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Intergenerational Digital Storytelling: Research and Applications of Digital Storytelling in Greece
Abstract
In this chapter, Meimaris provides details and outcomes from two projects originating from the Laboratory of New Technologies in Communication, Education, and Mass Media at the University of Athens. Meimaris begins by highlighting the development and use of a new media tool, Milia, which supports online community-based digital storytelling (DST) through the construction and sharing of linear and non-linear multimodal narratives. Extending from this, the chapter uses two examples that demonstrate the benefits of using DST to provide mutual affective, cognitive and social benefits to young people and elders as they work together to create multimodal intergenerational narratives centred around the concept of jobs of yesteryears.
... Beginning in 2007, this long-term program continues to bring Australian high school students and seniors in community and residential care settings together to cocreate stories of shared experiences and interests. Similar projects have brought together students and seniors (Meimaris 2017;Shewbridge 2011). While varying in formats and methodologies, these programs have been successful in building bonds across generations and establishing a sense of shared life experience through the co-creation of digital stories. ...
... "Building Learning Communities through Digital Storytelling" is a preliminary report on a large on-going action research study in which DS is used to foster learning communities in media literacies involving 50 Greek primary and secondary teachers and about 900 students. DS has long been used to promote the development of learning communities and communities of practice for teachers and students alike (Meimaris 2017). This program involved a range of disciplines including language, history, social science, and art education. ...
Digital storytelling (DS) is a term that has come to mean different things in different contexts [...]
... Intergenerational relationships that narrow in digital can overcome the so-called generation gaps, fostering intergenerational interaction, which allows the sharing of knowledge and forms of sociability anchored in different generational contexts. (Amaral & Brites, 2019, p. 5113) The frontiers between generations are fluid (Bolin & Skogerbø, 2013), indicating that media literacy can be a channel to bridge the intergenerational digital divide (Meimaris, 2017) and that digital media-based intergenerational proximity is a recent-and viable-research approach . ...
This article reflects on intergenerational perspectives on media habits and fake news during Covid-19. Active participation is closely linked to the citizens’ media literacy competencies. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, inequalities in access, use, and understanding of the information conveyed by the media became more evident. Digital skills are essential to encourage co-learning and active ageing among different generations. This article relies on data collected during two online intergenerational focus groups with family pairs of different ages (grandparents and grandchildren) conducted in Portugal in the context of the European project SMaRT-EU. The focus groups addressed subjects such as news, fake news, critical perspective towards social networks and digital communication, and younger and older people’s perspectives regarding these matters. The thematic analysis of the Portuguese data suggests that, by placing grandparents and grandchildren side by side, the online intergenerational focus groups promoted sharing and exchange of knowledge, valuing the intergenerational encounter and the voices of one of society’s most fragile groups. Data also shows that participants have different perspectives on communication and digitally mediated interaction, mainly related to age factors and media literacy skills. As for fake news, although grandparents and grandchildren show awareness of the phenomenon, for the youngest participant it was complex to identify characteristics or the spaces where they are disseminated. The young adult participant was the most proficient and autonomous digital media user. Results further indicate that, although the online environment contributed to continuing research in times of pandemic, bringing together family members with different media literacy skills and ages poses difficulties related to the recruitment of participants.
... In addition, it could motivate children to participate in the learning process. According to Meimaris (2017) digital storytelling can provide mutual affective, cognitive and social benefits to young people. ...
