Untangling the complexity of designing tools to support tangible and digital intercultural story telling in troubled times: a case in point

In this paper, we present a descriptive case study of the Mobeybou materials, a kit of tangible and digital tools aimed at offering young children opportunities to read, create and share intercultural stories. The tools comprise a set of story apps that present interactive, multimodal and intercultural stories for children to make meanings with, a digital manipulative (DM) and a storyMaker (a digital replication of the DM) that offer the possibility for embodied, collaborative and creative construction of stories by the children themselves. After presenting the materials, we describe how they evolved as an interface of convergence of several complementary theories. By doing this, our major intention is to contribute to the understanding that the design of tools and technologies aimed at creating meaningful and inclusive opportunities for digital story telling in troubled times is a complex, demanding endeavour, but can also be a powerful tool to address the complexities of the troubled times we are living in.