Emotion-based digital storytelling for risk education: Empirical evidences from the ALICE project

Getting citizens prepared to emergencies, and especially children, is an essential issue which requires special attention in the educational process. Many evidences show that misconceptions about natural disaster and incorrect beliefs are often the basis for misguided actions that can lead to inefficient behaviours in case of dangerous events. Then school has a major role in the development of 'disaster-aware' citizens, since it is asked to design appropriate resources and select suitable methods able to guarantee retention and progression of the learning process. Teaching emergency preparedness involves studying several complex topics and more than some studies have shown that storytelling can be an effective method for teaching subjects that are intricate in nature. The educational technology considers research on construction of digital storytelling as an educational challenge. Digital narratives even gain noticeable importance when users' emotions are taken into account. Basing on these considerations, we propose in this work an adaptive, dynamic and narrative-based digital artefact in which emotions are used to rebalance the learners' status. We experimented this learning resource to teach earthquake preparedness in Italian secondary schools. © 2014 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.