INTERACTIVE DIGITAL NARRATIVES IN SCHOOL EDUCATION

Covid-19 has deepened the severity of the need for digital transformation and to learn how to learn effectively in this ‘new normal’. There is specific focus to develop and/or use high quality dig...

INTERACTED seeks to promote integration of interactive digital narratives (IDN) or storytelling -narrative in digital media that changes according to user input (Ferri et al., 2015) for socio-emotional intelligence and empathy of students, enabling school teachers to deliver high quality inclusive digital education. Zhao, Zhang, and McDougall (2011) propose an Emotion-Driven, Interactive Digital Storytelling approach, whereby the player’s emotions, as a driving force, motivate the story forward and contribute to their experience directly and explicitly. In this context the objectives of INTERACTed, are as follows: (a) To enhance school-teachers' digital capacity in use of interactive digital narrative tools for socio-emotional intelligence and empathy in their everyday classroom routine; (b) To enhance the capacity of educators to safeguard for the inclusive nature of digital learning experiences, through practical how-to-guides and tools; (c) Promote students' engagement with innovative digital tools and strengthen their socio-emotional intelligence and empathy; (d) Promote awareness on the potential of interactive digital narratives to develop student’s emotional intelligence and empathy capacity.

The main project results include the following: 1. INTERACTed Professional Development Programme: a professional development programme to facilitate teacher adoption of interactive, immersive digital narratives with a focus on developing student’s emotional intelligence and for fostering social empathy. 2. INTERACTed Learning Toolkit: A toolkit of resources with pedagogical scenarios incorporating interactive digital narratives to apply in the classroom with an intention to enhance students' socio-emotional intelligence and empathy. 3. INTERACTed Online Game: A gamified online interactive digital game, designed to enhance students' socio-emotional intelligence and empathy, towards inclusive digital education. 4. Reflections and Policy recommendations report: The Policy Recommendation report includes recommendations derived from the implementation with school teachers and students. The ink to the game can be found here: https://dcnet.eu/interacted/ Four scenarios have been developed: Environmental challenge! Save our earth, explorers! Leonardo Da Vinci Luminous Discoveries: The Scientific Journey of Marie Curie Space adventures: A journey into our solar system!