Multimodality and Digital Narrative in Teaching a Foreign Language

The article focuses on the authors’ pedagogical experience of exploiting digital narratives in a foreign language education at a modern university (on the basis of National Technical University of Ukraine “KPI” named after Igor Sikorsky). The study aims to consider multimodality in terms of foreign language didactics. It was designed by the constructivism theory and narratology in terms of teaching a foreign language. The research exploited the set of theoretical methods: analyzing, summarizing, and interpreting scholarly sources on the issue under scrutiny; generalization and conceptualization of the authors’ pedagogical experience. Applying those methods in coherence logic enabled the effective study and interpretation of the concepts of “narrative” and “digital narrative” in their interrelations. In the study, the narrative is viewed as a sociocultural tool that provides students with deeper self-understanding, and complements the communicative system of foreign language acquisition with metacognition and values of life meaning. The digital narrative as a form of expression, empowered and determined by digital technologies incorporates multimodal communication and narrative as a cognitive unity. The authors have stated that multimodality, grounded on information technologies, is introducing entirely new semiotic resources into the communicative environment of foreign language learning. It is also generating innovative ways and forms of oral and written interaction. Multimodal learning activities illustrating the specifics of creating digital narratives by learners of English as a foreign language, are highlighted. The significance of the study lies in the fact that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is unquestionably a rather fertile condition for active implementing digital technologies into foreign language education, and developing different multimodal learning activities in this area

The Role of Agency and Threat-Immediacy in Interactive Digital Narrative Fear Appeals for the Prevention of Alcohol Abuse: An Empirical Study Among College Students (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Serious games for the training of prevention behaviors have been widely recognized as a potentially valuable tool for adolescents and young adults across a variety of risk behaviors. However, the role of agency, as a distinguishing factor from traditional health interventions, has seldomly been isolated and grounded in persuasive health communication theory. Fear appeals have different effects on intentions to perform a prevention behavior depending on the immediacy of the consequences. Looking into how to increase self-efficacy beliefs for health behavior with distant consequences is a first step to improving game-based interventions for adverse health outcomes. OBJECTIVE The current study investigated the effect of agency on self-efficacy and intention to drink less alcohol in an interactive digital narrative fear appeal. Further, the communicated immediacy of threat outcomes was evaluated as a potential moderator of the effect of agency on self-efficacy. METHODS An experimental study was conducted among university students (N=178). Participants were presented with a fear appeal outlining the consequences of alcohol abuse in an interactive narrative format. Participants either had perceived control over the outcome of the narrative scenario (high-agency) or no control over the outcome (low-agency). The threat was either framed as a short-term or long-term negative health outcome resulting from the execution of the risk behavior (drinking too much alcohol). RESULTS Self-efficacy and intention to limit alcohol intake were not influenced by the agency manipulation. Self-efficacy was shown to be a significant predictor of behavioral intention. Immediacy of the threat did not moderate the relationship between agency and self-efficacy. CONCLUSIONS Although the agency manipulation was successful, we could not find evidence for an effect of agency or threat immediacy on self-efficacy. The implications for different operationalizations of different agency concepts is discussed, as well as the malleability of self-efficacy beliefs for long-term threats. The usage of repeated, versus single, interventions and different threat types (e.g., health and social threats) should be tested empirically to establish a way forward for diversifying intervention approaches.

Multimodality and Digital Narrative in Teaching a Foreign Language

The article focuses on the authors’ pedagogical experience of exploiting digital narratives in a foreign language education at a modern university (on the basis of National Technical University of Ukraine “KPI” named after Igor Sikorsky). The study aims to consider multimodality in terms of foreign language didactics. It was designed by the constructivism theory and narratology in terms of teaching a foreign language. The research exploited the set of theoretical methods: analyzing, summarizing, and interpreting scholarly sources on the issue under scrutiny; generalization and conceptualization of the authors’ pedagogical experience. Applying those methods in coherence logic enabled the effective study and interpretation of the concepts of “narrative” and “digital narrative” in their interrelations. In the study, the narrative is viewed as a sociocultural tool that provides students with deeper self-understanding, and complements the communicative system of foreign language acquisition with metacognition and values of life meaning. The digital narrative as a form of expression, empowered and determined by digital technologies incorporates multimodal communication and narrative as a cognitive unity. The authors have stated that multimodality, grounded on information technologies, is introducing entirely new semiotic resources into the communicative environment of foreign language learning. It is also generating innovative ways and forms of oral and written interaction. Multimodal learning activities illustrating the specifics of creating digital narratives by learners of English as a foreign language, are highlighted. The significance of the study lies in the fact that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is unquestionably a rather fertile condition for active implementing digital technologies into foreign language education, and developing different multimodal learning activities in this area

