The project:
The I’M IN TALES Erasmus+ project is aimed at sustaining teachers in finding new and innovative educational strategies to foster learning and inclusion. The project main goal is to outline and disseminate a ready to use-methodology for storytelling educational practices that integrates tangible and multisensory materials with digital reality, namely Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs).
The benefits of TUIs for engaging the learners in storytelling practices is related to the high degree of interactivity of the system. The user interact with sensors augmented tangible objects like cards, blocks, smelling jars, learning toys, namely the Tangible Interfaces. These interaction produce another interaction with a digital device and allow a high level of engagement.
Another advantage is the full personalization of the interaction between the user and the system. The user plays and learns with the exercises balanced to its learning level, allowing an incremental learning and in continuity with the target and the classroom activities. In addition, the high level of TUIs flexibility allows to interact with every kind of object, even the personalized ones.
Moreover, TUIs’ multisensory approach has an intrinsic innovative and inclusive nature: the exploitation of tangible objects that stimulate all the senses (touch, hearing, smell and taste) allows the application of these tools for disabled and not disabled people. Particularly, it is naturally addressed to children with sensory impairments, which learning is based on residual senses, but also to children with autism spectrum disorders, intellectual disabilities, or other developmental disorders.
