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The role of iPads in pre-school children’s mark making development
Abstract
The increased acquisition of touch-screen technologies, such as tablet computers, in both homes and schools raises important questions about their role for very young children’s learning and development. Their inherent touch-based interaction offers new opportunities for mark making practices, which are linked to literacy development, through the emergent process of using marks as symbolic representation. This paper reports a comparative study of touch-based interaction using a tablet computer versus traditional physical paint and paper. Children aged 2-3 years engaged in a free finger painting activity and colouring in activity in both paper and digital environments. Video data of their interactions was used to develop a coding scheme for analyzing touch-based interaction, providing insight into how the use of fingers and hands differed in each environment, the different types and qualities of touch that were engendered, and the composition of the final paintings produced. Findings show that while the tablet computer limited the number of fingers used for interaction, its material affordances supported speed and continuity, which led to more mark making, and different 'scales' of mark making extending the range of mark making practices. At the same time it limited the sensory experience of physical paint and resulted in more uniform final compositions. The findings are discussed in terms of shaping young children’s mark making, the implications of the use of touch screen technologies in literacy development for educational practitioners and technology design, and key future research directions.
... On the other hand, if used with caution Price et al. 2015), interactive media may contribute to child development (Price et al. 2015; Council on Communications Media. Media and young minds 2016; Radesky et al. 2015;Russo-Johnson et al. 2017;Anderson and Subrahmanyam 2017;Skaug et al. 2018), especially in the domains of language and fine motor (Souto et al. 2020) during early childhood . ...
... On the other hand, if used with caution Price et al. 2015), interactive media may contribute to child development (Price et al. 2015; Council on Communications Media. Media and young minds 2016; Radesky et al. 2015;Russo-Johnson et al. 2017;Anderson and Subrahmanyam 2017;Skaug et al. 2018), especially in the domains of language and fine motor (Souto et al. 2020) during early childhood . ...
... The healthy use of interactive media as a learning resource has been discussed in the literature . Previous studies pointed out that the use of interactive media can positively contribute to child development (Price et al. 2015;Radesky et al. 2015;Russo-Johnson et al. 2017;Anderson and Subrahmanyam 2017;Skaug et al. 2018;Souto et al. 2020) if used sparingly . Accordingly, a recent study showed positive results of using interactive media for domains of child development, especially language and fine motor coordination (Souto et al. 2020) in early childhood children ); thus, if used with caution, tablets and smartphones may improve preschoolers' knowledge (numbers, alphabets and colors learning). ...
Access to environmental opportunities can favor children’s learning and cognitive development. The objectives is to construct an index that synthesizes environmental learning opportunities for preschoolers considering the home environment and verify whether the index can predict preschoolers’ cognitive development. A quantitative, cross-sectional, exploratory study was conducted with 51 preschoolers using a multi-attribute utility theory (MAUT). The criteria used for drawing up the index were supported by the literature and subdivided in Group A “Resources from the house” extracted from HOME Inventory including: (1) to have three or more puzzles; (2) have at least ten children’s books; (3) be encouraged to learn the alphabet; (4) take the family out at least every 2 weeks. Group B “Screens” (5) caution with using television; (6) total screen time in day/minutes. Group C “Parental Schooling” (7) maternal and paternal education. Pearson correlation analyses and univariate linear regression were performed to verify the relationship between the established index with cognitive test results. The index correlated with the total score of the mini-mental state exam (MMC) and verbal fluency test (VF) in the category of total word production and word production without errors. Multicriteria index explained 18% of the VF (total word production), 19% of the VF (total production of words without errors) and 17% of the MMC. The present multicriteria index has potential application as it synthesizes the preschooler’s environmental learning opportunities and predicts domains of child cognitive development.
... 6 Em relação ao desenvolvimento cognitivo, o contato precoce da criança com a mídia pode promover o desenvolvimento de competências de literácia digital, importante para os aspectos cognitivos do desenvolvimento. 26 Huber et al. 27 estudaram crianças de quatro a seis anos que jogaram torre de Hanói na versão físico e outro grupo que usou a versão em tela e encontraram melhoria significativa na resolução da tarefa, independentemente da versão (touchscreen vs. versão física). Os autores concluíram que as crianças são capazes de transferir a aprendizagem de dispositivos de tela sensível ao toque para o mundo dos objetos reais. ...
... No aspecto do benefício das mídias no desenvolvimento de habilidades motoras finas há controvérsia. 22,26,28 Em um estudo experimental, os autores compararam o desenvolvimento das habilidades motoras finas entre crianças que usavam tablets com aquelas que faziam atividades motoras finas no contexto real. Os pesquisadores encontraram que a precisão motora fina e a destreza manual melhoraram em crianças que não usaram o tablet se comparadas com aquelas que usaram. ...
... 28 Entretanto, outros autores encontraram associação entre uso de tablet e melhoria nas habilidades motoras finas. 22,26 Price et al. 26 destacaram semelhanças entre o ambiente virtual da tela do tablet e o ambiente físico da tela de pintura. Os autores encontraram movimentos semelhantes nos dois ambientes, como a batida leve (tapping), traços circulares e retos. ...
Objectives
(1) To develop an index that allows the measurement of the quality of interactive media used by children in early childhood. (2) To verify whether there is an association between the index and cognitive development, expressive language, and fine and gross motor development.
Methods
A quantitative, cross‐sectional, exploratory study with 103 children, aged 24 to 42 months, evaluated by the Bayley Scale of Infant and Toddler Development. The criteria for the index were selected from the literature: (1) media use by parents; (2) time of daily media use; (3) media type; (4) what do you use the media for; (5) who do you use the media with (6) monitoring (limits time, content, interacts during use); (7) purpose of use; (8) parents’ opinion of the media. For development of the multicriteria index, the multi‐attribute utility theory was applied, and Spearman correlation and simple linear regression (p < 0.05) were used to verify the association between the index and child development.
Results
The index showed a positive and significant correlation with child development in the following domains: language (r = 0.40, p < 0.001), cognitive (r = 0.23, p = 0.04), and fine motor = 0.22, p = 0.04). Simple linear regression analysis showed that the use of interactive media accounts for 22% of language development (p < 0.001).
Conclusion
The multicriteria index developed to verify the quality of interactive media used by children in early childhood showed that it has the potential to be used. The positive and significant associations between the quality of interactive media use and child development was verified, mainly regarding language.
... Several studies have found an association between using interactive media, such as a touch screen tablet, and improving manual dexterity in 2-3 year olds [35][36][37]. Bedford et al. [35] showed that there was a significant correlation between the age of first touchscreen use and the achievement of fine motor milestones and suggested that infants who actively use a touchscreen earlier also develop earlier manual dexterity abilities. In addition, interventions using interactive media such as video games have been shown to be effective in improving childhood movement disorders such as cerebral palsy [38] and developmental coordination disorder [39]. ...
... Here, visual bias alludes to the focus on visual information when visual and tactile stimuli are given almost simultaneously [40], rather than giving tactile information important for manual dexterity in isolation [41][42][43][44]. In addition, although studies have examined the effects of using interactive media such as a touch screen tablet on children's manual dexterity [26,[35][36][37], the effects of general media viewing, including passive media, on manual dexterity have not been clarified in children. In addition, an increase in visual bias has been shown to lead to a decrease in manual dexterity in children with motor impairment [45,46]. ...
... However, other studies have reported discrepant results to Lin et al. [26]. Several previous studies demonstrated that the use of tablets is significantly associated with an improvement in manual dexterity, emphasizing the similarities between the virtual environment on the tablet screen and the real physical environment [35][36][37]. Therefore, the type of media used also seems to affect manual dexterity. ...
Although the media can have both negative and positive effects on children’s cognitive and motor functions, its influence on their perceptual bias and manual dexterity is unclear. Thus, we investigated the association between media viewing time, media preference level, perceptual bias, and manual dexterity in 100 school-aged children. Questionnaires completed by children and their parents were used to ascertain media viewing time and preference levels. Perceptual bias and manual dexterity were measured using the visual-tactile temporal order judgment task and Movement Assessment Battery for Children—2nd edition, respectively. There were significant positive correlations between age and media viewing time and between media viewing time and media preference level. There was also a significant negative correlation between visual bias and manual dexterity. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that increasing visual bias was a significant predictor of decreasing manual dexterity. Further, children with low manual dexterity showed significant visual bias compared to those with high manual dexterity, when matched for age and gender. The present results demonstrated that, in school-aged children, although viewing media was not associated with perceptual bias and manual dexterity, there was a significant association between perceptual bias and manual dexterity.
... The preschool stage is an important period for children to develop their motor, language, cognitive, and social-emotional skills. Using tablets in early childhood may be a risk factor that affects the growth and development of infants and children (American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), 2016), and using a touchscreen tablet or mobile device may affect the development of fine motor skills and visual perception in preschool children (AAP, 2011;Lin, Cherng, & Chen, 2017;Price, Jewitt, & Crescenzi, 2015). However, the real effects of using tablets on the development of young children remain unknown because there has been little dedicated research in this area. ...
... When children manipulate toys or objects with their fingers and hands, this requires a high degree of coordination of muscle physiology, joint stability, visual perception, and haptic perception (Case-Smith & Exner, 2015). In contrast, only basic actions are needed for using a touchscreen device, such as tapping, doubletapping, pressing, sweeping, dragging and zooming (Price et al., 2015). These activities involve less muscle strength, coordination, and dexterity than grasping objects, drawing, handwriting and manipulating toys or objects (Mangen & Velay, 2010). ...
... Moreover, the actions involved when using a touchscreen tablet are different from those required for common activities of daily living. The use of a touchscreen tablet does not provide abundant kinesthetic and haptic feedback of movements (Price et al., 2015). A plausible explanation for the different relationship patterns is that the experience of developing visual perception and fine motor skills while using a touchscreen tablet may result in changes in neurophysiological functions (Venetsanou & Kambas, 2010). ...
