self-motivation

In the United States, a student in the 20th percentile reads books for 0.7 minutes per day, while a student in the 98th percentile reads 65 minutes per day (Cunningham & Stanovich, 1998). For the last four years, with 300 children from Title 1 schools and the Boys & Girls Club, we researched how to create digital texts that better cognitively engage struggling readers using psychophysiological sensors, eye tracking, and co-creation. This research led to the creation of Wonder Stories. Wonder Stories’ texts motivate students to critically think by immersing students in frequent, story-based questions. As a response to children’s low motivations during COVID19, we added a social competition to Wonder Stories – answering questions correctly gave points in a trivia-like game. When struggling readers were given Wonder Stories, students mentally showed up: their participation increased, readers were more cognitively engaged with the material, and students were critically thinking about the text more often. This study suggests that interactive, question-based reading shows great promise to increasing children’s participation and engagement in middle-grade reading.

(Source: The work's own abstract)

This short paper is an excerpt from my major research project, a knowledge translation project which seeks to create an accessible interactive fiction piece to teach self-motivation strategies utilized by women athletes. This project consists of an interdisciplinary literature review and interviews focused on how women self-motivate as amateur athletes in Muay Thai. This data will then be used in a knowledge translation project involving a game creation, including writing a script for the game based on the interviews to encompass a "typical" woman fighter in Muay Thai, inputting this script into the Twine program to generate a playable game, and doing a quality assurance roll out to ensure the game works in its technical aspects. This paper focuses on audience and accessibility, and how new media storytelling can be a pedagogical tool as well as entertainment. By using a narrative, arts-based approach as the framework, the goal of the project is to communicate with consumers on an emotional level in a meaningful way. The heart of this project is accessibility. As a knowledge translation project, this interactive fiction piece seeks to bridge the gap between the general public and the academic world. Additionally, many people cannot attend Muay Thai due to geographical location, fitness level, or not being able-bodied, but could benefit from the strategies these women athletes use. In what has been dubbed “the age of anxiety,” self-motivation strategies would potentially serve as a preventative tool for a person with mental health issues or an overaccumulation of stress.

(Soucre: ELO 2018 Conference: Lightning Talks: Fight Like a Girl: Digital Storytelling For Self-Motivation Strategies Used By Women Athletes in Muay Thai Panel)