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Urban Griots Playground

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A Co-Design Approach to Developing Children’s Literacy and STEAM Skills Through Digital Drum Talk

Design-based research is used as a paradigm for investigating learning through the systematic study of instructional strategies and tools. However, there are few studies addressing early childhood interventions that include children. This workshop focuses on music-based, participatory design research approaches for engaging children in literacy and STEAM learning, challenging dominant cultural conceptions and pedagogical practices related to children’s agency in learning. The project focuses on the design of the Urban Griots Playground (UGP) series of technology-driven family workshops that leverage multimodal pedagogies (oral/aural, visual and kinesthetic) for exploring how interactive, music-based activities that have shown promise in stimulating literacy behaviors can be developed and applied to actively engage children around STEAM concepts. The findings that will result from this work will enrich theory and practice in the fields of early childhood education, music technology and literacy research by documenting the design applications and epistemic implications of digital orality systems.

View the project website.

By

Pierre-Valery Tchetgen

Urban Griots Collaborative Director & CfD Bridges Fellow

CfD Team Member

Estefania Ciliotta

Urban Griots Collaborative Members

Natalie Chen, Jane Effanga, Dillan Hoyos, Angela Rhee and Kevin Zhan

Students

Nikita Saner

Partners

CAMD Music Department

Research Areas

Design + Education, Design + Music, Design + Conversation

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