Guidelines for Building Narrative Learning Environments

If we think of Technology Enhanced Narrative Learning Environments (TENELs) we usually think of learning environments for children and young people. But this kind of environment is also suitable for grown-ups. A Technology Enhanced Narrative Learning Environment for children and young people is one which uses a narrative approach, i.e. it is an environment which presents a story to people with which they can interact to varying degrees, depending on the environment. Some TENLEs even allow the user to create complete new stories. TENLEs are designed for different purposes. The purpose may just be that of entertainment, but there are also TENLEs that pursue an edutainment or even a purely educational goal. Very broadly speaking, edutainment or educational goals aim at helping children, young people and grown-ups with their development and with their learning. Evidently, there is an intricate relationship between human development and learning. Both are processes that help human beings to not only survive in the environments into which they are born; development and learning processes also enable human beings to adapt to a changing environment - which is mainly a social environment, to cope with the problems that life presents and to even reach a stage where living becomes an enjoyable. In this guide, we first present two contributions that discuss the issue of human development, learning and the use of Technology Enhanced Narrative Learning Environments at a more general level. In the ensuing chapters, we look at Technology Enhanced Narrative Learning Environments from different points of view, and we finally let the reader have a glimpse at Technology Enhanced Narrative Learning Environments that are already in use.