Bullying episodes among children are common in preschool settings. Bullying has adverse and enduring effects on children's socio-emotional development. Bullying prevention is crucial to children's adjustment in school environment, promotion of their safety and well-being. Within this framework, the present study aims to present the use of interactive digital storytelling in raising awareness of bullying in early childhood settings which is regarded essential to bullying prevention. It describes the design of an interactive digital storytelling scenario, named "Anthoula's Dreams" for screening children's reactions to bullying situations and developing empathy in children. Digital storytelling could be a valuable tool in bullying prevention, as its narrative power can actively engage children in a simulation condition of bullying, stimulates identification with the characters of the story and emotional involvement. The script features a five-year-old girl who receives rejection by her classmates. The scenario is a branching story structured with an interactive plot and its final form will be combined with animation. Children can elaborate on the scenario through the narrative choices of a branching story. The interactive story enables children to participate and affect the plot of the story. The emergence of different options to address the situation lead to different results in the continuum of bullying. The end of the story is not predetermined by the author and the story usually emerges during the narrative. Children are expected to make decisions for the narration evolvement. The content causes emotions which can enhance the cognitive and emotional involvement of preschool children in their interactions with the main character of the story, as they will be forced to make decisions for the narrative to develop. The induction and utilization of emotions facilitates the development of empathy. Children's narrative choices through the story branches are expected to more consistently reflect their own strategies if they were intimidated. They are also required to choose from predefined options of strategies those that will Konstantopoulou, A. Nikolaou, E., Fesakis, G., Volika, S. Markogiannakis, G. (2018). Designing interactive digital storytelling as a strategy of raising children's awareness of bullying in preschool education: implications for bullying prevention., lead to the settlement of the bullying situation. The interactive scenario can enhance the problem-solving skills of the victims and teach children to deal with bullying situations. Moreover, it can be used for changing bystanders' attitudes and promoting social support from peers, thus making students more likely to intervene and stop bullying. Developing attitudes and skills is a component of raising awareness of bullying. In particular, developing social and emotional understanding and perspective taking skills is related to children's prosocial behaviours and the reduction of victimization. Empathy is the foundation of cooperation conflict resolution, acceptance and tolerance. Digital storytelling could be incorporated into anti-bullying programs, which have been shown to have moderate levels of success as a means of fostering their effectiveness. It could also empower teachers with additional strategies to confront bullying and be used as a counselling tool integrated into interventions directed at increasing prosocial behaviours. This study can contribute to school-based promotion of children's social and emotional competence and school-based prevention efforts of addressing bullying.
... In addition, it could motivate children to participate in the learning process. According to Meimaris (2017) digital storytelling can provide mutual affective, cognitive and social benefits to young people. ...
Abstract. Bullying episodes among children are common in preschool settings. Bullying has adverse and enduring effects on children's socio-emotional development. Bullying prevention is crucial to children's adjustment in school environment, promotion of their safety and well-being. Within this framework, the present study aims to present the use of interactive digital storytelling in raising awareness of bullying in early childhood settings which is regarded essential to bullying prevention. It describes the design of an interactive digital storytelling scenario, named "Anthoula's Dreams" for screening children's reactions to bullying situations and developing empathy in children. Digital storytelling could be a valuable tool in bullying prevention, as its narrative power can actively engage children in a simulation condition of bullying, stimulates identification with the characters of the story and emotional involvement. The script features a five-year-old girl who receives rejection by her classmates. The scenario is a branching story structured with an interactive plot and its final form will be combined with animation. Children can elaborate on the scenario through the narrative choices of a branching story. The interactive story enables children to participate and affect the plot of the story. The emergence of different options to address the situation lead to different results in the continuum of bullying. The end of the story is not predetermined by the author and the story usually emerges during the narrative. Children are expected to make decisions for the narration evolvement. The content causes emotions which can enhance the cognitive and emotional involvement of preschool children in their interactions with the main character of the story, as they will be forced to make decisions for the narrative to develop. The induction and utilization of emotions facilitates the development of empathy. Children's narrative choices through the story branches are expected to more consistently reflect their own strategies if they were intimidated. They are also required to choose from predefined options of strategies those that will lead to the settlement of the bullying situation. The interactive scenario can enhance the problem-solving skills of the victims and teach children to deal with bullying situations. Moreover, it can be used for changing bystanders’ attitudes and promoting social support from peers, thus making students more likely to intervene and stop bullying. Developing attitudes and skills is a component of raising awareness of bullying. In particular, developing social and emotional understanding and perspective taking skills is related to children's prosocial behaviours and the reduction of victimization. Empathy is the foundation of cooperation conflict resolution, acceptance and tolerance. Digital storytelling could be incorporated into anti-bullying programs, which have been shown to have moderate levels of success as a means of fostering their effectiveness. It could also empower teachers with additional strategies to confront bullying and be used as a counselling tool integrated into interventions directed at increasing prosocial behaviours. This study can contribute to school-based promotion of children's social and emotional competence and school-based prevention efforts of addressing bullying. --
Key words: School bullying, interactive digital storytelling, anti-bullying strategies, empathy.
