GamAll: playing beyond boundaries - gamification and multimodal literacy

Abstract

Interactive story apps are becoming popular, especially among children. Due to its multimodality, interactive story apps offer a good opportunity to promote the development of cognitive and language skills. Here, we present the theoretical framework and the initial design decisions that support the development of a pedagogical game, which aims at enhancing students’ reading competences related to multimodal texts. The game complements Mobeybou in Brazil, an interactive story application directed to pre and primary school children and a digital manipulative that aims at promoting young children’s literacy, especially focusing on the development of language and storytelling competences in the context of multiculturalism. The development of the game follows a design-based research methodology and a user-centered approach. The conceptualization and the development of the game, as well as of the Mobeybou story app, are informed by theories of embodiment, socio-constructivist and constructionist theories, as well as multiliteracies and multimodality theories.