Digitizing El Laberinto Mágico: Integrating Technology and Culture in an After-School Program’s Online Maze

• In Event: La Clase Mágica: Generating Transworld Pedagogy

Abstract

The objectives of the session are to share the development of La Clase Mágica (LCM) culturally-relevant maze using an interdisciplinary team approach. LCM is an afterschool program that brings together Latina/o school children (protégés) and undergraduate students, as aspirantes, in an informal learning environment. El Laberinto is the magical maze that provides the structure for interactions and activities in LCM. In the original version by Vásquez (2003) and her colleagues at the University of California, San Diego, the maze was presented in a paper-based format. El Laberinto was sometimes an elaborate box construction that provided participants with supplies to construct a road map, which led to a series of games and activities, mostly commercial computer games. In bringing LCM to a university in Texas, the undergraduate bilingual teacher candidates in our program and research study are the aspirantes, who meet weekly with the protégés during LCM sessions at a local elementary school.
Using an interdisciplinary case study approach, we examine the development of our maze. According to Repko, Newell, and Szostak (2012), interdisciplinary case studies examine complex problems using a team approach; as such each of us brought our expertise and experience while working in harmony to explore and create our culturally relevant maze. Interdisciplinarity by its nature required that we weave a common understanding from our various disciplines; thereby we integrated various theoretical lenses: funds of knowledge theory (González, Moll, & Amanti, 2005; Vélez-Ibáñez & Greenberg, 1992); play theory (Garvey, 1990; Vygotsky, 1977, 1986); and intrinsic motivation theory (Lepper & Malone, 1987; Malone, 1981). Based on Vásquez’s work (2003), we have reinvented LCM for 21st century bilingual, bicultural learners by digitizing the learning experience. In this paper, we describe how an interdisciplinary design team—consisting of two instructional technologists, two computer programmers, two teacher educators/professors at UTSA, and two local bilingual teachers—reinvented Vásquez’s El Laberinto for 21st century bilingual, bicultural learners. The design team integrated technology and culture by producing an interactive digitized maze for LCM that is reflective of the linguistic and cultural resources of the population being served. This innovative design and implementation of El Laberinto for learning and teaching takes children on a new and more magical journey into a digital world that reflects and validates their language and culture.
Included in this discussion are the scholarly benefits in bringing together stakeholders with different areas of expertise as well as the challenges in designing and developing an educational product that is functional, user friendly, interactive, and appealing to young bilingual children of the 21st century. We offer a candid description of the design and development process and how our own theoretical frameworks informed the maze’s creation. Finally, we share preliminary responses from users who have interacted with the digitized maze, while our closing remarks reflect our hope for others across the country to develop online tools that are grounded in children’s local communities, cultures, and languages.

Author

• Patricia Sanchez, The University of Texas - San Antonio