Children’s Augmented Storying in, with and for Nature

Drawing on a relational ontology and scholarship of new literacies, we investigate the materiality and performativity of children’s augmented storying in nature. Our study is situated in a Finnish primary school in which a novel, augmented reality application (MyAR Julle) was utilized as a digital storytelling tool for children (n = 62, aged 7–9), allowing them to explore, interact, and imagine in nature and to create/share their stories. The data corpus consists of their narrations of their augmented stories in nature, their augmented story artefacts, and video/observational data from their construction of such stories in nature. Narrative analysis reveals how the children’s augmented storying in nature was performed through playful, affective, and sensuous, identity, cultural, and critical literacies, which were imaginatively constructed into being at the nexus of their sensed reality and fantasy. These literacies make visible human–material–spatial–temporal assemblages during which the children played with/through the augmented character Julle, felt and sensed with/through Julle, and re-storied their experiences, cultural knowledge, and identities with/through Julle. They also engaged in critical thinking with/through Julle. The study contributes to knowledge on the meaning of materiality in children’s storying in, with, and for nature and the educational possibilities of augmented storying for children’s (eco)literacies

'I could smell the sound of winter' : Children's aesthetic experiences in their local forest through digital storying

Peer reviewe

Children’s emotional experiences in and about nature across temporal–spatial entanglements during digital storying

In this study, we investigate how digital storying creates opportunities for children to attend to their emotional experiences in and about nature. Following relational ontology and socio-cultural theorising, we focus our analysis on the temporal–spatial entanglements of children's emotional experiences. Our inquiry draws on a case study of two children at a Finnish primary school. Liam and Vera engaged in digital storying in their local forest using an augmented storycrafting app, MyAR Julle. The data were collected during two storying workshops by means of observational field notes, video recordings, interviews with the children and digital artefacts. The results illustrate how engaging in the narrative plot of a fictitious augmented character invited the children to create necessary open-endedness in the activity which further stimulated their storying. The children's experiences were imbued with emotions and distributed across human and non-human actors. The children's digital storying not only communicated their personal emotional experiences in local surroundings, but was also grounded in broader societal narratives, such as climate change and forest conservation, with considerations of the future of the planet. The results suggest how digital storying offers a pedagogical method for early environmental education that builds on children's emotional experiences.Peer reviewe

Children’s Augmented Storying in, with and for Nature

Drawing on a relational ontology and scholarship of new literacies, we investigate the materiality and performativity of children’s augmented storying in nature. Our study is situated in a Finnish primary school in which a novel, augmented reality application (MyAR Julle) was utilized as a digital storytelling tool for children (n = 62, aged 7–9), allowing them to explore, interact, and imagine in nature and to create/share their stories. The data corpus consists of their narrations of their augmented stories in nature, their augmented story artefacts, and video/observational data from their construction of such stories in nature. Narrative analysis reveals how the children’s augmented storying in nature was performed through playful, affective, and sensuous, identity, cultural, and critical literacies, which were imaginatively constructed into being at the nexus of their sensed reality and fantasy. These literacies make visible human–material–spatial–temporal assemblages during which the children played with/through the augmented character Julle, felt and sensed with/through Julle, and re-storied their experiences, cultural knowledge, and identities with/through Julle. They also engaged in critical thinking with/through Julle. The study contributes to knowledge on the meaning of materiality in children’s storying in, with, and for nature and the educational possibilities of augmented storying for children’s (eco)literacies

Empathetic encounters of children’s augmented storying across the human and more-than-human worlds

This study brings empathy to the centre of literacy practice by investigating children's augmented storying as it was related to empathetic encounters across the human and more-than-human worlds. The study applies sociomaterial theorising that defines empathy as relational and emergent across human-material-spatial-temporal assemblages. The empirical study was situated in a Finnish primary school in which children used an augmented story-crafting tool (MyAR Julle) to explore their local environment and to create and share their stories. The findings show how empathy emerged situationally across the children, other human beings, materials, technology and the natural world. The empathetic encounters of the children's narratives were more than romantic or smooth encounters, instead competing and in tension with one another, calling moral reasoning and agency. The study shows the potential of sociomaterial theorising to change the way we think about children's encounters with the world, using empathy as a framework.Peer reviewe

The use of YouTube videos in the EFL classroom

El propósito de esta síntesis de investigación es identificar los principales efectos de los videos de YouTube en el desarrollo y mejora de la habilidad auditiva, la sub-habilidad de vocabulario y la motivación en estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera. Para esto, se analizaron dieciocho artículos tomando en cuenta criterios de inclusión y exclusión. Los artículos debían ser publicados a partir de 2014 y también debían ser estudios empíricos desarrollados en el contexto de inglés como lengua extranjera. Los resultados de este estudio demostraron que el uso de la plataforma de YouTube como material complementario presenta ventajas para los estudiantes de inglés. Los resultados mostraron, además, que el uso de YouTube dentro de las aulas de inglés como lengua extranjera motiva a los estudiantes a desarrollar mejor sus actividades en clase, ya sea individualmente o en grupo, debido a que los videos son atractivos y llaman su atención. Además, se encontró que la aplicación de YouTube en las aulas de inglés como lengua extranjera aumenta la sub-habilidad de vocabulario de los estudiantes porque es muy entretenido y facilita que los estudiantes recuerden mejor las palabras aprendidas. Asimismo, se encontró que los alumnos mejoran sus habilidades auditivas cuando sus maestros usan esta herramienta pues los estudiantes pueden observar las expresiones y escuchar los diferentes acentos que hacen los hablantes nativos mientras hablan.The purpose of this research synthesis is to identify the main effects of YouTube videos on the development and improvement of the listening skill, the vocabulary sub skill, and students’ motivation when learning English as foreign language. For this, eighteen peer-reviewed articles were analyzed considering inclusion and exclusion criteria. The articles had to be published from 2014. Also, they had to be empirical studies developed in English as foreign contexts. The results of this study demonstrated that the use of the YouTube platform as a complementary material presents advantages for English learners. The findings also showed that using YouTube within EFL classrooms motivates students to develop better their in-class activities either individually or in groups because the videos are attractive and draw their attention. In addition, it was found that applying YouTube content in EFL classes increases the students’ vocabulary sub-skill because it is very entertaining and facilitates students to remember better the learned words. Moreover, the outcomes reveled that the learners improve their listening skills when their teachers use this tool since students can observe the expressions and listen to the different accents native speakers produce while they are talkingLicenciado en Pedagogía del Idioma InglesCuenc

A Defect in the Nuclear Translocation of CIITA Causes a Form of Type II Bare Lymphocyte Syndrome

The severe immunodeficiency type II bare lymphocyte syndrome (BLS) lacks class II MHC gene transcription. One defect from a complementation group A type II BLS patient is a 24 aa deletion in the MHC class II transactivator (CIITA). We show here that the molecular defect present in this protein is a failure of CIITA to undergo nuclear translocation. This defect was mapped to a position-dependent, novel nuclear localization sequence that cannot be functionally replaced by a classical NLS. Fusion of this 5 aa motif to an unrelated protein leads to nuclear translocation. Furthermore, this motif is not critical for transactivation function. This is a description of a genetic disease resulting from a novel defect in the subcellular localization of a transcriptional coactivator