A socio-constructionist environment to create stories using tangible interfaces

Contemporary technologies such as Tangible User Interfaces (TUI) have not been explored in its full potential in educational contexts, to take advantage of the innate ability of children to tell stories. This activity has proven to be authentic and personally relevant for children with benefits to their personal and social development. This paper presents the design and construction of a TUI environment to be used in inclusive educational contexts, allowing children to create, share and participate in the process of constructing narratives. The environment was conceived under the Semio-Participatory Design Model, and was experimented with the active participation of teachers and children in a real educational context. The design rationale of CPES, a Collaborative Programmable Environment for Storytelling, is presented and results of the final product and its use are discussed in the paper.