Search Results (21)

This paper presents a qualitative case study on the design, implementation, and validation of the Art Nouveau Path, a mobile augmented reality game developed to foster sustainability competences through engagement with Aveiro’s Art Nouveau built heritage. Grounded in the GreenComp framework and developed through a Design-Based Research approach, the game integrates location-based interaction, narrative storytelling, and multimodal augmented reality and multimedia content to activate key competences such as systems thinking, futures literacy, and sustainability-oriented action. The game was validated with 33 in-service schoolteachers, both through a simulation-based training workshop and a curricular review of the game. A mixed-methods strategy was used, combining structured questionnaires, open-ended reflections, and curricular review. The findings revealed strong emotional and motivational engagement, interdisciplinary relevance, and alignment with formal education goals. Teachers emphasized the game’s capacity to connect local identity with global sustainability challenges through immersive and reflective experiences. Limitations pointed to the need for enhanced pedagogical scaffolding, clearer integration into STEAM subjects, and broader accessibility across technological contexts. This study demonstrates that these games, when grounded in competence-based frameworks and inclusive design, can meaningfully support multimodal, situated learning for sustainability and offer valuable contributions to pedagogical innovation in Education for Sustainable Development. Full article

This study aims to photograph, design, and digitally document the surviving residential buildings on the island of Halki (Heybeliada), within the Princes’ Islands. This documentation focuses on the architectural, urban, and historical aspects of Halki, highlighting the significant material evidence of the Greek social and economic presence. It also examines the urban cultural heritage as depicted in Turkish literature of that period to understand how Turkish writers perceived and presented Halki, referencing the Princes’ Islands only for background context. The methodology includes the collection of material from residents through bibliographic and field research conducted on Halki. Based on these findings, a mobile augmented reality (AR) application was developed using the TaleBlazer platform, designed specifically for use on Halki. The application provides a virtual tour with multimedia-supported thematic layers of architectural and historical information. Its usability and learnability were evaluated using a questionnaire completed by students. The results showed high usability, user satisfaction, and perceived value of learning, with the majority of results close to a median score of 4 out of 5. The students identified the occurrence of immersive experience, ease of use, and the emotional stimulation created by the integration of spatial storytelling and multimedia. This paper also shows how the convergence of cultural content (history, architecture, and literature) can enhance interpretations and experiences with mobile AR technologies. Full article

This study aims to identify and evaluate the essential design features, strengths, and limitations of a virtual reality (VR) application that has been developed to train an international sales force effectively for a premium global wine brand. The study emphasizes the value of stakeholder-driven iterative development and systematic evaluations. A case study methodology was adopted for the research, focusing on a VR training application, developed for Marchesi Antinori. The Scrum framework was employed to facilitate iterative stakeholder collaboration. A qualitative evaluation was conducted using focus groups, comprising marketing, communications, and sales representatives. A systematic application of natural language processing (NLP) embedding techniques and recursive clustering analyses was undertaken to interpret stakeholder feedback. The findings suggest that stakeholder-driven, iterative processes can significantly enhance the effectiveness of VR applications by providing a clear structure for immersive storytelling that focuses on terroir characteristics, vineyard operations, and cellar practices. Stakeholders acknowledged the potent educational benefits of VR in regard to business-to-business (B2B) sales training. However, they also highlighted significant limitations, including user discomfort, concerns about authenticity, and variations in market receptivity. Alternative immersive technologies, including augmented reality and immersive multimedia environments, have emerged as valuable complementary approaches. This study addresses a significant gap in the literature by examining the application of VR technology for B2B sales training in the premium wine industry. The study integrates an iterative Scrum methodology with advanced natural language processing (NLP) analytical techniques to derive nuanced, context-rich insights. Full article

