LOCATION:
Room 337F
Ryder Hall
Boston, MA 02115

CONTACT:
Pierre-Valery Tchetgen, PhD
Faculty Fellow
College of Arts, Media & Design
Department of Music
Northeastern University

WELCOME

Research at the Urban Griots Collaborative investigates the affordances of embodied and rhythmic practices and communication tools that support children's acquisition of multimodal literacy skills.

Methods for this design-based research agenda include new instruments for musical expression, rhythm-based gaming applications, hybrid ecologies of learning and a series of family literacy workshop interventions motivated by the following questions:

  1. What are the impacts of embodied learning environments, activities and games using the Urban Griots approach on children’s multimodal literacy skills development?
  2. What are the impacts of the same approach on children’s socioemotional development?
  3. What are the impacts of this approach on children's family relations?
  4. How can this research be adapted to help children with learning disabilities (autism spectrum disorder, speech/visual impairment)?

Our Vision is:

  • to support the early literacy, social and emotional development of all children
  • to understand what affordances the drum language communication modality can contribute to children’s development, especially when mediated via a digital embodied learning environment.
  • to prototype the design of culturally-grounded technologies that can facilitate the inclusion of relevant cultural knowledge and history to provide new gains for children across a variety of subjects
+ We're looking for gaming developers interested in exploring rhythm-based literacy learning via mobile applications, digital instruments and embodied learning environments for interactive music experiences. Contact me if you're interested.
+ Are you the parent of a 3 to 6 year old child who is currently in the process of learning the alphabet, enjoys music or dance, and likes to play video games? Sign up for the Urban Griot Playground here.