Background:
Numerous touch-screen applications designed to support visual perceptual skills and fine motor development for young children are available.
Objectives:
This study aimed to investigate whether or not there were differences between children using tablets and non-tablets in visual perception and fine motor skills and to examine the association between visual perception and fine motor skills in two groups.
Methods:
This study had tablet and non-tablet groups, each with 36 typically developing preschool children.
Results:
Children in the non-tablet group yielded significantly higher scores in the subtests of visual discrimination, visual memory, spatial relationships, form constancy, visual figure ground, fine motor precision, fine motor integration, and manual dexterity than those in the tablet group. The association between visual perception and fine motor skills demonstrated different patterns in the two groups.
Conclusion:
There are differences in visual perception and fine motor skills between children using tablets and non-using tablets. Different patterns of association relationship support the need for occupational therapists to consider the underlying mechanism.
... The iPad has technical affordances, such as a camera and technology to work with multimodal content and in addition a plethora of software applications. These affordances make the tablet an interesting tool for virtual making activities with young students to support the relationship between the students' cognitive and emotional engagement and their learning (Price, Jewitt, & Lanna, 2015;Golland, 2011;Gonyea & Kuh, 2009). The affordances of the technology and software combined influence the ways in which the students interact with the device and the content, offering affordances to communicate and create. ...
... This equally depended on their skills in using Minecraft on the iPad and their negotiations during their design and making. In these activities, the sense of touch and its importance in mark making and literacy development was noted (Price, Jewitt, & Lanna, 2015). This was noticeable, when the students started collaborating and storying during their making effort, spinning stories and creating sporadic literacy events at distinct locations within the game world, such as the creation of an animal hospital (Figure 9.5). ...
... In general, writing and drawing require greater motor and cognitive development than simple touch gestures. Children start scribbling around the age of 2 years [14]. In [15], Rémi et al. studied the way children aged 3-6 years perform scribbling activities, concluding that there are significant differences in motor skills depending on the age. ...
... Fractal Dimension (FD) [Higuchi's Algorithm with m=5] 14 Maximum Fractal Length (MFL) log( 19 Mean of Radial Difference Per Radian ...
This article presents a comprehensive analysis of the different tests proposed in the recent ChildCI framework, proving its potential for generating a better understanding of children's neuromotor and cognitive development along time, as well as their possible application in other research areas such as e-Health and e-Learning. In particular, we propose a set of over 100 global features related to motor and cognitive aspects of the children interaction with mobile devices, some of them collected and adapted from the literature. Furthermore, we analyse the robustness and discriminative power of the proposed feature set including experimental results for the task of children age group detection based on their motor and cognitive behaviors. Two different scenarios are considered in this study: i) single-test scenario, and ii) multiple-test scenario. Results over 93% accuracy are achieved using the publicly available ChildCIdb_v1 database (over 400 children from 18 months to 8 years old), proving the high correlation of children's age with the way they interact with mobile devices.
... For young children, drawing with a finger may be motorically simpler than manipulating a drawing instrument that requires a certain level of finger strength and fine-motor control (Braswell & Rosengren, 2008). Compared to using finger paints on paper, drawing with a finger on a tablet computer may enable children to engage in longer, more continuous marks on the surface (Price, Jewitt, & Crescenzi, 2015). Additionally, the increased tactile feedback of drawing with a finger (vs. ...
... Thus, it seems that drawing with a finger requires less motor control than drawing with an implement (marker, stylus), enabling children in our sample with relatively low fine-motor skill (younger children, boys) to produce more codable drawings (Braswell & Rosengren, 2008). This is consistent with previous research demonstrating that preschool-age children draw more continuous marks and show greater gains in letter writing when using their finger on a touchscreen than when using other mediums (Patchan & Puranik, 2016;Price et al., 2015). While drawing with their finger did seem to increase the younger children's ability to produce drawings, this advantage did not translate into producing higher quality images. ...
Young children's growing access to touchscreen technology represents one of many contextual factors that may influence development. The focus of the current study was the impact of traditional versus electronic drawing materials on the quality of children's drawings during the preschool years. Young children (2-5 years, N = 73) and a comparison group of adults (N = 24) copied shapes using three mediums: marker on paper, stylus on touchscreen tablet, finger on touchscreen tablet. Drawings were later deemed codable or uncodable (e.g., scribbles), and codable drawings were then scored for subjective quality on a 4-point scale. Girls and older children (vs. boys and younger children) produced more codable drawings; however, this gap closed when children drew with their finger on a tablet. Medium also affected the quality of adults' drawings, favoring marker on paper. Thus, drawing on a tablet helped younger children produce drawings but resulted in lower quality drawings among adults. These findings underscore the importance of considering environmental constraints on drawing production. Moreover, since clinical assessments often include measures of drawing quality, and sometimes use tablet computers for drawing, these findings have practical implications for education and clinical practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
... La question se pose de savoir si cet effet peut être généralisé à d'autres tâches graphomotrices telles que le dessin. Les études dans ce domaine rapportent des effets mitigés.Certaines recherches montrent que la tablette tactile peut promouvoir les arts graphiques et les compétences de dessins d'enfants de 3-6 ans dessinant sur tablette avec un stylet, ou dès l'âge de 2-3 ans en dessinant au doigt sur la tablette(Price, Jewitt, et Crescenzi, 2015). D'autres études, au contraire, révèlent des résultats négatifs concernant l'apport des tablettes tactiles numériques. ...
Les technologies numériques sont omniprésentes dans le quotidien des enfants et adolescents. Les technologies interactives comme les tablettes tactiles semblent particulièrement attractives et faciles d’utilisation, apportant des bénéfices sur les apprentissages scolaires. La question se pose alors de savoir si ces avantages peuvent s’observer également pour d’autres formes d’activité ne faisant pas l’objet d’un apprentissage. Dans ce cadre, nous nous intéresserons aux activités créatives. Bien que la créativité soit conçue comme un phénomène de nature multifactorielle, les composantes sensorimotrices n’ont été que très peu intégrées dans le processus créatif. Pourtant, Dietrich et Haider (2015) ont récemment suggéré que le processus permettant de générer une idée créative emprunterait le même mécanisme que celui utilisé pour contrôler une action réalisée ou imaginée au travers de la prédiction sensorimotrice. Les afférences sensorielles étant centrales dans le contrôle de l’action sensorimotrice, elles pourraient être considérées comme des facteurs constitutifs de la créativité. Selon cette proposition, il pourrait être suggéré que modifier les afférences sensorielles disponibles dans une tâche pourrait moduler la créativité. Dans cette thèse, nous interrogeons cette relation entre créativité et sensorimotricité. Au travers de 4 études expérimentales, nous avons fait varier les afférences sensorielles disponibles dans une tâche créative en faisant dessiner des enfants et adolescents de 6 à 15 ans sur tablette tactile au doigt, au stylet, et sur papier au stylo. Les résultats montrent effectivement qu’augmenter les afférences sensorielles en utilisant le doigt sur tablette tactile améliore l’originalité à tout âge. En revanche, réduire les afférences sensorielles lors de l’utilisation du stylet n’amène pas aux mêmes effets sur les performances d’originalité selon l’âge des participants. Chez les enfants de 6-7 ans, utiliser le stylet sur tablette tactile ne modifie pas les performances d’originalité. Après 8 ans, les enfants réalisent des dessins plus originaux au stylet sur tablette tactile qu’au stylo sur papier. L’effet bénéfique du stylet sur les performances créatives à partir de cet âge pourrait s’expliquer par l’acquisition de la capacité à compenser la perte d’afférences sensorielles qui permet de maximiser les informations sensorielles, apportant ainsi des bénéfices sur l’originalité. Ces bénéfices de la tablette tactile s’observent également chez des adolescents qui, du fait de troubles du comportement, présentent des difficultés dans la mobilisation de leurs capacités cognitives. De plus, ces adolescents rapportent une préférence majoritaire pour l’utilisation du support tactile en comparaison du support papier, qui serait lié à une plus grande mobilisation sensorielle dans la production des gestes graphiques sur l’interface. Nous discutons de l’implication de ces résultats pour la nature du processus créatif et son développement, ainsi que l’utilisation d’afférences sensorielles pour aider les enfants et adolescents typiques, comme atypiques, à mobiliser plus efficacement leurs capacités cognitives.
... A South Korean study reported increasing societal and economic tension that digital play brings into homes, changing parental practices for preparing a child for competitive education and the job market [38]. The research reports tablet use among preschool children [10,11] daily [39] for a set of activities like viewing a video, viewing family photos, digital storytelling [28,40], music creation [41], and art and drawing skills [42]. Applications are becoming widespread in early childhood [43][44][45]. ...
Digital technology affordance has been recognized as a social and learning tool, and the requirements for digitalizing the kindergarten curriculum have been present for decades. Digitalization in a child’s early years can present conflict with parents, as the societal and economic demands of digitalized society for a child’s digital technology use are in dissonance with guidelines and recommendations of health organizations that caution against preschool children’s technology use. Kindergarten curricular reform in Slovenia was conducted in the 1990s. In this period, the use of digital learning technology and digital play for the development of children learning predispositions and early literacy was already recognized. At the time of curriculum design, it integrated some elements of digital learning technology. Now, 30 years after the design of the new curriculum, we are facing the post-digital era. Learning technology in the early years is a matter of partnership with parents; accordingly, this descriptive survey study includes a non-randomized sample of 306 parents. We are considering how child’s play is structured in the primary environment and how parents perceive digital technology in the current post-digital age of seamless, digitally saturated social practices. Parents are aware of the risks of technology and of its benefits for learning. The findings show correlations between a child’s digital screen technology use and parents’ attitudes and perceptions of digital play. Parents that offer digital screen technology to a child have less agreeable attitudes regarding its possible risks to a child.
