Mobile alone-together walks in an intergenerational research study

From January until May 2021, Harriet Hand, Mark Shillitoe and I have conducted an intergenerational research study with two undergraduates at the University of Bristol and children in a Year 4 (8-9 year-olds) classroom in Delft, the Netherlands. To conduct the research, we staged synchronous and asynchronous events using multimodal and multisensory mapping as a method to analyse analogue and digital engagements. The goal of this kind of research is to step back to explore our creative processes online and offline – how they differ and how they are alike. Mapping and multimodal text-making is a way to understand these creative processes more deeply and replicate them in other studies and teaching and learning contexts. This way of working emerged from our observations about teaching and learning online and our constant movements on and off screens in our homes and out in the community and nature. These digital-analogue movements were also part of the fabric of Covid-19 life.