Browsing by Author "Blomberg, Eeva"

The aim of the research was to investigate the possibilities of an augmented reality (AR) application as a digital storytelling tool to support children's emotional skills in preschool. Previous studies have shown the versatile utilization opportunities of AR in education. However, the use of AR applications for learning emotional skills has been relatively unexplored. The research aimed to answer questions about how children recognize and name emotions, as well as how they express the cause-and-effect relationships of emotions while interacting with a child partner using the AR application and presenting the stories they created with the help of the AR application. The research's purpose is to increase knowledge about the possibilities of AR in emotional education in preschool and to develop new innovative teaching practices in the field. The research involved the development, pilot testing and qualitative analysis of a teaching intervention, in which 14 preschool students learned emotional skills using an AR application as a digital storytelling tool. The research data was collected by videorecording the preschool group's work in AR emotionworkshops and analyzed using content analysis. The research can be characterized as a qualitative design based research, where the design model of AR emotionworkshops served as the research design. In the children's AR stories where they recognized and named emotions, two narrative forms were observed: stories where the agent was the child themselves and stories where the agent was an imaginary character. Three-quarters of all episodes involving the recognition and naming of emotions were related to emotions experienced by imaginary AR characters. These stories mainly addressed emotions of anger, sadness, and fear. In the children's narratives where they recognized and named emotions while portraying themselves as the agent, joy was predominantly expressed. Working with tablet computers together with a child partner facilitated interaction and peer learning among the children during the AR emotionworkshops, and they supported each other in recognizing and naming emotions. Through play and imagination, the children reflected their everyday emotional experiences by portraying cause-and-effect relationships of emotions in their stories. The findings of the research align with previous studies on children's AR play, where the real world, the mirror world of AR, and the story world allow children to explore real world experiences in a mirror world through imagination and play.