Use of Tools

The technology supporting Interactive Digital Narrative (IDN) is of particular significance to cultural heritage research. IDN technology provides a means of engagement in cultural heritage sites, a medium for culturally significant stories, and culturally significant story-centric games. While previous work in this space has numerous examples of user experience (UX) evaluations of the interactive narrative works themselves, there is significantly less in terms of evaluation of technology for authoring IDN, creating a UX research space in this area that is focused on the audience and not authors. We propose to balance this focus by considering the UX of authoring tools more closely. In this work, we undertake a review of the state of the art of authoring tools for IDN, such as story-centric games, and report on a rigorous UX evaluation of representative technologies (n = 21). We also address the challenges of UX research for these tools through an original evaluation methodology where authors complete a story composed of representative story features. Our study leads us to conclude seven UX principles for IDN authoring tools that explore both how authors use tools to create story-focused games and how the interface for these tools impacts the creative process.

Presence of the Past: Digital Narrative of the Dennys Lascelles Concrete Wool Store; Geelong, Australia

Recreation of the past—of historical buildings—sits at the intersection of the spatio-temporal manifestation of cultural memories, socio-cultural meanings, values, and identity remolds, and refines the existing understanding and sense of place. Digital technologies have become a popular tool in recreation of the past by creating a new body of knowledge and historical discourse based on identifying the gaps within our written histories. Designers and policymakers around the world have been exploring various tools and technologies, such as diachronic modeling, yet there is a gap in evidence-based understanding regarding the actual functioning and success of applications for placemaking. This paper, therefore, sets out to scrutinize the role of digital technologies in facilitating digital placemaking. To do so, it investigates the potential of a new “digital heritage” narrative in the revival of the lost architectural narrative of the Dennys Lascelles wool store, Geelong. The proposed paper aims to investigate the potential of a new “digital heritage” narrative and storytelling as a means towards a digital placemaking framework. While exploring the new and unique capabilities provided by the digital narrative in capturing, simulating, and disseminating lost heritage, it will further imbue a sense of place by connecting the everyday city dweller.

Telemedicine and digital narrative medicine for the customization of the diagnostic-therapeutic path at the time of COVID 19

The Covid-19 issues have placed the telemedicine into the limelight, for its ability to reach remote patients affected by COVID-19, offering them support, expert advice, home hospitalization. At the same time, it gives the many fragile patients, who should be submitted to therapeutic checks or adjustments, the opportunity to be followed appropriately, avoiding travelling and associated risks of contagion. The current situation has accelerated its use in diabetological care: but with the risk of reducing the medical-patient empathic relationship. Narrative Medicine (NBM) integrates with Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) and, taking into account the plurality of perspectives, makes clinical-care decisions more complete, personalized, effective and appropriate. The stories told by patient and by those who take care, are an essential element of contemporary medicine, based on the active participation of the subjects who are involved in the choices. People, through their own stories, become protagonists of the process of care”. The ability of mixing the technology achievements with the humanistic vision of the care process characterizes DNM, the first digital platformentirely designed for the development of narrative medicine projects in the clinical practice. It was conceived by a team of anthropologists and psychologists with the advice of doctors and experts in narrative medicine of OMNI the Observatory of Narrative Medicine Italy. The DNM features aim to maximize the potential of the digital process, at the same time preserving patient privacy and health data confidentiality. KEY WORDS telemedicine; narrative medicine; digital narrative medicine.

Presence of the Past: Digital Narrative of the Dennys Lascelles Concrete Wool Store; Geelong, Australia

Re-creation of the past of historical buildings sits at the intersection of the spatio-temporal manifestation of cultural memories, socio-cultural meanings, values and identity re-moulds and refines the existing understanding and sense of place. Digital technologies have become a popular tool in re-creation of the past by creating a new body of knowledge and historical discourse based on identifying the gaps within our written histories. Designers and policymakers around the world have been exploring various tools and technologies such as diachronic modelling yet there is a gap in evidence-based understanding regarding the actual functioning and success of application for place making. This paper, therefore, sets out to scrutinise the role of digital technologies in facilitating digital place making. To do so, it investigates the potential of a new “digital heritage” narrative in the revival of the lost architectural narrative of the Dennys Lascelles Wool Store, Geelong. The proposed paper aims to investigate the potential of a new “digital heritage” narrative and story-telling as a means towards digital place making framework. While exploring the new and unique capabilities provided by the digital narrative in capturing, simulating and disseminating ‘lost’ heritage it will further imbue a sense of place by connecting the everyday city dweller.