Promoting visualization innovation by sketching e-storybooks for primary
students

Janice Jih Hueyching, Tseng Yi-lan, Lee Tsai-ying and Liu Yi-fan
National Hsinchu University of Education
Hsinchu City, Taiwan

Sternberg's triarchic theory of human intelligence includes analytical (componential), creative (experiential) and practical (contextual) facets -- all of which we need for success in life. However, schools provide far fewer opportunities for creative experiences than for analytical learning.

The researchers utilized a series of 'idea inspiration' e-forms on a website, as well as e-storybooks, as thinking tools to facilitate the innovation process among fifth and sixth grade pupils in an elementary school in Taiwan. The pupils in this study were asked to select any interesting goods found in their daily lives and try to produce innovative new goods for particular target users. To support the creative thinking process, a series of e-forms transformed from worksheets were provided via the Web. Finally, each pupil sketched his or her 'dream-goods' on e-storybooks as a visualizing tool for describing all the possible scenarios between the target users and the invented new goods. The scaffolding features of rich pictures and narratives in each e-storybook helped the subjects to think through and express their ideas, and so their innovation processes became vivid.

A mixed research method approach, including observation, interviews, a questionnaire, e-form content and e-storybook collection was employed. The results revealed that the theoretical and practical implementation of the e-storybook as a visualization tool not only helped elementary students to generate a large number of innovative thoughts, but also gave them more confidence in their 'idea-inspiration' while looking into the possibilities of new features in daily goods. However, the pupils and teachers drew attention to some major barriers in using e-storybooks as innovative thinking tools, namely: (a) insufficient opportunities for pupils to use the computer laboratory and websites; (b) lack of time for teachers to design creativity enhancement teaching plans; (c) lack of experience and role models in e-storybook utilization for pupils and teachers; and, above all, (d) lack of administrative support for curriculum reform.