In times of an accelerated digitalization of schooling, many traditional media formats continue to frame and convey what is perceived as possible and feasable configurations of their digital counterparts. The conventional model of the paper textbook still prevails in the design of digital textbooks (Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development [UNESCO MGIEP], 2019, p. 30). During emergency remote teaching, the model of centralized, dyadic classroom discourse often predefines the use of videoconferencing tools. And, as has been voiced by critics, the kind of reinforcement learning that has underpinned early mid-century teaching machines, may still frame today’s uses of data-based educational technology (Knox et al., 2019). In the meantime, as the media environments for children are rapidly changing, there are increasing calls for media education efforts to counter the expansion of digital participation gaps (Hargittai & Jennrich, 2016; Jenkins, 2009), to account for difficulties related to the deeper processing of digital texts (E-Read, 2019; Wolf, 2018) as well as for the promotion of a more critical and reflective engagement with digital media (Emejulu & McGregor, 2016). These challenges can’t be resolved through technology alone, without addressing the continuous prefiguration of a narrowed horizon of "possible (thinkable) classroom procedures and acceptable role-performances" (Thumlert et al., 2015, p. 788). Thus, an ecological perspective is needed to enact new relations of agency and capacity within a cultural-pedagogical domain.

In this context, the proposed paper explores the pedogical potentials of educational media that can be referred to as "digital born" interactive artifacts (Hayles, 2008, ch. 1). In recent years, a distinctive line of research has evolved that is concerned with the conceptualization and design of "interactive digital narratives" (IDNs) (Koenitz & Eladhari, 2019) that can span (among others) from interactive hypermedia, narrative video games, alternate reality games, hypertext novels to participatory performances. What is more, it is argued that IDNs have a potential as a means of representing, experiencing and comprehending complex phenomena (Koenitz et al., 2020). (Murray, 2016) distinguishes 4 expressive affordances of digital environments that these works typically make us of. They involve (1) the procedural exhibition of rule-based behavior while the user is enabled to (2) participate in and influence the unfolding of narratives. The (3) encyclopedic affordance refers to the seemingly inexhaustible extend of coverage and detail in digital representations, which are not limited by physical factors, while the (4) spatial affordance refers to the possibility of coherent navigation through digitally organized contexts. Accordingly, the paper presented here concentrates on the following research question: "What kind of competencies and pedagogies can be supported through the use of interactive digital narratives?"

The concepts presented in this paper are part of preliminary design considerations within a longer design-based research project (McKenney & Reeves, 2012) that aims to produce a specific kind of interactive digital narrative (realized with the open source tools such as "Twine") as open educational resources (OER) to be introduced in media education contexts with younger (primary school) students (age 8-11). Methodologically, educational design research ensues as a process "in which the iterative development of solutions" to a particular problem provides also "the setting for scientific inquiry" (McKenney & Reeves, 2013, p. 131). Therefore, it also seeks to gain insights into "frameworks for learning, affordances of tools, domain knowledge and contextual limitations" of an effective intervention (Anderson & Shattuck, 2012, p. 16). In the context of this paper presentation, the focus lies on possible theoretical design propositions and principles that can be derived from first proof-of-concept works.

The use of new expressive affordances in educational media can have many implications. They may allow to combine guided exploratory learning, scaffolded reading and creative processes as well as improve the student’s experience of agency. Therefore, possible results can be connected to lines of research that highlight the imaginative aspects of reading as embodied cognition (Trasmundi & Cowley, 2020), to game-based learning (De Castell, 2011) and expanded forms of digital storytelling (Ohler, 2013). At the same time it is necessary to attend to possible limitations that prevent teachers and educators from using and adapting interactive narratives.

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