(Note: Proceedings are going to be published)
... It embeds game-like features that may include narratives, avatars, a desire for competition incorporating 'gaming elements' (such as badges, leaderboards, antagonisms, rewards) so as to engage and motivate people in otherwise mundane/repetitive tasks (Lumsden, Edwards, Lawrence, Coyle, & Munafò, 2016;Fleming, et al., eISSN: 2301-2218 Selection & Peer-review under responsibility of the Editors 2628 2017; Feng, Ye, Yu, Yang, & Cui, 2018). Other types of gamified situations include digital storytelling (Meimaris, 2017), which reveals potential elements in evaluation like child sexual abuse by monitoring children's digital stories (Pharshy, 2016). ...
The proper use of language for communication in any context is defined as Pragmatics. Pragmatics includes the linguistic adjustments made (what is said, how it is said, body language, appropriateness) in order to accomplish the communication goal. Children and adults may be referred for rehabilitation when pragmatic communication deficits have an impact on social functioning, employment, and family/marital relationships (Turkstra, et al., 2016). The aim of this study is to examine gamification as an alternative to supplement clinical assessment procedures of an individual’s communication deficiencies with a focus on pragmatics perception, which led to the creation of a mobile gamified procedure designed to collect data on pragmatics perception. The gamified procedure was created in Kahoot! and was played by a sample of two hundred and fifty-six (256) university students with non-acquired communicative deficits studying health related courses in Greece. Data on points scored, response accuracy and duration of time spent on of each language feature was recorded. A detailed description on students’ pragmatics abilities and motivation was reported. The results of the study described normative data concerning points scored, response time and accuracy of language features. Statistically significant differences were found between genders in terms of response accuracy and time for some language features. The gamified e-assessment has the clear potential to contribute innovatively to the clinical assessment procedures of pragmatic communicative deficits including the needs of individuals with developmental disorders, psychiatric disorders, acquired brain injury, neurodegenerative disorders in a motivating way along with current technological advances of face to face and/or telepractice services.
Digital storytelling combines the tradition of storytelling with digital technology. Creating digital stories invites participants to utilize multiple forms of media in order to construct and share their story. Moreover, it can provide participants with the opportunity to cultivate their skills in creativity and narration, exploring innovative technology, and collaborating with peers to create and share their own story.
In this paper we will present our rationale behind the importance of such a methodology when used with creators with intellectual disabilities, and some initial findings from a series of workshops. How do storytellers with intellectual disability construct their own story and what can be the benefits of such an experience?
This paper introduces Milia (AppleTree), an open online platform for social interactive digital storytelling, which has been developed by the Laboratory of New Technologies in Communication, Education and the Mass Media, with the support of the University Research Institute of Applied Communication (URIAC) of the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies of the University of Athens. The Milia platform aims to support the representation, presentation and collaborative creation of any sort of stories in digital format. Applications of the platform can be found in storytelling per se, in education, in publishing and, more generally, in the creation and publication of collaborative digital works. The first part of the paper is focused on a state of the art review for digital storytelling platforms and discussion of some major challenges that these platforms are attempting to face. This review is followed by a second part, which discusses the technical features and functional capabilities of the Milia platform in detail, and a third part, which reports on applications of the platform that have already been realized and digital stories that are already available online. The paper is concluded with a discussion of limitations and directions of future work for the Milia platform.