Digital storytelling in cultural and heritage tourism offers significant potential for youth engagement through social media platforms. However, current digital storytelling frameworks illustrate research gaps in integrating digital storytelling guidelines with social-media-specific requirements. Therefore, this review aims to develop an integrated digital storytelling for social media framework that extends traditional digital storytelling guidelines with four additional elements of contemporary digital engagement. The investigation employs bibliometric analysis through VOSviewer software version 1.6.20 to examine four paired domains: digital storytelling and cultural tourism, digital storytelling and social media, youth and cultural tourism, and youth interaction with digital storytelling through social media. Results revealed thematic clusters informing the development of four new framework elements: (1) social media platform integration, (2) multimedia engagement, (3) community participation, and (4) cultural authenticity. This review contributes to the knowledge by advancing digital storytelling theory through social-media-specific elements, providing methodological innovation through comprehensive domain analysis, and offering practical implementation strategies for cultural tourism practitioners. Full article

Medical education faces the dual challenge of addressing cognitive overload and sustaining student engagement, particularly in complex subjects such as pharmacology. This study introduces Cinematic Clinical Narratives (CCNs) as an innovative approach to teaching antiparasitic pharmacology, combining generative artificial intelligence (genAI), edutainment, and mnemonic-based learning. The intervention involved two short films, Alien: Parasites Within and Wormquest, designed to teach antiparasitic pharmacology to first-year medical students. A control group of students only received traditional text-based clinical cases, while the experimental group engaged with the CCNs in an active learning environment. Students who received the CCN material scored an average of 8% higher on exam questions related to the material covered by the CCN compared to students in the control group. Results also showed that the CCNs improved engagement and interest among students, as evidenced by significantly higher scores on the Situational Interest Survey for Multimedia (SIS-M) compared to traditional methods. Notably, students preferred CCNs for their storytelling, visuals, and interactive elements. This study underscores the potential of CCNs as a supplementary educational tool, and suggests the potential for broader applications across other medical disciplines outside of antiparasitic pharmacology. By leveraging genAI and edutainment, CCNs represent a scalable and innovative approach to enhancing the medical learning experience. Full article

Digital storytelling has been applied in research in varied contexts and with varied purposes. Implicit in the process of digital storytelling is the potential to develop and/or enhance a range of individual skills (e.g., multimedia, literacy, communication, etc.). However, further research is needed to gain a deeper understanding of the potential impact of digital storytelling on skill enhancement for disabled youth. This paper provides an overview of Phase 1 of the study “My life. My story: The Youth Digital Storytelling Project” that utilized elements of a community-based participatory action research approach to host a peer-facilitated digital storytelling workshop for young adults with developmental disabilities aimed at capturing and sharing their lived experiences with, knowledge of, and perspectives on significant life-stage transitions in the areas of education, employment, or living. The results from the pre- and post-workshop questionnaires suggest that the participants improved skills in media literacy, communication, and leadership. Additionally, the participants highlighted the importance of considering the delivery format, fostering connections, and enhancing self-confidence in the development of the workshop’s design and delivery. This research adds to the extant literature demonstrating the potential of digital storytelling as a pedagogical tool, offering implications for the design and implementation of online workshops for disabled youth. Full article

ReVisioning Fitness is a research project and community of practice (CoP) working to reconceptualize “fitness” through a radical embrace of difference (e.g., trans, non-binary, queer, Black, people of colour, disabled, and/or fat, thick/thicc, curvy, plus sized), and a careful theorising of inclusion and access. Our collaborative and arts-based work mounts collective resistance against the dominant power relations that preclude bodymind differences within so-called “fitness” spaces. In this work, we build queer, crip, and thick/thicc alliances by centring relational and difference-affirming approaches to fitness, fostering a radical CoP that supports dissent to be voiced, access intimacies to form, and capacitating effects of body-becoming pedagogies to be set in motion. In this article, we consider how conditions of possibility both co-created and inherited by researchers, collaborators, and the research context itself contributed to what unfolded in our project and art making (multimedia storytelling). By a radical CoP, we mean that we mobilise a more relational and difference-affirming notion of CoP than others have described, which often has involved the reification of sameness and the stabilisation of hierarchies. Further, we call on leaders in fitness organisations to open conditions of possibility in their spaces to allow for alternative futures of fitness that centre difference. Full article

