More Like this

1. Increasing learners' self‐efficacy beliefs and curiosity through a Frankenstein‐themed transmedia storytelling experience

   https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13202  

   Nagy, Peter ; Mawasi, Areej ; Eustice, Kristi ; Cook‐Davis, Alison ; Finn, Ed ; Wylie, Ruth ( February 2022 , British Journal of Educational Technology)

   Using Mary Shelley'sFrankensteinas inspiration, this paper presents a Frankenstein‐themed transmedia storytelling experience, which encompasses simple hands‐on activities and an online narrative experience that allows students to model scientific work and engage in various science activities. The study aimed to test whether students can develop higher science and creative self‐efficacy beliefs, and a stronger science curiosity, by engaging in the transmedia experience that combined hands‐on and online narrative activities compared with participating in only hands‐on or online narrative experiences. Our paper presents findings from two classroom studies using survey findings. Results show that all three conditions (hands‐on, online game experience and transmedia) had a significant positive impact on learners' self‐efficacy beliefs and curiosity, but there was no additional benefit for the transmedia condition. Nevertheless, our work has various implications for learning sciences about the potential benefits and drawbacks of transmedia storytelling experiences. Our findings can help educators and researchers design and run transmedia storytelling projects.

   What is already known about this topic

   Transmedia storytelling is a popular and adaptable learning application.

   Transmedia storytelling can be beneficial due to transfer of learning.

   Transmedia storytelling may foster learners' engagement and knowledge acquisition.

   What this paper adds

   The paper presents a Frankenstein‐themed transmedia experience that combines digital and hands‐on activities and borrows several themes from Mary Shelley'sFrankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus.

   Findings from this study show that transmedia storytelling can boost learners' science and creative self‐efficacy beliefs and science curiosity.

   However, transmedia storytelling combining digital and hands‐on experiences is not more effective in bolstering self‐efficacy beliefs and curiosity than digital or hands‐on experiences alone.

   Implications for practice and/or policy

   Transmedia storytelling might have unintended consequences for learning because it may exhaust learners' cognitive resources.

   Learners' transliteracy skills and competencies may influence what benefits they gain from partaking in transmedia storytelling experiences.

   Educators need to take learners' transliteracy skills into consideration when they wish to design and/or use transmedia storytelling experiences for learning purposes.

    

   more » « less
2. Toward a Block-Based Programming Approach to Interactive Storytelling for Upper Elementary Students

   https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62516-0_10  

   Smith, Andy ; Mott, Bradford ; Taylor, Sandra ; Hubbard-Cheuoua, Aleata ; Minogue, James ; Oliver, Kevin ; Ringstaff, Cathy ( October 2020 , International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling)

   null (Ed.)

   Developing narrative and computational thinking skills is crucial for K-12 student learning. A growing number of K-12 teachers are utilizing digital storytelling, where students create short narratives around a topic, as a means of creating motivating problem-solving activities for a variety of domains, including history and science. At the same time, there is increasing awareness of the need to engage K-12 students in computational thinking, including elementary school students. Given the challenges that the syntax of text-based programming languages poses for even novice university-level learners, block-based programming languages have emerged as an effective tool for introducing computational thinking to elementary-level students. Leveraging the unique affordances of narrative and computational thinking offers significant potential for student learning; however, integrating them presents significant challenges. In this paper, we describe initial work toward solving this problem by introducing an approach to block-based programming for interactive storytelling to engage upper elementary students (ages 9 to 11) in computational thinking and narrative skill development. Leveraging design principles and best practices from prior research on elementary-grade block-based programming and digital storytelling, we propose a set of custom blocks enabling learners to create interactive narratives. We describe both the process used to derive the custom blocks, including their alignment with elements of interactive narrative and with specific computational thinking curricular goals, as well as lessons learned from students interacting with a prototype learning environment utilizing the block-based programming approach. 

   more » « less
3. Supporting Interactive Storytelling with Block-Based Narrative Programming

   https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92300-6_41  

   Smith, A. ; Boulden, D. ; Mott, B. ; Hubbard-Cheuoua, A. ; Minogue, J. ; Oliver, K. ; Ringstaff, C. ( December 2021 , Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling)

