Large multitouch screens to enhance collaboration in the classroom of the 21st century: an Italian experiment

Abstract

Thanks to technology-pervaded learning environments, digital natives can experiment new engaging ways of learning together at school. In particular, large displays with multi-touch technology hold new opportunities for the learning process, through the dialogic interaction between students and the simultaneous physical interaction with the screen. Our research suggests the use of a context-aware platform with multi-touch displays to support digital storytelling, in order to increase students’ involvement, motivation, and participation. We start our work by designing an application to create fairytales using multi-touch screens, to stimulate new collaboration opportunities during everyday classroom activities. The paper presents the results of an experiment with Interactive WhiteBoards (IWBs), carried out in an Italian primary school.