Digital stories as a method for evidence-based practice and knowledge co-creation in technology-enhanced learning for children with autism

Abstract

Storytelling is a powerful means of expression especially for voices that may be difficult to hear or represent in typical ways. This paper reports and reflects on our experiences of co-creating digital stories with school practitioners in a project focusing on embedding innovative technologies for children on the autism spectrum in classroom practice. The digital stories were short films or narrated sequences of slides and images that conveyed key views about experiences and practices with or around the technologies. The creation of the digital stories aimed to empower schools and individual teachers to construct and share their own authentic narratives and to build case examples of creative technology-enhanced teaching and learning. Through focusing on our experiences with one of the schools, we examine the use of digital stories as a method for enabling knowledge co-creation with practitioners and we discuss the evidential potential of digital stories. We argue that the co-creation of digital stories enabled teachers to find their voice in critiquing the usability, usefulness, efficacy and flexibility of the technologies. Furthermore, the stories, both the process of their creation and the final artefacts, provided a concrete grounding for knowledge co-creation about teaching practices and authentic technologyenhanced learning.

Resilience of Digital Learning for Children in Early Childhood with Autism Spectrum in Manado

“…Children in Early childhood with autism spectrum is aware of the love they have, it's just that the way to express love is different. Empathy in resilience can still be understood by children in early childhood in the form of digital technology like films/movies (visualization of affection) [9]. They have a sense of empathy expressed in limited ways both verbally and non-verbally.…”

“…They are used to being monotonous. In using digital media similar things often happened, autistic children who are already used to using cellular phones or whose interest is using technology media will be difficult to manage while in the learning process in the classroom [9]. In terms of analysis, the causes of resilience problem of children in early childhood with autism spectrum are needed.…”

Blending Human and Artificial Intelligence to Support Autistic Children’s Social Communication Skills

“…Since the completion of the ECHOES project, many of the insights gained have served to inspire new ways of thinking by both the individual ECHOES researchers and by the teachers who were involved in ECHOES, with several schools having become long-term partners in ongoing research. For example, the SHAPE project Parsons et al 2015) focused explicitly on the challenge of bridging between research goals and outcomes, and school needs and practices. SHAPE investigated how different technologies developed for children with ASC may be embedded in different schools' everyday practices to reveal any mismatches and commonalities in teachers' vs. researchers' perspectives vis-á-vis what children might actually find inspiring, motivating and useful, and to highlight any opportunities for pedagogical and technological innovation.…”

“…A wide range of clinical and non-clinical interventions exists that aim to facilitate the learning and development of social communication skills. Over the past decade, technology-enhanced methods have attracted increasing attention in both the autism and educational communities for their potential to impact both research and practice (Goodwin 2008;Parsons et al 2015;Parsons and Mitchell 2017). Software interventions have targeted language skills, e.g., Bosseler and Massaro 2003;Massaro 2006;), affective skills, e.g., (Abirached et al 2009;Beaumont and Sofronoff 2008;Finkelstein et al 2009;Hopkins et al 2011;Schuller et al 2013), and social interaction skills, e.g., (Barakova et al 2007;Battocchi et al 2013;Dautenhahn and Werry 2004;Kandalaft et al 2013;Kozima et al 2009).…”

Digital stories for transition: co-constructing an evidence base in the early years with autistic children, families and practitioners

“…co-production or close collaboration between learners, teachers and researchers" (Research Excellence Framework, 2015, p. 109). Such co-production or collaboration usually requires taking more "synergistic" (Leibowitz et al, 2014(Leibowitz et al, , p. 1258 approaches to research using inclusive or participatory methodologies which may involve practitioners in different ways (e.g., see Parsons et al, 2015;Seale et al, 2014). These approaches move beyond conceptualisations of knowledge generation that rely on transfer or exchange.…”