Narrative Learning Environments

Narrative, in the form of stories and narrations, is a natural mode of communication and expression, familiar to children from a very early age and frequently used also by adults. For this reason, it has often been informally employed, both in and outside school, to facilitate understanding and raise learners' interest, therefore supporting learning in both its cognitive and motivational aspects. As a consequence of this interest to consciously using narrative in education, many different technology-enhanced learning environments (TELE) have been developed, in which a narrative activity plays a central role to facilitate learning. They are called Narrative Learning Environments (NLEs). Based on the literature and on a qualitative analysis of some well-known examples, this paper describes the characterizing features of NLEs, highlighting their relation with the learning afforded.