... Perubahan metode finger painting dari konteks fisik ke digital Finger painting tidak terbatas pada media kertas. Studi terdahulu melaporkan bahwa anak usia 2-3 tahun bisa saja terlibat dalam kegiatan finger painting berbasis lingkungan konvensional dengan kertas maupun lingkungan digital dengan bantuan gaget (Price et al., 2015). Dalam penelitian tersebut dijelaskan bahwa jari dan tangan digunakan secara berbeda di setiap lingkungan. ...
Seni mendorong anak untuk bereksplorasi dan bereksperimen dengan berbagai macam media atau bahkan tanpa media di luar tubuhnya. Eksplorasi dan eksperimen ini penting sebagai strategi belajar bagi anak untuk memperoleh pengalaman yang bermakna. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui bagaimana dampak penggunaan metode finger painting terhadap perkembangan seni anak usia dini. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian studi literatur. Teknik pengumpulan data penelitian ini didapat dari informasi jurnal yang dianalisis berdasarkan masalah yang diteliti. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa ada empat tema yang muncul dalam analisis data penelitian ini. Keempat tema tersebut yakni stimulasi perkembangan seni melalui finger painting, bentuk gambar hasil finger painting pada anak usia dini, warna yang digunakan oleh anak ketika finger painting , dan perubahan metode finger painting dari konteks fisik ke digital. Implikasi dari hasil penelitian ini dapat digunakan sebagai referensi penelitian yang berhubungan dengan seni pada anak usia dini mengingat topik yang sejenis masih sangat terbatas.
... Classifying the social and cultural significances and meanings of embodied experiences of touch provided the starting point for (Cranny-Francis, 2013) exploration of touch and its articulation of 'values, assumptions, and beliefs of individuals and of their culture and society" (p.2). The use of touch has been investigated in a range of educational contexts (Walsh and Simpson, 2014) including touch and touch trajectories in the context of learning with iPads (Crescenzi et al., 2014;Price et al., 2015), and in this special issue, Samuelsson's paper on touch and learning. Samuelsson focuses on a multimodal ethnographic study in a preschool in a diverse community, and examines the role of touch in the translanguaging practices of 2-year-olds. ...
This special issue seeks to provoke, challenge, and inspire more multimodal scholars to
engage with and interrogate touch. Collectively the contributions situate touch as part of a
multimodal and multisensorial experience at the intersection of the body, technology and
environment. The contributions offer different routes to critically explore the social,
sensory and affective roles of touch in a changing communicational and interactional
landscape. They draw on approaches from multimodality, ethnography, material engagement theory, Human Computer Interaction, speculative research, as well as artistic
and design-based research.
To situate the special issue, we give a brief overview of why touch matters and outline
the extended view of touch that informs it. We comment on the challenges of researching
touch and suggest the potential of multimodality as one way forward, and we point to the
benefits of combining multimodality with other approaches.
... Regarding screen-media, 2 possibilities exist. First, these may stimulate FMS development through active and rapid key pressing or swiping movements with the hand and fingers ( Bedford et al., 2016 ;Price, Jewitt, & Crescenzi, 2015 ). Alternatively, the kinds of FMS experiences possible with media devices might be insufficiently complex and varied to stimulate FMS performance on standardized tests, such that FMS development might either plateau (i.e., no effect), or comparatively decline, if children would otherwise be involved in activities supporting FMS (i.e., displacement). ...
Media form an integral part of children's environments and represent, amongst other domains, altered sensorimotor experiences. Fine motor skills (FMS) represent a fundamental prerequisite for learning and cognition and initial work has begun to show links with screen media usage-although work is scarce and the directionality is uncertain. Therefore, using a cross-lagged-panel design with 2 waves 1 year apart, we examined longitudinal links between media usage and FMS in 141 preschool children. Results show a negative cross-lagged path from media usage to FMS, which was also statistically significant when only newer media were examined, after controlling for parental educational attainment, immigrant status , device ownership, age of first use, working memory, and vocabulary. The study contributes to our understanding of links between media usage and FMS development.
... These findings can affirm those of Cadoret et al. [57], which proved that children who spend more time behind the screen have a negative correlation of motor efficiency, that is, the time that a four-year-old spent in front of the screen manifested negatively in terms of motor efficiency, and even after three years, the same participants had shown the same negative correlation. The actions that are performed when using a tablet differ from those required for typical daily activities, and large differences in the use of fingers and hands have been observed in children who draw on paper compared to children who draw on a tablet device [81]. According to Ahearne et al. [82], that is not the case. ...
Motor skill competence of children is one of the important predictors of health because if a child is physically active during early childhood, the possibility of occurrence of many chronic diseases in adulthood will be reduced. The aim of this study was to systematically review the studies conducted in healthy children using the shorter form of the Bruininks-Oseretsky (BOT-2) and to determine the applicability in cross-sectional studies and pre-post designs. The search and analysis of the studies were done in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines. An electronic databases search (Google Scholar, PubMed, Mendeley, Science Direct, and Scopus) yielded 250 relevant studies conducted from 2011 to 2020. A total of 21 studies were included in quantitative synthesis, with a total of 3893 participants, both male and female. Through this study, the BOT-2 test proved its broad applicability, so it can be concluded that this test can be used to improve motor proficiency in a healthy population of children. Hence, it is necessary to invest a lot of time during the implementation of various programs so that children would adequately develop their basic motor skills so they broaden their own repertoire of movements.
... The immediacy and usability of touchscreens (Jewitt et al., 2020;Merchant, 2015) also play a role for young children. Scholars in early childhood studies argue that touchscreens can provide ways for young children to express themselves that are conducive to contemporary society (eg, Arnott et al., 2016;Palaiologou, 2016), and reshape interaction (Price et al., 2015). The current study undertakes an in-depth exploration of the role of touchscreens in reshaping interaction and communication in early childhood educational settings. ...
While interactive touchscreens are currently entering into educational practice, little is known about what this means for learning in early childhood and, in particular, how touchscreens shape action and communication. In this paper, we examine the interactions of 2‐year‐olds and their teachers in a multilingual preschool in Sweden. We analyse the communicative environment between the children, teachers and shared touchscreens and books in the context of reading. A mixed‐methods analysis was used, taking a concept of action that includes both verbal, non‐verbal utterances and digital touch. The analysis shows a reconfiguration to the interactional dynamic where children perform comparable amounts of actions in sessions with the touchscreen and book reading but less talk during the touchscreen sessions. However, while talking less, children display other types of communicative actions. We analyse the changing interactional dynamic that follows, its implications to learning and early childhood pedagogical practice and how interaction can be reconceptualised as cycles of communication and action in which educational scaffolding unfolds.
... Writing with a plastic-tipped stylus on a tablet surface differs from using regular pen and paper, which influences legibility and kinematics. 21,22 Moreover, Case-Smith and Exner 23 stated that children coordinate the intrinsic finger and hand muscles and generate abundant kinetic and sensory input on the action when toys or objects are manipulated. ...
Objectives
This study aims to examine the usage of touch screen time in relation to the visual-motor integration and the quality-of-life in preschool children. Additionally, we compare the difference between children who practiced sports and attended nursery with those who did not attend such activities.
Methods
This study includes a convenience sample of 100 preschool children aged between three and five years. The Peabody Developmental Motor Scale is used to assess visual-motor integration and the Arabic version of the Paediatric Quality of Life Inventory™ generic scale to assess the quality of life (QoL).
Results
The Pearson correlation coefficient equation reveals a negative significant correlation (p = 0.0001) between touch screen usage time and visual-motor integration (r = −0.37), physical (r = −0.38), psychosocial (r = −0.55) and the QoL total score (r = −0.48). Children who practiced sports showed lower visual-motor integration and higher QoL scores than those who did not. Children who attended nursery showed higher visual-motor integration and lower QoL scores than those who were not given the chance to attend these activities.
Conclusion
Increased touch screen usage time was found to adversely affect visual-motor integration and the QoL in preschool children. Practicing sports and attending nursery influence the visual-motor integration and the QoL.
... The use of touchscreens implies that children employ a wider range of touch movements than they do when manipulating paper-based resources. These include tapping, pressing, scratching and, when adding their own drawings and early marks, also using straight and circular strokes (Price, Jewitt, and Crescenzi, 2015). Notably in relation to newer digital books formats, which include augmented reality features, research needs to concentrate on the importance of touch and body for children's cognitive as well as affective response. ...
In alignment with contemporary theoretical models of reading on screen, this review suggests avenues for future multi-method research by drawing on psychological as well as socio-cultural aspects of reading. Experimental and meta-analytical studies can help develop a more refined understanding of the added value of specific new features in digital books. The key contribution of qualitative studies is the theoretical extension they provide to cognitive models of reading, including the focus on socio-emotional outcomes and corporal responses to texts. Interdisciplinary approaches can provide complementary perspectives and convergent recommendations issued to children’s publishing industry and adults mediating their use.
... Nobre et al. (2019) examined the link between interactive media and children's language development and found that utilizing interactive devices accounted for a moderate relationship with language development. Considering emergent writing abilities, Price, Jewitt, and Crescenzi (2015) found that iPads were just as effective as finger painting and drawing in developing mark making skills in two-to-three-year-olds. Using technology to support literacy activities has also changed teachers' perceptions of their children's abilities; that is, teachers were more able to recognize and acknowledge strengths they had not seen before and started to view children as "good drawers" and "good spellers" (Flewitt et al., 2015, p. 305). ...
The integration of technology in the classroom has become commonplace in early childhood education; however, promoting outdoor learning is not as emphasized. A wealth of research has documented how young children learn and develop while engaging with technology or outdoor play, but limited literature exists on balancing these learning experiences to support children’s developmental outcomes. The present paper seeks to review current literature on the effects of technology and outdoor learning on young children’s development. Building off of the relevant literature, this paper will provide recommendations for early childhood teacher educators to guide teachers in training on balancing appropriate technology use and outdoor learning. Given the COVID-19 global pandemic, teaching implications regarding balancing technology and outdoor learning are also addressed.