Digital storytelling prioritizes real-time connections, story creation, contextual adaptability, multi-media expression, and accessibility. This article discusses the unrecognized affordances and value of digital storytelling practices for teens living in precarious (neo)colonial lifeworlds. We review the workshop methods developed as designers and leaders of “Gathering Stories: A Digital Storytelling Workshop for Young Women” in July 2021 to enliven and illuminate high school students’ voices while also addressing social, emotional, and affective experiences and needs during the pandemic. The article details how we co-realized spaces where teens’ lived experience of gathering and the draw of story were the driving forces for their diverse storytelling practices. Identifying positive outcomes for the first iteration of the workshop, we also identify challenges that will inform future iterations of the workshop, such as structural dimensions of intersectionality and the challenges predicative AI such as ChatGPT poses to such efforts to prioritize experiential dimensions of learning through storytelling. Full article

The e-Archeo project, commissioned from ALES S.p.A.by the Ministry of Culture (MIC), aims to valorise the multimedia experience of eight Italian archaeological sites. This paper discusses the University of Verona’s contribution to this project, which focuses on the virtual reconstruction of two Roman villas located in Sirmione and Desenzano (Lombardy). This paper outlines the 3D survey methodologies and scientific back-end approach using Extended Matrix. The architectural and decorative reconstruction process for each site is elucidated, providing a comprehensive understanding of the process followed. Furthermore, the University developed a narrative to accompany virtual visits. One of the main project outputs was e-Archeo 3d, a virtual reality web app that allows remote and on-site use. Full article

Background: Low awareness of BC and its associated risk factors causes delays in diagnosis and impacts survival. It is critical to communicate BC risk to patients in a format that they are easily able to understand. Our study aim was to develop easy-to-follow transmedia prototypes to communicate BC risk and evaluate user preferences, alongside exploring awareness of BC and its risk factors. Methods: Prototypes of transmedia tools for risk communication were developed with multidisciplinary input. A qualitative in-depth online interview study was undertaken using a pre-defined topic guide of BC patients (7), their relatives (6), the general public (6), and health professionals (6). Interviews were analyzed using a thematic approach. Findings: Most participants preferred pictographic representations (frequency format) of lifetime risk and risk factors and storytelling using short animations and comic strips (infographics) for communicating genetic risk and testing: “In a short time, they explained it very well, and I liked it”. Suggestions included minimizing technical terminology, decreasing the delivery speed, “two-way dialogue”, and using local “language for different locations”. There was low awareness of BC, with some understanding of age and hereditary risk factors but limited knowledge of reproductive factors. Interpretation: Our findings support use of multiple context-specific multimedia tools in communicating cancer risk in an easy-to-understand way. The preference for storytelling using animations and infographics is a novel finding and should be more widely explored. Full article

Commissioned to ALES spa by the Ministry of Culture (MiC), the e-Archeo project was born with the intention of enhancing and promoting knowledge of some Italian archaeological sites with a considerable narrative potential that has not yet been fully expressed. The main principle that guided the choice of the sites and the contents was of illustrating the various cultures and types of settlements present in the Italian territory. Eight sites were chosen, spread across the national territory from north to south, founded by Etruscans, Greeks, Phoenicians, natives and Romans. e-Archeo has developed multimedia, integrated and multi-channel solutions for various uses and types of audiences, adopting both scientific and narrative and emotional languages. Particular attention was paid to multimedia accessibility, technological sustainability and open science. The e-Archeo project was born from a strong synergy between public entities, research bodies and private industries thanks to the collaboration of MiC and ALES with the CNR ISPC, 10 Italian Universities, 12 Creative Industries and the Italian National Television (RAI). This exceptional and unusual condition made it possible to realise all the project’s high-quality contents and several outputs in only one and a half years. Full article

