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

这项研究探索了基于想象力的概念，其中创造力是基于知识和经验的。如何在K-12学生中培养这种基于基础的想象力？为了解决这个问题，这个项目将开发和部署一个故事系统，用于创作和与超级戏剧互动。它结合了列夫·维果茨基（Lev Vygotsky）提出的理论，即创造力涉及到一个组合想象的过程，通过这个过程，个人可以从日常概念中编码的先前经验元素和新的文化传播信息中为自己创造新事物。这将创造力置于两种发展流中：智力发展（以知识和经验的形式获得基础）和灵活重组的过程。社会文化参与的方面表明，创造力是与更大的文化和社会的话语。在此理论基础上，本项目探讨创造力低谷（从四年级到中学创造力下降）是否可能因为社会文化意识先于智力发展而发生，从而使学生认为自己是一个不足的贡献者。促进超级戏剧创作将使学生利用他们在超媒体和戏剧表演方面的经验，从而培养组合创作过程。在这项研究中，学生将构建非线性超叙事，其中每条路径通过叙事树代表一个单独的叙事弧。每个节点代表叙事时间轴上的一个事件，称为故事片段，可能发生在一个或多个地方。每个地方发生的事情都以生动的戏剧场景的形式呈现。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（包括角色、活动、动画、场景和对话）中的内容和进展。该项目将测试该系统，并通过在罗阿诺克县学区的小学、初中和高中班级中部署不同版本的写作系统来解决两个科学问题。故事的复杂性和内容的种类将分级，以匹配每个级别的学习目标。这项研究将在两年的时间里跟踪这些学生，因为他们从小学、初中到高中过渡。两个关键问题是：1。采用超戏剧模式的故事叙述过程如何支持创造性想象力？2. 在一个媒体饱和的世界里，如何让一代学生成为有创造力的参与者，而不是被动的数字媒体消费者？当前的研究目标是提高和培养K-12学生的创造性过程，这对社会具有重要意义。一支更具创新力的劳动力队伍对国家和个人的成功都至关重要。此外，创造力对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，该项目可以积极影响包括STEM在内的所有领域的学习。更直接地说，超叙事的明确构建，以及每个超戏剧节点的资源（图形、动画、角色等）的集合，明确了数学、科学和工程所需的算法和控制流机制。第二，培养小学生、中学生和高中生对科学研究的兴趣。第三，本研究的软件和智力产品将通过出版物和开源机制广泛传播。

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.