... No randomized controlled trials with fine motor skills as the outcome were found in the literature. Cross-sectional and comparative studies suggest a relation between the use of interactive media and this skills 26,56,57 . ...
Aim:
to investigate through a systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) the effects of interactive media on the cognitive, language, and motor development of children and adolescents.
Methods:
Searches were performed with the Medline, AMED, Embase, PEDro, Cochrane, Psychinfo, and ERIC databases in May 2017 with updated in July 2020. For the search strategy, we used descriptors related to “randomized controlled trial”, “interactive media” and “children and adolescents up to 18 years old”. RCTs that investigated the effectiveness of interactive media in cognitive, motor, and language development of children and adolescents up to 18 years of age with typical development were included. When appropriate, meta-analyses were conducted using a random-effects model. Pooled data were presented using standardized mean difference and 95% confidence interval. We assessed the quality of evidence using the GRADE methodology and the methodological quality using the PEDro scale. Results: of the trials found, 14 references were eligible for this study. The GRADE methodology was used in 13 RCTs. Estimates showed a low level of evidence of a small effect of media use on cognitive development compared to that in the control group and another intervention. No effect on motor and language development.
Conclusion:
The results of this systematic review do not support claims about the advantages or disadvantages of interactive media in child development. High-quality evidence was found that interactive media is not superior to other interventions for cognitive and language development outcomes and quality of moderate evidence for motor and language development.
... However, when using touch-screen technology, the involvement of motor coordination, muscle strength and dexterity are relatively low when compared to activities such as drawing, handwriting or playing with objects and toys 7 . Touch-screen technology usage reduces the need to use hand skills such as grasping, in-hand manipulation and reaching as it only involves necessary fingers movements such as tapping, pressing, zooming and double-tapping 8 . ...
Background: Little is known on how time spent on touch-screen technology affects the hand skills development of preschool children. This study aimed to investigate the effects of touch-screen technology usage on hand skills among preschool children.
Methods: Case-control design was employed to compare the hand skills of children who were engaged in touch-screen technology. A total of 128 participants aged between five and six years old who attended preschool were recruited and divided into two groups: high usage touch-screen technology (HUTSTG) and, low usage touch-screen technology (LUTSTG). Children's Hand Skills ability Questionnaire (CHSQ) and Assessment of Children's Hand Skills (ACHS) were used to evaluate the children's hand skills.
Results: There were significant differences in the hand skills of preschool children between HUTSTG and LUTSTG. Results showed that preschool children in LUTSTG had better hand skills in all domains of CHSQ (p≤0.001) and ACHS (p<0.001) as compared to HUTSTG.
Conclusion: Frequent use of touch-screen technology might cause disadvantages to the development of hand skills among preschool children.
... Fischer, Lemke, and Schwab 1985;Müller 1998;Johnson, Rickel, and Lester 2000;Jondahl and Mørch 2002). resources that are currently being used, such as iPads (Price, Jewitt, and Crescenzi 2015), picture-book apps (Zhao and Unsworth 2016), websites, CD-ROMs, computer programming applications (Jewitt 2006), and digital environments (O'Halloran 2009). ...
Many researchers agree that awareness of agency and how it is enacted through different participants holds a key role in developing digital literacy. Recognition of the ways in which digital tools can appropriate and shape humans’ semiotic work and even act out roles in communication is part of critical digital literacy. In digital environments, humans interact with the content (not just consume it) through interfaces that may include touchscreen, voice commands, eye movement and hand gesture, often accompanied by non-human agents (e.g. bots). The need to make transparent the hidden design intentions of these non-human liaisons is becoming more and more essential, particularly for formal educational scenarios where digital tools are commonly used.
This study explores how different roles of human and non-human agents in an online environment can be made salient and how teachers can promote learner awareness of hidden agents at the layer of digital interfaces. Drawing on the notion of “exchange structure” from conversational analysis and functional linguistics, audio recordings and re-constructed screenshots are analyzed. Results highlight the actions and intentionality of human and non-human agents that form multimodal turn-taking sequences. Suggestions for developing critical digital literacy pedagogies (CDLP), including making hidden agents more salient, are proposed.
... We undertook four studies to show how the research design, data collection, and analysis was shaped by the multimodal /quasi-experimental approach. One study examined how gesture, fine and gross motor interaction, posture, orientation and gaze were used when collaborative ly engaging in meaning making of science concepts (Sakr, Jewitt and Price, 2014); a second compared pre-school children's touch-based interaction through finger painting on iPads versus paper (Crescenzi, Jewitt and Price, 2014;Price, Jewitt and Crescenzi, 2015); and a third analysed how the design of a digital museum installation shaped young children's bodily interaction and communication (Price, Jewitt & Sakr, 2015;Price, 2017). Drawing on the fourth study of 9-10 year old students engaging in a mobile learning activity to support children's learning about history, we provide an illustrative example that highlights the opportunities and challenges of this methodological integration (also see . ...
... Les études dans ce domaine rapportent des effets mitigés. Certaines recherches montrent que la tablette tactile peut promouvoir les arts graphiques et les compétences de dessins d'enfants de 3-6 ans dessinant sur tablette avec un stylet (Couse & Chen, 2010), ou dès l'âge de 2-3 ans en dessinant au doigt sur la tablette (Price, Jewitt, & Crescenzi, 2015). D'autres études, au contraire, révèlent des résultats négatifs concernant l'apport des tablettes tactiles numériques. ...
L’objectif de la présente étude est d’évaluer si les interfaces tactiles numériques peuvent favoriser l’expression de la créativité graphique. Cette question est posée à deux périodes du développement de la créativité : en classe de CP, où la créativité des enfants connaît un déclin, et en classe de CE2 où, au contraire, elle connaît un regain d’activité (Torrance, 1968). En s’inspirant du paradigme proposé par Karmiloff-Smith (1990), 21 enfants de CP et 14 enfants de CE2 ont eu pour tâche de dessiner un « bonhomme qui existe » (dessin non créatif) et « un bonhomme qui n’existe pas » (dessin créatif). Ces dessins étaient réalisés par tous les enfants au doigt sur une tablette tactile numérique et au stylo sur une feuille de papier. La comparaison des dessins créatifs à des dessins non créatifs révèlent que, si les enfants de CE2 produisent des dessins plus créatifs que ceux de CP, tous les enfants obtiennent de meilleurs scores de créativité graphique lorsqu’ils dessinent sur un support numérique que sur un support papier. Ce résultat est interprété au regard des théories de la cognition incarnée et située, selon lesquelles les fonctionnalités particulières de l’interface numérique tactile induisent un rehaussement du système d’afférences et d’efférences tactilo kinesthésiques qui potentialise la créativité de l’enfant.
... Rough and tumble play was not noted when children were using tablets, but other aspects of bodily play were notable. Children demonstrated a range of fine motor skills when using the tablets, as identified in other studies (e.g.Merchant, 2014;Price, Jewitt and Crescenzi, 2015), such as tapping, swiping, grasping the edges of the tablet and so on. Object and mastery play occurred not only in relation to the tablet as an object of desire in itself, with, for example, 6-month old Tommy's mum reporting that he tried to grab it out of her hands repeatedly, but also in relation to children's attempts to manipulate virtual objects on the screen.Play with tablets also fostered some gross motor skills also in exploratory/ locomotor play, as parents reported their children dancing to music on the tablet, or running to bring objects (usually toys) that related to the on-screen narrative. ...
This paper outlines the key findings of a study developed in collaboration between academics, teachers and children’s media companies. The project was co-produced in that all project partners contributed to the development of the project aims and objectives and were involved in data collection, analysis and dissemination. The aim of the study was to identify children's uses of and responses to apps in terms of their play and creativity. This paper focuses on the digital play with tablets of children aged from birth to three. Ofcom (2019:4) has reported that six in ten of three- and four-year-olds in the UK use any device to go online, with 49% using a tablet for this purpose. This is a large, and growing, market that deserves the attention of researchers (Kucirkova and Radesky, 2017). Given that technology is embedded in children’s lives, playing an important part in their ‘multimodal lifeworlds’ (Arnott and Yelland, 2020), it is timely to consider what value this use has in relation to play and creativity, as both are highly significant to children’s development (Broadhead, Howard and Wood, 2010).
... Some authors have posited that an "educational" app should promote a high level of interactivity (promoting an active role of the child in its use), increase the child's familiarity with technology, be targeted to the child's developmental phase, provide knowledge of results comprehensible for the child, and promote participation and collaboration among peers and with caregivers and educators [16]. If apps are designed with these characteristics, research has indicated that tablet use by preschoolers could promote drawing skills [17,18] and creative thinking [19], filmmaking, music creation, and photography [20,21]. Such well-constructed apps can increase young children's school readiness, or executive function competence, and could have long-term effects [22]. ...
A growing literature is focusing on the possible positive and negative outcomes associated with the use of technological devices and apps (played on smartphones and Ipads) in children in their first five years of life. Apparently, two conflicting branches of literature are accumulating results in this field: (a) studies investigating whether the use of technology has an impact on learning and cognitive tasks (literacy, mathematics, science, etc.); and (b) studies concentrating on the possible effects on the emotional and behavioral functioning of children using touch screen devices (especially in the case of their excessive use).
... Recent work has shown that children's drawings on a touch screen convey far quicker and richer information than drawing on paper (e.g., [18,19]). Traces and marks left on screen could be quantified more accurately given theoretical and empirical understanding on children's motor process [20,21] and drawing strategies [22,23]. However, there are few studies about children's drawing on a touch screen, in particular how they plan and organize their drawings. ...
