Gamebooks, Reading, and Media Education. Experiences in Interactive Digital Writing.

Abstract

Interactive literature includes gamebooks, which achieved wide popularity and commercial success during the second half of the twentieth century. After a period of decline, interest in this narrative form has resurfaced, supported by the spread of accessible digital tools that facilitate the design and development. Recent studies highlighted their educational and training potential. This paper reports four gamebook design and development workshops using Twine, carried out following the same blueprint across with groups of pre-service teachers and lower secondary school students in Italian-speaking Switzerland. Through mixed-methods case study design, combining teachers’ observations, the analyses of participants’ outputs, and pre- and post-activity questionnaires, provides insights on its motivational and learning impact, with a focus on reading and writing self-efficacy and autonomy. In general, students displayed high levels of engagement and motivation, improved communicative and strategic abilities, and strengthened their reading and writing skills, although in diverse ways across groups and ages. These results suggest that integrating interactive narrative tools into educational settings can support basic and media literacy development while fostering collaboration and learner autonomy.