Narrative Technology and the ‘Third Teacher’

Abstract

A key educational philosophy inspiring this book is the Reggio Emilia concept of the ‘third teacher’. In the Reggio approach, the physical learning environment and space is conceived of as so important that it is considered equivalent to another educator. This chapter details the iterative design , development and evaluation of narrative technology , which utilised hybrid and ubiquitous computing to instantiate and develop a novel, interactive physical learning environment. It focuses in particular on the detailed enumeration of the narrative technology design in context and its impact on learners. The chapter practically outlines how key stakeholders were collaboratively involved in the design ; how the novel narrative technology was prototyped and scaled and how the evaluation was undertaken, involving creative methods of data collection and reflection, and informed by relevant ethnographic methods. A principal output of this chapter is the design narrative , exemplifying how the physical space—as narrative technology —can be designed to mediate storytelling for creativity with computing.