This research looks into children’s drawing strategies that focus on sequencing and order of strokes for children to produce a seriation object. The drawing strategies were examined according to 6 sets of logical structures that are; (1) embedding; (2) accretion stacking; (3) anticipated embedding; (4) anticipated stacking; (5) partial framing; and (6) full framing. Past work studied these logical structures for drawings on paper and used the traditional method of observation for evaluation. This traditional method is an exhaustive approach and leads to in-accuracies due to human error as a result of ambigous data. To solve this, we extend the work for drawings on touch screen where children’s drawing data were quantified using a novel deep learning hybrid model (Fuzzy string matching optimized with Levenshtein Distance in LTSM - FLSTM) to classify the drawn strategies. We developed a touch drawing application with 8 seriation objects as the drawing task. 32 children of age between 5 and 12 years old took part in this study with a total of 420 drawings collected. Comparative model performance was done between the proposed novel model with existing models such as Long Short-term Memory model (LSTM), Convolution Neural Network model (CNN) and Fuzzy-CNN model for comparison in drawing classification accuracy. The results showed that the proposed novel deep learning hybrid model outperformed other models with a precision score of 89.1%, recall of 88.6% and F1 score of 88.6%. With assistance of the proposed deep learning model, we were able to explore and understand more about human psychological behaviour through the developed children drawing system.
... Should we introduce digital game-based learning to younger kids is a even more controversial question. The research of Price, Jewitt, and Crescenzi discussed the effect of iPads in pre-school children's mark making development (Price, Jewitt, & Crescenzi 2015). According to their experiment results, in that way, kids can do more mark making and the results are not completely bad. ...
The importance of learning how to program can never be over-estimated. Even though there are already programming-learning applications for young children, most of the applications in this field are designed for children in the elementary school age or even above. Teaching younger children, for example, preschool kids, how to program appears more challenging. From our survey, it appears that even preschool kids can understand how to do programming and the question is simply which tools to use. Preschool kids usually start their reading from picture books. They learn mathematics, arts, histories, and a lot of knowledge with picture books. The goal of this research is to propose a platform for story tellers, illustrators, and programming education experts to cooperate to build picture books to teach preschool kids how to program. At this very initial stage, the platform is developed as a Web application and hence it can be easily accessed by various devices via Web browsers. The platform consists of a lean story editor, a picture book editor, and a programming concept editor.
... Namun jika digunakan secara bijak, penggunaan gawai dapat berdampak positif terhadap personal sosial anak [2]. Studi menunjukkan penggunaan teknologi layar sentuh dapat meningkatkan kemampuan anak-anak usia 2-3 tahun dalam praktik menandai obyek [10], serta penggunakaan buku elektronik dapat meningkatkan kemampuan kognitif anak usia dini [11]. ...
Salah satu agenda pembangunan RPJMN IV tahun 2020-2024 adalah meningkatkan sumberdaya manusia yang berkualitas dan berdaya saing. Namun dalam rincian sasaran, indikator dan target tidak target secara spesifik untuk anak usia dini, bahkan permasalahan yang sedang berkembang saat ini yaitu ketergantungan terhadap internet. Pada 20 tahun ke depan, anak usia dini akan menjadi harapan bangsa ini sehingga perlu diperhatikan potensi masalah kesehatan salah satunya perlindungan terhadap penggunaan gawai yang berlebihan. Semangat omnibus law yang dicanangkan pemerintah agar memperhatikan masalah ini
... Research shows that the impact of technologies in learning can be positive. Several studies report positive effects in decision-making and problem-solving capacities (Kim & Cho, 2013;Falloon & Khoo, 2014;Price, Jewitt, & Crescenzi, 2015), in the development of critical thinking (Wood & Jocius, 2014), in independence (Chou, 2013), in collaborative work (Kucirnova, Messer, & Sheely, 2014), in the social relationships among peers and with parents and teachers (Roberts-Holmes, 2013), and even in the expression of emotions (Tanyel & Knopf, 2011). As examples of more concrete results, we highlight the research of Ihmeideh (2013), who reports that a group of preschool children using e-books learned to read more easily than another group of children that used paper books; of Huda et al. (2017) who have concluded that Primary school children with higher digital media literacy and competences displayed more empathy and tolerance towards diversity; and of Qian and Clark (2016), who concluded that game-based learning is effective in facilitating the development of 21 st century skills. ...
In this chapter, we present a longitudinal study which aims to explore the involvement of children up to 8 years old and their families with digital technologies, focusing perceptions and use, during a one-year period. In a first phase, ten families with children up to 8 years old were interviewed. In a second phase, we interviewed eight of the initial ten families. In both moments, children elected the tablet as their favourite device, and their preferred activities were playing games and watching videos on YouTube. Due to an increase in their reading and writing skills, on the second visit to families, we observed that children had become more autonomous in their digital practices, being able to search about their interests and refine such searches. In addition, parents showed more positive perceptions regarding the use of technologies by their kids, promoting their use for scholar searches. The type of parental mediation is related to the parents' perceptions about technologies: parents who consider their use beneficial for more pedagogic purposes, encourage their children, monitoring and supporting them, thus leading to their children using and perceiving the Web as an important tool to explore personal and school interests; parents who hold a less positive view about digital media do not encourage their use, not even for pedagogic purposes, frequently restricting screen-time, and therefore their children use the devices for limited time and mostly for play activities.
... Os smartphones e os tablets foram as mídias mais utilizadas pelas crianças deste estudo, sendo observada diferença estatisticamente significante entre os grupos G2 e G3 em relação à mídia tablet (Tabela 1). Estudos como o de Prince et al. 27 mostram que a utilização do tablet pode potencializar as habilidades motoras finas em crianças de dois a três anos. A Academia Francesa de Ciências, em 2013, 13 trouxe que as funções visuais e táteis do tablet podem ser úteis para o desenvolvimento sensorial e motor das crianças, explorando seu aprendizado, entretanto podem representar riscos por deslocar os infantes de atividades físicas, sociais e emocionais relacionadas à sua idade. ...
Objective:
To describe the prevalence of interactive media (tablets and smartphones) use by children aged two to four years old, as well as to characterize this use, and investigate habits, practices, parents' participation and opinion about their child's interactive media use.
Methods:
A cross-sectional study with 244 parents or legal guardians of children enrolled in daycare centers in a small Brazilian municipality was conducted. A questionnaire based on interactive media use and related habits were applied, and economic level was assessed. Children were divided into three different groups according to media use: Group 1 did not use (n=81); Group 2 uses up to 45 min/day (n=83) and Group 3 uses more than 45 min/day (n=80). Then, they were compared with regard to the sociodemographic variables and media use by the Chi-square test and Student's t-test.
Results:
The prevalence of interactive media use was 67.2%, with a mean time of use of 69.2 minutes/day (confidence interval of 95% - 95%CI 57.1-81.2). The activities most performed were watching videos (55%), listening to music (33%) and playing games (28%). Most parents reported allowing media use in order to stimulate their child's development (58.4%), accompanying them during use (75.2%), and limiting media time (86.4%).
Conclusions:
We observed high interactive media use prevalence. The predominant way of using these devices was marked by parent-child participation. Most parents reported believing in the benefits of interactive media. Passive activities were more frequent, with restricted time of use.
... Articles for the analysis were selected applying the inclusion criteria (any country, the article in English, 2-3 year-old children, touch screen devices, use of the smartphone, tablet) and exclusion criteria (technologies are used for children with special needs, literature survey). Based on the analysis of articles (Price, Jewitt & Crescenzi, 2015;Cristia & Seidl, 2015;Ahearne, Dilworth, Rollings, Livingstone & Murray, 2016;O'Connor & Fotakopoulou, 2016;Nevski & Siibak, 2016), a questionnaire was developed for parents. ...
The Portuguese Ministry of Education developed a collection of three stories for supporting kindergarten teachers in exploring the theme of online safety with preschoolers. These stories were created in book and digital animation formats. The authors took these three stories to three kindergartens to test their efficacy in scaffolding learning and acquisition of digital skills. This exploratory pilot case study revealed several insights worth pursuing in further research: 1) kindergarten teachers acknowledge that children are digitally immersed at home and consider that exploring the theme of online safety with young children is imperative; 2) in spite of enjoying digital media very much, children were more attentive and retained more information when they were told the stories using the books than when they watched the digital animations, claiming that they “connected” more easily with the storyteller. In the future, the research will provide guidelines for the development of more pedagogical materials on online safety and test them in kindergartens on a national scale.
Penelitian ini menggunakan studi kualitatif dimana berfokus pada penyelidikan bagaimana sekelompok anak prasekolah berusia tiga tahun menggunakan aplikasi menggambar di perangkat android. Aplikasi yang dipakai dalam penelitian ini adalah aplikasi Baby Coloring Games For Kids With Glow Doodle. Penelitian ini melalui kegiatan observasi pada PAUD Al-Furqon (R.A. Holis) Cangkring Jenggawah. Aplikasi mewarnai pada perangkat android tersebut tampaknya mendorong anak-anak untuk menjelajahi warna dan melapisi dan mengisi layar android. Selain itu, anak prasekolah bisa melukis bentuk dan garis yang sangat tepat, dimana tampaknya memudahkan anak prasekolah dalam pembuatan pola juga penemuan tanda dan hubungan. Anak prasekolah menggunakan alat penghapus untuk mengoreksi, mengungkapkan, menghapus, dan membuat bentuk pada layar android. Bila dibandingkan dengan kegiatan mewarnai secara manual atau tradisional, penggunaan aplikasi mewarnai menjadi pilihan utama dikarenakan tingkat kepraktisan serta hasil yang lebih rapi dan bersih. Namun harus ada orang dewasa yang mendampingi anak prasekolah saat menggunakan aplikasi tersebut. Hal ini terkait dengan jarak baca antara mata dengan perangkat android, serta lama waktu penggunaan perangkat android.
