Designing Manipulative Tools for Creative Multi and Cross-Cultural Storytelling

This paper presents and discusses the preliminary findings of a research focusing on the design and use of Mobeybou, a digital manipulative aimed at promoting the collaborative creation of multicultural and cross-cultural stories among young children. We frame the research in the wider discussion of the 21st century skills and competencies, and present the digital manipulative as the product of a participatory design methodology. We discuss narratology, multiculturalism, embodiment and collaboration as the cornerstone ideas underpinning the design of Mobeybou. We also show how storytelling is envisioned as implying the creative use of the multicultural and multimodal information that is offered to users in the form of constraints and open-ended options. A pilot study, carried out with twelve 8-year-old children, has validated these design options and offered interesting insights for its further development. Here, we present the interface and discuss the feedback provided in the user study.