The research reported in this paper examines how two different groups, primary schoolchildren and elderly people, could close the generation gap through a digital storytelling-based interaction framework that can result in learning for the younger and intergenerational communication. Yesteryear jobs have been chosen as the theme of this research, based on the premise that, as computers and automated systems increasingly take the jobs humans once held, entire professions become extinct, and some of these endangered professions, from a milkman to an iceman, could become better known to primary school children through storytelling from elderly people. In this respect, the research reported in this paper has combined digital storytelling with techniques as traditional as theatrical games, in order to create a blended framework for intergenerational interactions. The research project was realized in the 15th Primary School of Piraeus, in Athens, Greece during academic years 2011-12 and 2012-13. It has involved a 6-month empirical study and embraced skills such as literature reading, story and song listening, painting, creating digital stories as well as improvising through theatrical games. The evaluation tools for the outcomes of this project comprised a questionnaire, participant observation, informal interviews and a video rubric for evaluating the digital creations of schoolchildren.
Faculty and administrators still struggle to practice and support a holistic approach to engaged scholarship. Many institutions have created a culture of engaged scholarship, yet faculty are looking for practical ways to plan, implement, and relect on engaged scholarship due to productivity expectations. New faculty are oten drawn to the idea of engaged scholarship but don't know where to start or how to frame their work in a way that appeals to promotion and tenure committees. To address these issues, the holistic model of engaged scholarship presented here provides a deinition of engaged scholarship, six practice and storytelling leverage points on an engaged scholarship circle, an integration of higher education's missions, and factors and assumptions that afect engaged scholarship to help faculty better practice and tell the story of their engaged scholarship eforts. An application of the model is also described.
Technologies Laboratory in Communication, Education and the Mass Media (N.T.L.C.E.M.) have been carrying out a number of research projects in the field of Intergenerational Communication and Learning. Members of community centres for the elderly and public high school students have participated in the projects focusing on the social need for intergenerational communication. This paper presents the projects held, as well as their research goals and the conclusions the research team has arrived at. There were two key factors, common in all projects, which outline the chosen approach and contribute to the uniformity and concreteness of the conclusions: firstly, in all cases the intergenerational communication took place in an composite environment which offered online and offline interaction at the same place and time, and, secondly, all activities were designed in a way which promotes the idea that the elderly may not only benefit from ICT, but become active members of the new digital world and provide precious knowledge and experience in both local and global level. During the first research project 14 year-old students acted as tutors of the members of a community centre teaching them basic aspects of internet use. One year later another project was held, bringing together adolescents and elderly people in order for them to co-create digital videos based on the personal narrations of the elderly and implementation of the technical skills of the adolescents. As the elderly revealed their life experiences the students recorded them on video. They cooperated on the editing process and presented the final outcome to all participants. Social games and intergenerational learning was the main theme of the third workshop. High school students played the popular game "Frontier ville" with their elderly team-mates and participated in an on-line competition. A hands-on workshop was set whilst both generations grew their digital farm in the far-west. The fourth research project was called "Music for Two Generations", and was based on the hypothesis that both sides would be interested in discussing their musical tastes. Students and seniors used "every-day" digital applications, under the guidance of the research group members, in order to create a youtube account where they composed a playlist with their favourite songs. A general conclusion deriving from these projects would be that people from different generations can work together and communicate in a well-organized digital context. Moreover, they can create valuable digital artifacts as a confirmation of their co-operation and interaction achieved. Keywords intergenerational communication and learning; elderly and adolescents; technology, internet and digital media; interaction and collaboration Acknowledgments The work reported in this paper has been in part undertaken within the Programme of Research Actions of the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies of the University of Athens. Psarauti, Aris Tsakoumis, Antonis Psaltis and all other members of the UoA NTLab research group on Intergenerational Communication and Learning who have contributed, together with the reporting authors, in planning and implementing the pilot interventions presented in this paper. The help and support of teachers, students and parents of the Zekakio High School of Maroussi, Athens as well as of all the elderly people and staff members of the Open Care Center for the Elderly of Nikaia, Athens, is also acknowledged.