Aim:
This study determined whether higher screen time was associated with the development of 3-year-old children in Taiwan. It also examined whether differences would be found between television and other screen-based media in the probability of lagged development.
Methods:
We examined 2,139 children aged 3 years and their parents. The association between daily screen time was assessed using multiple logistic regression analysis. All the odds ratios (ORs) were calculated using the rates of lagged developmental achievement, with the group who used screens for less than 1 hour a day as the reference category. Screen time comprised television and other screen-based media, such as smart phones, touch screens, computers and laptops.
Results:
Children who used screens for more than 3 hours per day had the lowest developmental scores and highest probabilities of lagged development. The children who used other screen-based media for more than 1 hour per day had greater probabilities of lagged developmental achievements (ORs 1.85-4.98, all p<0.05) than those who watched television for the same amount of time (OR 1.41-2.77, all p<0.05).
Conclusion:
Increased screen time was associated with higher probabilities of lagged developmental achievement in multiple development domains in 3-year-old children, particularly other screen-based media.
This chapter shows how educationalists might (re)conceptualise digital tool use within teaching and learning scenarios as a social practice. This is achieved by focusing on the development of a theoretical and analytical framework for identifying signs-as-agents that was shown to be applicable to other educational tools and scenarios. The chapter illustrates how a Semiotic Technologies approach, that forms the main pillar of the framework, can unite a number of well-established perspectives, from research in Human-Computer Interaction, Social Cognition Theory, Critical digital literacy, Distributed Cognition Theory and be applied to different educational scenarios. This is in order to support a more holistic and critical understanding of agency and agents – both ‘human’ and ‘digital’ – which is relevant for education researchers and practitioners working with STEAM and STEM. Three examples, from various educational, digital scenarios are used to illustrate how the theoretical and analytical framework can be applied. The analysis involves the identification of screen-based signs-as-agents through a focus on initiation and response turns, primarily with the screen. Analysis of the artefacts related to the screen are initially analysed separately from how they are being used in the social practice, following a Semiotic Technologies analytical model. The central contribution of this chapter is a typology of signs-as-agents that has been conceived in order to expand the Critical Digital Literacies teaching and research agenda, specific to pedagogy. The study is aimed at supporting critiques of how digital tools can shape how teachers and learners act, not only how they can think.
To date, there is no known research examining children’s early coding skills in relation to an AR app and little is known about the types of creativity and creative thinking made possible by children’s engagement with coding apps. This chapter reflects on a study concerning four to six year old children’s engagement and learning with the Augmented Reality (AR) coding application Little Red Coding Club. Four case studies, involving thirty children, were conducted in South Yorkshire (UK) early years settings. Video data were multimodally analysed in relation to The Makerspace Learning Assessment Framework (MLAF) and The Early Coding Skills and Knowledge Framework (ECSKF) (Scott F, Marsh J. Young children’s engagement and learning with the Augmented Reality (AR) coding app ‘Little Red Coding Club’. University of Sheffield. https://content.twinkl.co.uk/document/general/twinkl-childrens-learning-with-ar-fnl-28-10-19_1578567254.pdf, 2019). Creative thinking and behaviours were assessed by mapping the MLAF against the A–E Framework of creativity (Murcia K, Pepper C, Joubert M, Cross E, Wilson S. Issues Edu Res 30(4):1395–1417. http://www.iier.org.au/iier30/murcia2.pdf, 2020). Both the affordances of the application (‘place’) and pedagogy of adults (‘person’) were considered. Children were enabled to be creative when equipped with both technical understanding of the conventions of coding and provided with contexts conducive to ‘freeplay’ and the production of their own digital texts and artefacts. Children exhibited many creative skills in their solo or peer engagement with the app. However, other creative skills required suitable pedagogical intervention from an adult.KeywordsAugmented realityCoding skillsCreative coding
In order to find out how 2–3-year-old children use smart devices and what the impact on children's development is, a systematic analysis of literature has been performed. Articles published in the EBSCOhost database during the period 2009–2019 have been selected for the analysis. They deal with studies focusing on 2–3-year-old children and the use of smart devices. The studies describe how 2–3-year-old children use touchscreen devices, as well as summarizing the benefits and risks of using touchscreen devices in the early years. It is concluded that the studies conducted are rather similar regarding form and content. Children use touchscreen devices for similar purposes and with similar time limits. Children under the age of two should not use smartphones and tablets; in turn, 2–3-year-old children should not be denied the technologies, though there should be awareness that use of the smartphone or tablet, along with positive benefits, also creates risks.
Αγγελάκη, Ρ. (2021). «Η Βυζαντινή Κύπρος μέσα από την πληροφοριακή και αισθητική ανάγνωση λέξεων & εικόνων στο πραγματογνωστικό παιδικό βιβλίο γνώσεων». Στο Ε. Κανταρτζή, Γ. Παπαδημητρίου & Χ. Κωσταρής (Επιμ.) Πρακτικά 5ου Πανελλήνιου Συνεδρίου «Εκπαίδευση στον 21ο αιώνα: ανάπτυξη της κριτικής σκέψης, της δημιουργικότητας και της καινοτομίας», Τόμ. Α΄ (σσ.92-99). Αθήνα: Μουσείο Σχολικής Ζωής και Εκπαίδευσης του ΕΚΕΔΙΣΥ, Παιδαγωγική Εταιρεία Ελλάδος, Κολλέγιο Αθηνών.
Touchscreen devices have become commonplace in children’s lives, and a popular activity among young children is the playing of educational games on touchscreen devices. In these games, background music is used by most game developers as an essential element in increasing player’s engagement and interest. The limited research on the effects of background music in educational touchscreen games on young children’s learning has yielded mixed results. In addition, past studies have found that touchscreen experience has an impact on children’s fine motor skills, which are needed for most touchscreen games. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore whether background music and children’s touchscreen experience would influence the effect of playing a touchscreen time telling game on children’s learning to tell time. Seventy two children aged 5–6 years were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions created by crossing two factors - background music while playing the game (Yes or No) and prior touchscreen experience (Yes or No). The results showed that background music promoted learning to tell time among children without touchscreen experience, but had no effect on those who had prior experience. Participants in all conditions were able to transfer the content of touchscreen learning (iPad) to other media (paper clock). The findings have implications for educational game developers, parents, and educators.
Este estudio revisa la literatura científica sobre el uso de tecnologías tangibles en la educación infantil, a fin de: a) identificar qué tecnologías tangibles se han utilizado; b) reconocer los objetivos educativos de la utilización de estas tecnologías y c) presentar una síntesis de la evidencia empírica disponible sobre su efectividad educativa. La búsqueda sistemática fue realizada en la base de datos “Web of Science (WoS)” y se analizaron utilizando la herramienta de software científico “Science Mapping Analysis”. Luego, se incluyeron 29 documentos relevantes de los últimos cinco años en el estudio de revisión. Para cada artículo, se analizó el propósito del estudio, el tipo de tecnología tangible utilizada, el método de investigación aplicado, las características de la muestra y los principales resultados obtenidos. Los artículos revisados sugieren que la principal tecnología tangible utilizada en la educación infantil es la tableta digital y la alfabetización (básica y emergente) es el área más estudiada, y con resultados prometedores.
The aim of this study is to detect the school characteristics/attributes by examining the efficiency of school management related to innovative teaching through digital mobile e-learning. This will be conducted by evaluating the results of DEA efficiency measure and data mining method (DMM).The results of DMM indicate that the schools with the total number of students in schools about 1400-3000 persons, the teacher-student ratio between 7.4 %-8.0 %, the tablet PC numbers about 1200-3000 units, the technical teacher ratio of digital mobile e-learning is about 8%-16% and the total equipment expenses associated with tablet PC about the range of 1.5-3.0 Million NTD could obtain higher operational efficiency of school management through Innovative Teaching via Digital Mobile e-learning. Based on the analytical results, the ranks of school management efficiency could divide into three groups, in the high-efficiency group (TE=1), there are three public high schools and one private higher vocational school. These all high schools are in northern Taiwan. In the medium-efficiency group (TE 0.85∼0.99), there is only one school in northern Taiwan. The low-efficiency school group (TE <0.85), there are three public schools and one private high vocational school. The three public schools are in northern Taiwan while one private high vocational school is in eastern Taiwan. In practice, we find that the public high schools are more efficient than the private high schools and public high schools are more efficient than private high schools that can achieve digital mobile e-learning. Also, and schools located in northern Taiwan more efficient than elsewhere. These research findings can also become a reference for educational institutions in developing strategies and policies for digital mobile e-learning in high school of Taiwan area.
With a growing number of ScratchJr usage, over 19 million users worldwide, we examined the use in the United States of the free ScratchJr programming language, explicitly designed for young children ages 5–7, to learn how to code. Our objective was to explore children’s usage of the ScratchJr tablet app at home and school settings. We analyzed usage data from Google Analytics in 1.5 years, comparing Scratchsr usage in the two different settings. Our dataset comprised a total of 4,352,802 coding sessions, generated by a daily average of 2525 home users and 9969 school users. The results suggested that, although children in both settings on average spent an equal duration with ScratchJr, children in home settings spent more time exploring advanced coding blocks and the paint editor compared to children at school. Further, children at school tended to use similar types of coding blocks across several days. In contrast, children at home were more likely to use a diversity of block categories and difficulty levels. The implications of this research are, first, that usage patterns may help us understand how children across settings learn to program differently. Second, based on these findings, it may be essential for parents at home and educators at school to consider using different approaches and strategies.
