Fishing Rods for Magic: Theatre Forum Tools to Support Primary School Students’ Active Engagement in Computer-Supported Collaborative Storytelling

Abstract

Due to the increasing conflict and complexity on a global level, our students, as future citizens, must develop a new life, soft and transversal skills and competences, and the 4Cs+D (creativity, communication, collaboration, critical thinking + digital skills) for formal and non-formal learning. Creative Storytelling supports students to externalize and communicate their thoughts, feelings, and experiences through their own stories. Stories narrative reframing sets them free from their real, stressful environment contributing to self-awareness, and self-esteem. Although there is rich research about storytelling, there are discrepancies in the ways a story can be structured and even evaluated for constructive feedback, especially to primary school students. In Computer-Supported Collaborative Storytelling (CSCS) students are usually invisible and reluctant to participate, especially if they belong to the SEN (Special Educational Needs) group. Thus, this article suggests pedagogical propositions to create an active, aware, and engaging learning community with the needed knowledge, skills, and competences to solve outer and inner problems. The first is the ASEMA Pyramid (Awareness, Sensitivity, Empathy, Motivation, and Activation) methodology which, together with the active participation eyeball and 4Cs+D skills building with message tagging, can advance students’ engagement in active learning. These methods applied to the Hero's Journey and the Hero's Emotional Journey enable the teachers and their students to become more aware of students' processes and needs. Furthermore, these processes can visualise students’ activities and choices with context-aware tools. Therefore, this article also proposes a set of Theatre Forum Tools to shed light on Primary School students’ online learning activities and their discussion in creative storytelling.