   Recent years have seen growing interest in utilizing digital storytelling, where students create short narratives around a topic, as a means of creating motivating problem-solving activities in K-12 education. At the same time, there is increasing awareness of the need to engage students as young as elementary school in complex topics such as physical science and computational thinking. Building on previous research investigating block-based programming activities for storytelling, we present an approach to block-based programming for interactive digital storytelling to engage upper elementary students (ages 9 to 10) in computational thinking and narrative skill development. We describe both the learning environment that combines block-based narrative programming with a rich, interactive visualization engine designed to produce animations of student generated stories, as well as an analysis of students using the system to create narratives. Student generated stories are evaluated from both a story quality perspective as well as from their ability to communicate and demonstrate computational thinking and physical science concepts and practices. We also explore student behaviors during the story creation process and discuss potential improvements for future interventions. 

   more » « less
4. Creating Digital Sci-Fi Narratives through Multimodal Composing to Promote Adolescent Students’ STEM Education

   https://doi.org/10.1186/s43031-023-00072-7  

   Ran, Hua ; Shen, Ji ; Smith, Blaine E. ; Wang, Changzhao ( May 2023 , Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Science Education Research)

   Much research has examined the incorporation of academic and scientific writing in science learning. However, less research has applied a narrative approach that represents events in a time sequence. Furthermore, modern technology has greatly extended students’ modes of science expression beyond the printed texts. Yet, connecting students’ rich experience in digital storytelling with their academic learning in science is still an area of needed research. This study focused on analyzing the products students generated as a way to examine how they integrated science in their multimodal sci-fi narratives. These narratives were created in a program designed to engage adolescents in integrated STEM and digital literacy learning. More specifically, this study developed a two-dimensional framework (science and integration) to evaluate the 35 products produced by 136 participants in 5 iterations of the program. Content and thematic analyses revealed that a wide variety of sophisticated mechanisms was applied for science integration, including: (1) building connections among diverse science topics; (2) leveraging innovative narrative techniques; (3) responding critically to socio-scientific problems; and (4) designing and redesigning multimodal elements.

    

   more » « less
5. Implementing Transmedia Using a Narrative Framework for an Introductory Engineering Course

   Pina, Jeremiah ; Ellis, Glenn W. ; Mazur, Rebecca ( January 2023 , ASEE Annual Conference proceedings)

   This paper details the process of developing and adapting a narrative framework for teaching an introductory geotechnical engineering course (EGR 340) through a systematic iterative procedure that embeds conceptual learning into a story format and, over time, elaborates elements and interactions within the story using methods of transmedia storytelling. Although the tools are presented within the context of geotechnical engineering, the approach can be applied throughout engineering education. The elaborative transmedia storytelling process we describe is based on the Imaginative Education (IE) teaching approach. Well-grounded in the learning sciences--but novel in engineering education--IE facilitates student engagement through the use of cognitive tools (such as extremes of reality, heroism, and the exploration of binaries). These tools are connected to types of understanding and serve to enhance a sense of mystery and wonder for topics that might not otherwise register as being immediately relevant to students. A significant benefit of this approach is that that it lends itself to modification and personalization through the inclusion of new features and methods of interaction at the level of the whole story and at the level of story elements. Four types of understanding and their associated cognitive tools were used in EGR 340 and their application is described in this paper. They include: • Mythic understanding using a fantasy narrative that played on the idea that geotechnical engineers refer to their field as the “dark arts of engineering.” • Romantic understanding using heroic narratives that helped students put themselves in the place of Terzaghi and Casagrande as they developed the field. Extremes of reality was another Romantic tool used throughout the course. For example, students learned about soil stress by first solving the mystery of how quicksand works. • Theoretic understanding using concept maps and narrative was used at both the course and unit level to organize concepts. • Ironic understanding using discussion of the inadequacies of theoretic understanding to recognize the reference to “dark arts.” Transmedia storytelling through extensive use of short video clips and other means was used to enhance the application of these tools. For example, students traveled virtually to Venice where they joined a noisy gondola tour to examine building foundations and learn about how poor water policies impacted the sinking of the city. Course evaluation and lesson assessment data were collected in 2018, 2020, and 2022, with each year being associated with a different version of the course. Using these data, we present a mixed-methods analysis of learning outcomes that provides evidence for the effectiveness of this approach at different steps along the way. Non-parametric comparisons of student assessment data demonstrated that student conceptual learning was relatively stable across measures and versions, but that students in the fully transmedia iteration generally performed more strongly on assessments of project-based learning (Borrow/Fill; Atterberg; Dam). Thematic analysis of student responses to open-ended course evaluation prompts demonstrates that engagement was high across all versions of the course, and that students in the 2022 version discussed engineering topics in a manner that included personal connections and reflections. 

   more » « less