Engaging children to voice their sense of place through location-based story making with photo-story maps. Issue 2 (3rd March 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Martz, Corey J.; Powell, Rebecca L.; Wee, Bryan Shao-Chang
• Is Part Of: Children's geographies. Volume 18:Issue 2(2020)
• Page Start: 148
• Page End: 161
• Publication Date: 2020-03-03
• Subjects: Photo-story maps -- sense of place -- mobile application -- children -- voice; Geographical perception in children -- Periodicals; 305.23
• DOI: 10.1080/14733285.2019.1685073
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1473-3285

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Sense of place is neither linear nor rooted in time. One way for children to voice their sense of place is through location-based stories with plots structured in space, rather than time. Since mobile devices are already ingrained in the everyday lives of many children in the U.S., a mobile application offers a familiar medium to engage children in location-based story making. Here, we present photo-story maps, our approach to leveraging an existing story-map mobile application as a research tool to collect and analyze children's stories about sense of place. We found that photo-story maps facilitate the organization of nonlinear location-based stories, promote an inclusive story-making process through a mobile application, support triangulation of varied digital story elements, and provide dynamic interview material. We suggest photo-story maps demonstrate the value of location-based story making and the potential of familiar mobile applications for reducing the barriers to including children in research.