Towards a model of technology and literacy development: Story listening systems

This article lays out a program of research designed to address one specific need of young children—to learn how to write—based on one specific ability of young children—the ability to tell stories. The model underlying this research program describes how non-screen-and-keyboard-based technologies that listen to children can be used to support their emergent literacy behaviors and have an effect on their subsequent writing skills. Four components comprise the model: the importance of emergent literacy behaviors, which are features of literate language that are demonstrated in children’s oral language; the critical role played by a socially situated peer; the design of non-keyboard-based computational technologies; and the potential of information technologies that encourage construction rather than consumption. This article presents information about one kind of technology that fits the model—the story listening system (SLS)—and describes a number of implemented SLS and an evaluation of their use by children. D 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.