Our Story is not only a fun app for supporting children’s literacy activities, but also a great research tool. Researchers from across the world have used the app for various research projects:

• Dr Nicola Grove and Jane Harwood (OpenStorytellers Charity, Frome, UK) included the app in their story-telling intervention for children with special needs
• Dr Victoria Cooper (Open University, Milton Keynes, UK) used Our Story in a gaming project as a means to elicit ‘talk’ with children and for them to create dialogues/stories about self
• Prof Joanna McPake and Christine Stephen from Strathclyde and Stirling University (Scotland, UK) used the app in two Gaelic-medium nurseries and found that the app has potential to support the development of children’s Gaelic language and early literacy skills
• Prof Cremin, Prof Swann, Dr Flewitt, Dr Faulkner and Kucirkova (Open University, Milton Keynes, UK) used the app in a research project into children’s storytelling and story acting funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and commissioned by MakeBelieve Arts
• ‘Brilliant Stories’ project (London, UK), funded by the Community Learning Innovation Fund and led by Family Learning Haringey Adult Learning Services, supported by Rajni Kumrai, Vipin Chauhan and Rupesh Shah, encourages parents, carers and children to make up their own stories and tell them using the app. The project aims to keep the art of storytelling alive by using the latest technology and aims to create communities of parent and carer champions across Haringey
• Prof Cremin, Prof Messer and Kucirkova are currently documenting the app’s potential for supporting children’s and teachers’ reading, across year groups and curriculum in a primary school
• Prof John Siraj-Blatchford and Hui-Yun Sung in public libraries in Taiwan.
• Professor Carmel Houston Price and a pan-European team have used the app to provide young children with information about vegetables as a way to encourage healthy eating.

If you would like to use the app for your own research, or would like to tell us about your own research or need some advice or tips, we are happy to help. Just drop a line to Prof David Messer.