Digital Storytelling has become a powerful instructional tool for both students and educators. This article presents an overview of Digital Storytelling and describes where it came from, how it can be used to support instruction and how students who learn to create their own digital stories improve multiple literacy skills. In addition, information is presented about the tools that can be used to support the educational use of Digital Storytelling. The article also includes a discussion of challenges and other important considerations that students and educators should be aware of before implementing the use of Digital Storytelling in the classroom, and concludes with an overview of the research that has been and needs to be conducted on the effectiveness of Digital Storytelling as a teaching and learning tool.
Provides detailed directions for preparation, production, and presentation of digital stories and the tools needed to create them. Teaches students to work collaboratively and to use new technologies required in the workforce of the future.
The concept of narrative has been widely invoked by theorists of digital textuality, but the promotion of what is described as the storytelling power of the computer has often relied on shallow metaphors, loose conceptions of narrative, and literary models that ignore the distinctive properties of the digital medium. Two myths have dominated this theorization. The myth of the Aleph (as I call it) presents the digital text as a finite text that contains an infinite number of stories. The myth of the Holodeck envisions digital narrative as a virtual environment in which the user becomes a character in a plot similar to those of Victorian novels or Shakespearean tragedies. Both of these myths rely on questionable assumptions: that any permutation of a collection of lexias results in a coherent story; that it is aesthetically desirable to be the hero of a story; and that digital narrativity should cover the same range of emotional experiences as literary narrative. Here I argue that digital narrative should emancipate itself from literary models. But I also view narrative as a universal structure that transcends media. This article addresses the question of reconciling the inherent linearity of narrative structures with the multiple paths made possible by the interactive nature of the digital text by distinguishing four forms of interactivity, which result from the cross-classification of two binaries: internal versus external interactivity; and exploratory versus ontological. Each of these categories is shown to favor different narrative themes and different variations of the universal narrative structure.
Part one of this paper highlights how students today think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors, as a result of being surrounded by new technology. The author compares these “digital natives” with the older generation who are learning and adopting new technology naming them “digital immigrants”.
This book documents examples of intergenerational learning, reflecting a wide range of approaches and goals. It describes a literacy enhancement project in which senior citizens work with elementary students, an intergenerational orchestra whose members range in age from 6 to 88, an intergenerational living history theater project, and an across-age community-service/action program. The book offers specific advice on how to plan, develop, and sustain similar programs, along with resources to assist those efforts. The resources include an annotated bibliography of children's literature with intergenerational themes. The final chapter reviews new directions for intergenerational learning and their far-reaching implications for educators. Each of the programs reflects the creation of genuine bonds among the participants that produce benefits beyond the perfunctory subject to subject contact. (Cites 70 works.) (BT)
Since it was introduced to the English-speaking world in 1962, Lev Vygotsky's Thought and Language has become recognized as a classic foundational work of cognitive science. Its 1962 English translation must certainly be considered one of the most important and influential books ever published by the MIT Press. In this highly original exploration of human mental development, Vygotsky analyzes the relationship between words and consciousness, arguing that speech is social in its origins and that only as children develop does it become internalized verbal thought. In 1986, the MIT Press published a new edition of the original translation by Eugenia Hanfmann and Gertrude Vakar, edited by Vygotsky scholar Alex Kozulin, that restored the work's complete text and added materials to help readers better understand Vygotsky's thought. Kozulin also contributed an introductory essay that offered new insight into Vygotsky's life, intellectual milieu, and research methods. This expanded edition offers Vygotsky's text, Kozulin's essay, a subject index, and a new foreword by Kozulin that maps the ever-growing influence of Vygotsky's ideas.
Instructional technology and media for learning Upper Saddle River
- S E Smaldino
- J D Russell
- R Heinrich
- M Molenda
Situating constructionism
- S Papert
Getting to know the media through the stories told by their audiences
- M Meimaris
Instructional technology and media for learning
- S E Smaldino
- J D Russell
- R Heinrich
- M Molenda
- SE Smaldino