INTERACTED seeks to promote integration of interactive digital narratives (IDN) or storytelling -narrative in digital media that changes according to user input (Ferri et al., 2015) for socio-emotional intelligence and empathy of students, enabling school teachers to deliver high quality inclusive digital education. Zhao, Zhang, and McDougall (2011) propose an Emotion-Driven, Interactive Digital Storytelling approach, whereby the player’s emotions, as a driving force, motivate the story forward and contribute to their experience directly and explicitly. In this context the objectives of INTERACTed, are as follows: (a) To enhance school-teachers' digital capacity in use of interactive digital narrative tools for socio-emotional intelligence and empathy in their everyday classroom routine; (b) To enhance the capacity of educators to safeguard for the inclusive nature of digital learning experiences, through practical how-to-guides and tools; (c) Promote students' engagement with innovative digital tools and strengthen their socio-emotional intelligence and empathy; (d) Promote awareness on the potential of interactive digital narratives to develop student’s emotional intelligence and empathy capacity.
Covid-19 has deepened the severity of the need for digital transformation and to learn how to learn effectively in this ‘new normal’. There is specific focus to develop and/or use high quality digital content such as innovative online resources and tools, while safeguarding the inclusive nature of the learning experiences. This requires meaningful professional development of teachers, to be confident in using the affordances of technology. INTERACTED seeks to promote integration of interactive digital narratives (IDN) or storytelling -narrative in digital media that changes according to user input (Ferri et al., 2015)- for socio-emotional intelligence and empathy of students, enabling school teachers to deliver high quality inclusive digital education. When Smith and Lazarus’ theory is applied to interactive digital storytelling, emotions can act as the driving force to motivate narrative evolution (Zhao, Zhang, and McDougall, 2011) who propose an Emotion-Driven, Interactive Digital Storytelling approach, whereby the player’s emotions, as a driving force, motivate the story forward and contribute to their experience directly and explicitly.