Child sexual abuse (CSA) in Indonesia has reached an alarming degree. One of the prevention efforts that can be implemented is educating children and the people around them (parents, teachers, and other school staff). The educational process should be supported with adequate and appropriate media. This qualitative study aimed to identify forms of media needed to prevent CSA by applying a phenomenological approach involving 18 parents of 5-to-6-year-old children, 12 teachers, and seven administrative staff of kindergarten schools in Yogyakarta. Data were collected through focus group discussions and in-depth interviews. At the end of data collection, transcriptions were analyzed through thematic content analysis. Results reveal four media categories needed in providing education against CSA: online platforms, attractive information materials, simple media, and taboo management.
The use of touchscreen mobile devices in early childhood education has gained considerable attention. Several studies have been conducted to investigate the impacts of touchscreen mobile devices on children's cognitive and affective development. Researchers have further indicated the need to probe in which contexts children can learn effectively with touchscreen mobile devices. Therefore, this paper reviewed the studies related to the use of touchscreen mobile devices for children published in the Web of Science database from 2010 to 2019. A total of 45 studies were selected and analyzed based on the technology-based learning model. Accordingly, several dimensions, such as application domain, research method and research issues, and the attitudes of teachers, parents and young children, were taken into account. The results showed that (1) 35% studies applied touchscreen mobile devices for young children's language skills development; (2) the quantitative research method is the most commonly adopted; (3) children's cognitive development received the most attention among all the research issues; and (4) young children generally like to use touchscreen mobile devices to learn. Moreover, teachers' and parents' concerns about young children's use of touchscreen mobile devices are analyzed, and future trends in integrating ICT in early childhood education are discussed.
Starting from a sociosemiotic perspective, the present thesis approaches the social medium of LinkedIn as semiotic technology. The analysis was made feasible by combining a wide range of scientific contributions, starting from the current sociosemiotic trend of semiotic technology and extending my approach to integrate theoretical traditions such as critical discourse analysis, critical sociolinguistics, genre studies, platform studies and contributions inspired by the foucauldian tradition. The qualitative analysis of my data showed that the semiotic technology of LinkedIn contributes extensively in the hybridization and resemiotization of the professional genre colony as well as in the transformation of the social practices of professional networking and job-seeking. What is also highlighted is the discourses the platform tries to construct through the action of actors such as the software and the algorithms. All in all, the present thesis offers a critical view of the technology of social media while acknowledging the fact that institutional education and learning in general should engage with this new reality of platforms, try to interpret it and design apt learning environments that will have a dual goal. First, as language teachers, we should provide our students with the necessary communicational and textual literacies in order for them to be able to cope with societal needs. Second, for our students to be able to critically engage with the world and make their own choices based on their agency.
The Portuguese Ministry of Education developed a collection of three stories for supporting kindergarten teachers in exploring the theme of online safety with preschoolers. These stories were created in book and digital animation formats. The authors took these three stories to three kindergartens to test their efficacy in scaffolding learning and acquisition of digital skills. This exploratory pilot case study revealed several insights worth pursuing in further research: 1) kindergarten teachers acknowledge that children are digitally immersed at home and consider that exploring the theme of online safety with young children is imperative; 2) in spite of enjoying digital media very much, children were more attentive and retained more information when they were told the stories using the books than when they watched the digital animations, claiming that they “connected” more easily with the storyteller. In the future, the research will provide guidelines for the development of more pedagogical materials on online safety and test them in kindergartens on a national scale.
The goal of this research is to find out the factors or Determinants Affecting School Efficiency have the school to implement digital mobile e-learning and future tendency. The empirical results of this research indicate the following results: (1) In this study, we find that Importing digital mobile e-learning can really enhance the efficiency of school management. Furthermore, all these schools are located in Taipei City or New Taipei City. (2) Lastly, we also apply the data mining methodology to find that the teacher-student ratio, tablet PC numbers, technical teacher ratio, the total equipment expenses associated with tablet PC, School location and School attribute are important determinants for affecting the efficiency of school management. On the other hand, When the number of students decreases, too many teachers and technical teachers, as well as redundant equipment, etc., will become a burden on the school. Finally, these factors will affect school efficiency. The results of this research can also be the reference for educational authorities when formulating policies and regulations for promoting digital mobile e-learning. JEL classification numbers: C55, I28 Keywords: Technical efficiency, Digital mobile e-learning, Data envelopment analysis (DEA), Big data application, Data mining methodology.
In our digital society, digital media are fully integrated in most homes, and children start using them very early. Their favorites are mobile devices: they usually start by experimenting with the parents’ smartphones, and several children under 8 years old have their own tablets. Parents are facing the challenge of mediating digital media very early on for the first time and have mixed perceptions and attitudes towards the opportunities and risks of digital technologies. Sonia Livingstone has been working on the notion of “positive online content” for the last decade, supported by other stakeholders such as the POSCON network, aiming to identify and disseminate guidelines and criteria for producing and selecting positive digital content for young children. Our research applies and adapts these guidelines and criteria to mobile media, highlighting the protection of children’s rights (such as privacy), their engagement and participation, and the development of diversified competences. In our empirical work, we set out to identify the criteria used by parents of young children for selecting apps for them, exploring the features that they value the most. As a context, we also explored the parents’ account of their children’s digital practices and of their parental mediation. We conducted an online survey in Portugal to parents of children under 8 years old and obtained a total of 1968 valid answers. Our findings reveal that parents tend to perceive mobile media having their offline experiences as reference: they identify educational with school and traditional formats such as puzzles and building games, overlooking the pedagogical potential of the favorite formats of children, such as simulators. Also, parents do not value technical features such as user experience and interface, or the active participation of children. They are, nonetheless, aware about the possibilities of privacy invasion and commercial exploitation.
In order to find out how 2–3-year-old children use smart devices and what the impact on children's development is, a systematic analysis of literature has been performed. Articles published in the EBSCOhost database during the period 2009–2019 have been selected for the analysis. They deal with studies focusing on 2–3-year-old children and the use of smart devices. The studies describe how 2–3-year-old children use touchscreen devices, as well as summarizing the benefits and risks of using touchscreen devices in the early years. It is concluded that the studies conducted are rather similar regarding form and content. Children use touchscreen devices for similar purposes and with similar time limits. Children under the age of two should not use smartphones and tablets; in turn, 2–3-year-old children should not be denied the technologies, though there should be awareness that use of the smartphone or tablet, along with positive benefits, also creates risks.
This study explored the viability of tablet computers in early education by investigating preschool children’s ease in acclimating to tablet technology and its effectiveness in engaging them to draw. A total of 41 three- to six-year-old children were videotaped while they used the tablets. The study found significant differences in level of tablet use between sessions, and engagement increased with age. Teachers reported high child interest and drawings as typical to above expectation. Children quickly developed ease with the stylus for drawing. Although technical issues in learning this new technology were encountered, children were interested and persisted without frustration. What seems to matter for children’s learning is the ways teachers choose to implement this technology.
Most infants at about the time of their first birthdays or shortly thereafter demonstrate the ability to mark on pa-per with a crayon or other writing instrument (Bayley, 2006; Griffiths & Huntley, 1996; Hresko, Miguel, Sherbenou, & Burton, 1994). During the next several years, infants and toddlers show remarkable progress in their ability to engage in controlled mark making, scribbling, and drawing (e.g., Yamagata, 2001). By three years of age, young children are capable of rudimentary graphic representations of people, objects, and events (Lancaster, 2007). Yamagata (1997, 2007), Levin and Bus (2003) and oth-ers (e.g., Lancaster, 2007; Martlew & Sorsby, 1995) have proposed coding systems for categorizing different types of infant, toddler, and preschooler mark making, scribbling, drawing, and writing. Table 1 shows the major types of draw-ing that emerge between 1 and 5-6 years of age. The multi-level level sequence is based on the above sources as well as descriptions of the development of drawing and writing found elsewhere in the literature (e.g., Akita, Padakannaya, Prathibha, Panah, & Rao, 2007; Di Leo, 1996; Sheridan, 2005). Figure 1 shows examples of the first eight levels of drawing which were the focus of this research synthesis. The two-fold purpose of this research synthesis is: (1) describe the developmental progression in the emergence of infant and toddler mark making and scribbling and (2) exam-ine the factors associated with variations in the acquisition of emergent drawing skills. The first purpose was achieved by estimating the ages at which infants and toddlers attain This research synthesis was prepared as an activity of the Center for Early Literacy Learning funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Edu-cation Programs (Grant #H326B060010). The opinions expressed are those of the authors and are not nec-essarily endorsed by the funder. Special thanks to Dr. Kyoko Yamagata, Kyoto Notre Dame University, Kyoto, Japan, for providing English translations to her research published in Japanese. The development of infant and toddler mark making, scribbling, and drawing was examined in 25 studies including 48 samples of participants. The 25 studies included 1675 infants and toddlers (birth to 42 months of age). A multi-level scale of emergent drawing was used to estimate the average age of acquisition of the different types of drawing landmarks, and comparisons of different characteristics of the types of drawing activities were made to identify the conditions under which early drawing abilities were affected. Results showed that there are discernable age-related changes in infant and toddler mark making and scribbling, and that visual and verbal prompts, collaborative drawing, and the visual conse-quences associated with drawing acts, facilitated and reinforced infant and toddler emergent drawing behavior. Implica-tions for practice are described.
This paper discusses theoretical and methodological issues arising from a video-based research design and the emergent tool ‘Joint Screen’ when grasping joint activity. We share our reflections regarding the combined reading of four synchronised camera perspectives combined in one screen. By these means we reconstruct and analyse multimodal moment-to-moment interaction between young peers engaged in an open-ended baking activity. We rely on a fine-grained analysis of three multimodally transcribed video extracts to highlight how a combined viewing of multiple joint camera perspectives provides access to how participants do joint activity through the simultaneous and continuous use of embodied resources. We argue that ‘Joint Screen’ generates an ‘expanded-around’ view that allows the capture of multimodal interactional processes in their phenomenal depth in time and space.
