INCLUDED PARTICIPATION IN EDULEARN CONGRESS 2021

Last 5th-6th July 2021, the INCLUDED project participated in the Edulearn 2021 Congress (13th Annual International Conference on Education and New Technologies for Learning), with a research article on the “TEACHERS ‘PERCEPTIONS ABOUT COLLABORATION AND INCLUSION USING A TANGIBLE DIGITAL STORYTELLING TOOL (I-THEATER) IN PRE-SCHOOL AND PRIMARY EDUCATION: THE INCLUDED PROJECT RESEARCH PILOT STUDY.”

The authors presented the results from questionnaires and interviews conducted with 40 Italian and Spanish teachers after using i-Theatre in pre-school and primary school between January and April 2021.

Abstract

This study analyzes the teachers’ perception on the use of i-Theatre, a digital-tangible interactive system. The study involved 40 pre-school and primary school educators in Italy as part of the INCLUDED Project. INCLUDED «Inclusive childhood education supported by multimedia and digital storytelling» is a training and action-research project promoted by the European Commission (Erasmus+) and several institutions and educational centers from Italy, Spain, and Finland. The project aims to favor social skills) and narrative competence through collaborative activities using i-Theatre. This tool links the multisensorial dimension of drawing, storytelling, and digital tools in classroom experiences with digital and tangible interfaces. The INCLUDED study is divided into two phases: a pilot and an experimental phase. This pilot study explores the initial contact between students, teachers, and the i-Theatre by examining the teachers’ perception on their experience. During this phase, teachers involved in the project had the opportunity to use the i-Theatre tool in their classes and were then invited to answer a questionnaire about their experience. Finally, individual semi-interviews were conducted with a part of the cohort to collect more focused data on their experience. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of questionnaire and interview data was performed. The results show that teachers consider this experience and the i-Theatre tool of high interest for educators, as they report positive effects on collaboration and student engagement from the first session.