The Digital Interactive Learning Theater in the Classroom for Drama-based Learning

Abstract

Learners may have better achievement in learning if they could experience the scenarios of the textbooks in a classroom. Many scholars advocate drama-based learning as the practice of situated learning. However, traditional drama-based learning would encounter several difficulties including the time-consuming scenario construction and the laborious preparation of costumes and stage props. In this study, we propose the Digital Interactive Learning Theater (DILT), providing performers a mirror-like way of performing. The DILT is to integrate technology into drama-based education and to transform the content of the textbooks into drama scenes so that teachers and students may conduct drama performance in a regular classroom and achieve situated learning. Furthermore, we gradually introduce the interactive digital elements into the theater and expect to maintain students’ learning motivation in the long-term use of the DILT. In this study, we applied the DILT to formal English curriculum in an elementary school and examined students’ learning after long-term use. In addition, we adopted the idea of immersion in the research in order to further realize whether students would be absorbed in the situated scenarios when conducting drama-based learning. The experiment result demonstrated that students preferred the DILT compared with the non-interactive Digital Learning Theater (DLT). The statistics on immersion also revealed that learners were maintaining their motivation in the DILT even in the second year of using the learning system. We may conclude that the interactive elements have motivated students in learning even in the long-term use of the DILT.