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visiting each other's virtual homes and temples and, in SAGE's spirit, by
engaging them in programming conversational interactions between their
characters and other users.
Lessons learned
Zora's design was a result of my previous experience with both SAGE and Kalei-
dostories. In the same spirit as SAGE, in Zora children can program storytelling
interactions for their characters to engage in conversations with the visitors.
However, the natural language parsing is simpler and WordNet is not used to
augment keywords. In Zora, as well as in Kaleidostories, narrative is the prin-
cipal medium to form a community. Children can tell stories as well as con-
tribute to the collaborative values dictionary. However, communication is both
a-synchronous and synchronous. Real-time chat facilitates exchanging points
of view in discussions.
The three-dimensionality and the navigation around the city have certain
similarities with popular video games. The kids do not see Zora as educational
software but as a captivating game. Kids had lots of fun with it, which is im-
portant to keep them engaged, and at the same time were able to explore as-
pects of their identity and values as well as discuss issues relevant to the Zora
communityandsocietyatlarge.
Conclusion
As shown through the three identity construction environments presented
above, SAGE, Kaleidostories and Zora, the integration of narrative with com-
putation is a powerful tool to help young people explore identity and values.
Narrative supports the construction of a sense of self by finding coherence be-
tween different aspects and experiences. It can also serve a healing function by
allowing people to reflect back on their experiences and tell and re-tell their
story (White & Epston 1980). Computation allows users to become designers
of a context in which to engage in storytelling interactions, “what if ” situations
and real-time communication.
The research described in this chapter shows the potential of computa-
tional tools, particularly identity construction environments, for educational
and therapeutic interventions that seek to foster self-awareness, personal cul-
tivation and multicultural understanding. It also provides a new way of con-
ceiving moral and civic education in the light of new technologies. There is a
