive story system, and c) the positioning of human authors within semi-automated creative processes. By means of ‘implicit creation’, storytelling and modelling of simulated worlds are reconciled. The conceptual models are informed by exhaustive literature review in established neighbouring disciplines. These are a) creative principles in different storytelling domains, such as screenwriting, video game writing, role playing and improvisational theatre, b) narratological studies of story grammars and structures, and c) principles of designing interactive systems, in the areas of basic HCI design and models, discourse analysis in conversational systems, as well as game- and simulation design. In a case study of artefact building, the initial models have been put into practice, evaluated and extended. These artefacts are a) a conceived authoring tool (‘Scenejo’) for the creation of digital conversational stories, and b) the development of a serious game (‘The Killer Phrase Game’) as an application development. The study demonstrates how starting out from linear storytelling, iterative steps of ‘implicit creation’ can lead to more variability and interactivity in the designed interactive story. In the concrete case, the steps included abstraction of dialogues into conditional actions, and creating a dynamic world model of the conversation. This process and artefact can be used as a model illustrating non-programmer approaches to ‘implicit creation’ in a learning process. Research demonstrates that the field of Interactive Digital Storytelling still has to be further advanced until general creative principles can be fully established, which is a long-term endeavour, dependent upon environmental factors. It also requires further technological developments. The gap is not yet closed, but it can be better explained. The research results build groundwork for education of prospective authors. Concluding the thesis, IDS-specific creative principles have been proposed for evaluation in future work

Navigating virtual heritage applications for historic cities in the Middle East

This paper discusses conceptual and practical framework for the development of virtual heritage platforms as a research, educational and engagement tool that brings historic spaces and buildings back to the recognition of the public eye of the ordinary user. It not only reproduces historical scenes through physical modelling of archaeological sites or data, but, more importantly, through serial narratives where life is explored and practiced in motion, and where cultural-feed brings meaning, experiences and understanding to the socio-cultural context. The paper first introduces a brief and summary database of case studies of examples of virtual heritage platforms and outputs that are suitable to different purposes and audiences. It, then, looks at the context and production of VH in Egypt, as an example of Middle Eastern cities with vast heritage sites and advanced technological provisions. It reports on the process and findings of an AHRC-funded project, Virtual Heritage Cairo, that aimed to investigate difficulties, technological and skill gaps amongst stakeholders and local start-ups that would otherwise enable VH in Egypt to become regional power

Immersive Journalism as Storytelling

This book sets out cutting-edge new research and examines future prospects on 360-degree video, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR) in journalism, analyzing and discussing virtual world experiments from a range of perspectives. Featuring contributions from a diverse range of scholars, Immersive Journalism as Storytelling highlights both the opportunities and the challenges presented by this form of storytelling. The book discusses how immersive journalism has the potential to reach new audiences, change the way stories are told, and provide more interactivity within the news industry. Aside from generating deeper emotional reactions and global perspectives, the book demonstrates how it can also diversify and upskill the news industry. Further contributions address the challenges, examining how immersive storytelling calls for reassessing issues of journalism ethics and truthfulness, transparency, privacy, manipulation, and surveillance, and questioning what it means to cover reality when a story is told in virtual reality. Chapters are grounded in empirical data such as content analyses and expert interviews alongside insightful case studies that discuss Euronews, Nonny de la Peña’s Project Syria, and The New York Times’ VR application NYTVR. This book is written for journalism teachers, educators, and students as well as scholars, politicians, lawmakers, and citizens with an interest in emerging technologies for media practice