Category: Field Studies

It was a pleasure to host Michael Schlauch from the University of Bolzano || Italy

Doing research that relates to the problems of educational practice is the challenge of our time. I came here on a research visit to work with Dr. Cristina Sylla and Dr. Maitê Gil to see how it’s done at the narrative learning project “Mobeybou” here in Braga.

Originally from Germany, I am a doctoral candidate at the Free University of Bolzano, Italy. There I conduct an educational design research project called “Media Education with Kids through Interactive Digital Storytelling” (MEKIDS). My goal is to use digital storytelling to enable children to be creative and reflect on a variety of subjects. For that reason I am developing the “Fantastinomio”, a simple picture-based digital storytelling environment that can be customized by the teacher. During my stay we adapted the Fantatinomio to the needs of a Portuguese elementary school. After long periods of remote learning and lockdown teachers pointed out the urgency to create an intervention on social emotional learning. Children participated in the design process by creating all the drawings that equipped this particular version of the Fantastinomio. Overall I am surprised at how much we have managed to do in a few weeks. The collaboration with Mobeybou has taught me that research is most successful with enduring mutual relationships with schools, teachers and pupils. This is something I will give particular attention to on my return to Italy.