This study explores aspects of journalistic quality in complex digital stories. Based on a tailored overview of the potentials of online journalism and digital long form stories for journalistic quality, all available award-winning stories of the subcategory Interactive of the World Press Photo’s Digital Storytelling Contest from 2011 to 2021 (n = 31) are examined according to their structure and journalistic quality criteria using Grounded Theory. The findings add to the long and ongoing research history in journalism and communication studies on the question of what journalistic quality entails and can be used as a basis for further analyses focusing on the technological and structural nature of digital stories and high-quality journalism. The analysis revealed a differentiation between linear stories and chapter stories with linear elements. While a multimedia nature, continuous text and video content prevailed in both forms, they differed in terms of their complexity as well as certain expressions of quality criteria. Gamification and immersion emerged as new yet debatable aspects of journalistic quality in digital stories. Full article

The present paper focuses on digital storytelling in education, emphasizing the teachers’ needs for familiarization with the new technological conditions. A transmedia integration approach is deployed to make productive, blended learning values while utilizing the availability of tools and reusable media assets in a component-based software engineering kind of framework. The topic is inspired by social studies and humanities, which seem to be marginalized, usually failing to make effective technological facilities, benefits, and contemporary findings. It is, therefore, necessary to modernize the approach to literary things and integrate digital means into the educational process, even in cases where a sole educator on humanities and social studies lacks multidisciplinary support in multimedia authoring and software engineering. This modernization can be made possible by introducing user-friendly tools into the process, representing not just a fashion of the time but mostly a renewal trend, aiming at revitalizing the course to attract and engage learners. Undoubtedly, today’s pupils have grown up with technological means, becoming familiar with their use so their implication causes undiminished interest in most daily activities, including schooling. In this high-tech generation, it is absurd to address the transmission of knowledge and values in outdated ways. Apart from adapting to the timely students’ needs, lesson plans on transmedia storytelling practices can also satisfy tutors, triggering their inspiration and co-creation potentials. Overall, the project aims to attract the trainees’ interest with the help of digital tools, which will be embodied in the educational processes by teachers without technical know-how, while continuously adapting to the audience’s needs. Research hypothesis and questions are formed as part of the deployed human-centered interactive design, aiming at modeling best practices for teaching classical topics, such as the “Odyssey”. Full article

Digital technologies in the modern era are almost mandatory for the presentation of all types of cultural heritage. Virtual depictions of crafts and traditions offer the users the possibility of time travel, taking them to the past through the use of 3D reconstructions of cultural monuments and sites. However, digital resources alone are not enough to adequately present cultural heritage. Additional information on the historical context in the form of stories, virtual reconstructions, and digitized objects is needed. All of this can be implemented using a digital multimedia presentation technique called digital storytelling. Nowadays, an integral part of many museum exhibitions is interactive digital storytelling. This paper gives an overview of the techniques and discusses different means of facilitating interaction on digital storytelling applications for virtual cultural heritage presentations. We describe the ways in which natural interaction and interaction via eXtended Reality (Virtual and Augmented Reality) applications for cultural heritage are made possible. Users will find the stories told through these applications educational and entertaining at the same time. Through user-experience studies, we measure the user edutainment level and present how users react to implemented interactions. Full article

This article seeks to amplify our scholarly view of immigrant identity by centering the first-person narratives of immigrant-origin children and youth. Our theoretical and methodological framework centers on testimonio—a narrative practice popularized in Latin American social movements in which an individual recounts a lived experience that is intended to be representative of a collective struggle. Our goal is to foreground first-person narratives of childhood as told by immigrant-origin children and youth in order to gain insight into what they believe we should know about them. We argue for the power of testimonio to communicate both extraordinary hardship and everyday experiences and that—through this storytelling—immigrant-origin children and youth also express imagined futures for themselves and their loved ones. Through our analysis of ethnographic recordings of testimonio shared by Latin American immigrant children and multimedia testimonios created by immigrant-origin adolescents with roots in the Caribbean and West Africa, we gain a fuller understanding of immigrant subjectivities and push the boundaries of “the immigrant experience” still prevalent in mainstream discussions today. Full article