EAGER: Creative IT: Hyper Drama Storytelling: Engaging and Nurturing Creativity in K-12 Students

这项研究探索了扎根想象力的概念，在这种概念中，创造力植根于知识，并由经验启发。如何在K-12学生中培养和培养这样扎实的想象力？为了解决这个问题，这个项目将开发和部署一个讲故事的系统，用于创作和与超级戏剧互动。它融合了列夫·维果茨基提出的理论，即创造力涉及一个组合想象的过程，通过这个过程，一个人从编码在日常概念中的先前经验的元素和新的文化传递的信息中为自己创造新的东西。这将创造力置于两个发展流中：智力发展(以知识和经验的形式获得基础)和灵活的重新组合过程。从社会文化参与的角度来看，创造力是一种更大范围的文化和社会话语。从这个理论基础出发，这个项目探索了创造力低谷(从四年级到中学)是否可能发生，因为社会文化意识先于智力发展，因此学生认为自己是一个不充分的贡献者。促进超戏剧创作将允许学生利用他们在超媒体和戏剧呈现方面的经验，从而培养组合的创造力过程。在这项研究中，学生将构建非线性超叙事，其中通过叙事树的每一条路径代表一条单独的叙事弧线。每个节点表示沿叙事时间线的一个事件，称为故事片段，可能发生在一个或多个地方。每个地方的发生都以动画戏剧场景的形式发生。因此，讲故事变成了一个创作故事的过程，伴随着超叙事，以及每个场景(包括人物、活动、动画、场景和对话)中的内容和发生的事情。该项目将测试该系统，并通过在罗阿诺克县学区的小学、初中和高中班级部署不同版本的创作系统来解决两个科学问题。故事构建的复杂性和内容的种类将根据每个级别的学习目标进行分级。这项研究将对这些学生进行为期两年的跟踪，因为他们在小学、初中和高中之间过渡。两个关键问题是：1.采用超级戏剧模式的情景讲故事过程如何支持创造性想象力？2.如何吸引媒体饱和世界中的一代学生成为创造性参与者，而不是数字媒体的被动消费者？当前的研究目标是加强和培养K-12学生的创造性过程，这对社会具有重大意义。更具创新性的劳动力对国家和个人的成功都至关重要。此外，创造力对于所有的学习都是必要的，包括数学和科学。通过解决创造力的基本过程，该项目可以对包括STEM在内的所有领域的学习产生积极影响。更直接的是，超叙事的显式结构，以及资源(图形、动画、角色等)的集合。对于每个超级戏剧节点，明确说明数学、科学和工程所需的算法和控制流机制。第二，培养小学生、初中生和高中生的科研兴趣。第三，这项研究的软件和智力产品将通过出版物和开放源码机制广泛传播。

This research explores the concept of grounded imagination where creativity is grounded in knowledge and informed by experience. How might one nurture and cultivate such grounded imagination in K-12 students? To address this question, this project will develop and deploy a storytelling system for authoring and interacting with hyper-dramas. It incorporates the theory advanced by Lev Vygotsky, that creativity involves a process of combinatory imagination by which an individual creates new things for herself from elements of prior experience encoded in everyday concepts and new culturally transmitted information. This situates creativity within two developmental streams: intellectual development (acquiring grounding in the form of knowledge and experience), and the process of flexible re-combination. The aspect of social-cultural engagement suggests that creativity is a discourse with the larger culture and society. Drawing from this theoretical foundation, this project explores whether the creativity trough (decline in creativity from the 4th grade through middle school) may occur because social-cultural awareness precedes intellectual development so that the student judges herself an inadequate contributor. Facilitating hyper-drama authoring will allow students to draw on their experience in hyper-media and dramatic presentation, and thus nurture the combinatory creativity process. In this research, students will construct non-linear hyper-narratives in which each path through the narrative tree represents an individual narrative arc. Each node represents an occurrence along the narrative timeline, called a story fragment, that may happen in one or more places. The occurrence in each place takes the form of an animated dramatic scene. Storytelling, then, becomes a process of authoring the story along with the hyper-narrative, and the content and goings on within each scene (including the characters, activities, animation, scenes, and dialogue). This project will test the system and address two scientific questions by deploying different versions of the authoring system in classes at the elementary, middle, and high school levels within the Roanoke County School District. The complexity of stories constructed and the kinds of content will be graduated to match the learning goals within each level. This research will follow cohorts of these students over a period of two years as they transition between elementary, middle, and high school. Two key questions are: 1. How does a situated process of storytelling employing a hyperdrama model support creative imagination? 2. How does one engage a generation of students in a media-saturated world to become creative participants, rather than passive consumers of digital media? The immediate research aim, to enhance and nurture creative processes in K-12 students, has significant implications for society. A more innovative workforce is critical to the success both of the nation and of the individual worker. Furthermore, creativity is necessary for all learning, including mathematics and science. By addressing the fundamental process of creativity, this project can positively impact learning of all domains including STEM. More directly, the explicit construction of hyper-narratives, and the assembly of resources (graphics, animation, characters, etc.) for each hyper-drama node make explicit the algorithmic and flow-of-control mechanisms necessary for mathematics, science, and engineering. Second, the will develop interest in scientific research among elementary, middle, and high school students. Third, the software and intellectual product of this research will be disseminated broadly through publications and open source mechanisms.