Young children interact with touch screen tablets at home and this may impact upon emergent literacy. The present study examined home access and use of touch screen tablets, as reported by parents, in Australian pre-schoolers (N = 109) aged 3–5 years and whether this was associated with emergent literacy skills (letter name and sound, numeral identification, print concepts and name writing). Children with greater access to tablets were found to have higher letter sound and name writing skills. No relationships were found between time on tablets and emergent literacy
skills. The quality of experiences rather than time spent on tablets may be important especially when viewed within a socio-cultural framework. Most parents (69%) reported that tablets were easy for their child to operate and believed tablets support early literacy development (70%). 53% believed children should have access to tablets at pre-school. Tablets have the potential to foster emergent literacy although this may depend upon the quality of digital interactions.
In this article I reflect on the insights that the well established traditions of ethnography can bring to the more recent analytic tools of multimodality in the investigation of early literacy practices. First, I consider the intersection between ethnography and multimodality, their compatibility and the tensions and ambivalences that arise from their potentially conflicting epistemological framings. Drawing on ESRC-funded case studies of three and four-year-old children’s experiences of literacy with printed and digital media,1 I then illustrate how an ethnographic toolkit that incorporates a social semiotic approach to multimodality can produce richly situated insights into the complexities of early literacy development in a digital age, and can inform socially and culturally sensitive theories of literacy as social practice (Street, 1984, 2008).
Research related to how young children’s drawings change and develop is well documented and an extensive literature on this area can be traced back to the nineteenth century. Most of this literature, however, focuses on developmental aspects and largely fails to explore what would seem to be an essential ingredient in each drawing’s production—children’s simultaneous utterances which might potentially inform the nature and content of the work and help elucidate their intentions and processes of thinking. In this respect, Kress (199711.
Kress , G. 1997. Before writing: rethinking the paths to literacy, London: Routledge. View all references) suggests that at times it seems as though it is only the end product being interpreted, whilst utterances which could help understanding are ignored; and Jameson (19688.
Jameson , K. 1968. Preschool and infant art, London: Studio Vista. View all references) opines that what children want to do is to talk to themselves in pictures, thereby weaving stories around the marks being made as a parallel to active fantasy play. These may or may not be true, but although the end products are something tangible which can be viewed by other than those present, what they cannot communicate is the social interaction, problem solving, conceptual and creative thinking, predicting, debate and introspection which may well be a fundamental attendant of the process of drawing.The relationship between children’s narrative and their drawing process, therefore, formed the basis for this investigation and built on both previous knowledge and many years of observing young children in early years settings. It focused upon children in the two age phases (three to four year olds—nursery, and four to five year olds—reception class) of the English Education Foundation Stage. Narrative observations were carried out during each drawing episode with pairs of children, and audio recordings were also made to complement these.
This paper presents selected results from an experimental study designed to compare fantasy play in a virtual and physical setting. Twenty-two children (aged 3 and 4) played in same-sex dyads with a real wooden tree house and its virtual implementation on a DiamondTouch tabletop. The study evinced several problems in the interaction with the tabletop as children often struggled to drag the objects displayed on the surface. An error analysis is presented and results are used to propose guidelines for improving the use of DiamondTouch tabletops by young children.
We introduce a design technique, Clear Panels, to design interactive mobile device applications. Using mixed-fidelity prototyping, a combination of low- and high-tech materials, participants refine multiple aspects of a mobile application's design. Clear Panels supports writing and sketching via a transparent overlay affixed atop a mobile device screen. It enables design partners to refine their gesture-based interactions on actual devices. The technique has been successfully implemented in the design of children's mobile applications. The technique leverages and extends longstanding interaction design methods to include mobile and hand-held technologies. Importantly, we show it is effective in raising participants' awareness of key mobile application design issues without constraining their creativity.
The purpose of this study was to describe the relations among mother-child interactions as they relate to written language, attachment security, and the child's performance on a number of emergent-literacy measures. 16 1½-year-olds, 15 3½-year-olds, and 14 5½-year-olds participated in the study. Each mother-child dyad read through 2 books (Dribble and Letterbook) and watched "Sesame Street" fragments about letters and words. The Strange Situation procedure was used to observe attachment security with the youngest group. In the older groups, the children were left on their own by the mother for about 1 hour, during which they were tested and it was observed how the children reacted upon the return of the mother. In addition, each 3½- and 5½-year-old completed 5 emergent-literacy tests. The results suggest that mothers of small children give reading instruction. Furthermore, it is shown that in securely attached dyads, there is less need to discipline; the children are less distracted than in anxiously attached dyads. In addition, securely attached dyads tend to pay more attention to reading instruction and to engage in more proto-reading. Last, children who get more reading instruction and less narration score higher on emergent-literacy measures.
There is a limited literature on pre-school children's experiences with digital technologies at home and little discussion of the ways in which children harness these technologies for their own purposes. This paper discusses findings drawn from three studies that investigated the role of domestic technologies and digital toys and games in young children's lives. Specifically, it focuses on children's early communicative and creative experiences, concluding that digital technologies have the potential to expand young children's repertoire of activities in this context. It is therefore important that pre-school and early years specialists recognise and respond to the expertise children will have already developed by the time they enter formal education, given the increasing technologisation of communicative and creative activities, likely to continue over the life course of those born at the start of the 21st century. © 2012 The Authors. British Journal of Educational Technology
The current study uses path modeling to investigate the relationship between extrinsic and intrinsic factors that influence early childhood educators' digital technology use. Survey data from 1234 early childhood educators indicate that attitudes toward the value of technology to aid children's learning have the strongest effect on technology use, followed by confidence and support in using technology. Additionally, student SES has the strongest effect on attitudes, while support and technology policy influence teacher confidence, which in turn influences attitudes. In contrast, more experienced teachers have more negative attitudes. Overall, the study provides the first path model investigating early childhood educators' technology use and provides practical considerations to aid teachers' use of technology in the classroom.
This paper reports on the adoption of mobile handheld technologies in ten Western Australian independent schools, based on interviews with staff conducted in 2011. iPads were the most popular device, followed by iPod Touches and iPhones. Class sets were common at lower levels, with 1:1 models becoming increasingly common at higher levels. Mobile learning, or m-learning, was still at an experimental stage in most schools, but common themes were already emerging around the need to integrate mobile devices into a broader learning ecology. Key discussions focused on their role in promoting consumption or production, collaboration or personalisation, and creating seamless learning spaces. Used for both organisational and pedagogical purposes, mobile devices were seen as enhancing student motivation, with empirical evidence of improved student learning also emerging in small-scale studies conducted by two schools. Challenges included the need to carefully manage the technology, ethical issues in its use, and staff roles in its deployment. Pedagogically grounded and adequately contextualised professional development (PD) was seen as vital for time-poor staff, while a desire to set up a professional community of practice was widely expressed. All the schools surveyed planned to extend their use of mobile handheld technologies in the future.
A mouse is the input device children principally use to control a computer in schools. However, somewhat surprisingly, there has been very little research investigating the appropriate mouse control strategies for children. In this paper we report two studies which compared children's performance with two basic mouse operations; pointing and dragging. In Study 1 we investigated 7-year-old children (n=24) who were inexperienced with a computer mouse and found that they were quicker and more accurate with pointing compared to dragging. In Study 2 we examined the performance of children (n=90) from three different age groups: young (5–6 years), medium (8–9 years), and older (11–12 years). These children were more experienced with using a mouse. We found that older children were quicker and made fewer errors than younger children regardless of the mouse operation. We also found that younger children were slower and made more errors with dragging than with pointing. There were no differences in performance between pointing and dragging for the other two age groups. The implications of these findings for the design of interfaces for children are discussed.
As mobile devices like the iPad and iPhone become increasingly commonplace, touchscreen interactions are quickly overtaking other interaction methods in terms of frequency and experience for many users. However, most of these devices have been designed for the general, typical user. Trends indicate that children are using these devices (either their parents' or their own) for entertainment or learning activities. Previous work has found key differences in how children use touch and surface gesture interaction modalities vs. adults. In this paper, we specifically examine the impact of these differences in terms of automatically and reliably understanding what kids meant to do. We present a study of children and adults performing touch and surface gesture interaction tasks on mobile devices. We identify challenges related to (a) intentional and unintentional touches outside of onscreen targets and (b) recognition of drawn gestures, that both indicate a need to design tailored interaction for children to accommodate and overcome these challenges.
Describes Apple Computer's Early Language Connections (ELC) program. Designed for K-2 grades, ELC integrates Macintosh computers, children's literature, instructional software, and other curriculum materials, including sample lessons constructed around thematic units. The literature-based product uses a whole-language approach (with phonics activities) and provides teacher training. (MLH)
Even a quick review of U.S. households, daycare centers, and preschools reveals widespread use of digital programs and products with young children. Research indicates that regardless of the hard technology that delivers these digital applications, their content most significantly affects the experience and outcomes. A primary question thus becomes how should parents, teachers, and caregivers select digital literacy content for young children? In this article, a schema has been devised for evaluating digital content using six domains: interactivity, digital literacy, global citizenry, appropriateness, results, and participative nature. The article defines the domains and discusses research-based guiding questions to pose when selecting technology-based emergent literacy materials for young children.
This article investigates very young children's use of a stylus-driven, electronic painting and drawing on the tablet PC. The authors compare their development in the use of this device with their use of other mark-making media, including those which derive from pencil and paper technologies and also with mouse-driven electronic paintbox programs. After experience of using of electronic paint, two of the children were introduced to simple programming software. The authors wanted to find out how the introduction of electronic, digital, interactive devices impact upon children's development in semiotic understanding.
Emergent literacy consists of the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that are developmental precursors to reading and writing. This article offers a preliminary typology of children's emergent literacy skills, a review of the evidence that relates emergent literacy to reading, and a review of the evidence for linkage between children's emergent literacy environments and the development of emergent literacy skills. We propose that emergent literacy consists of at least two distinct domains: inside-out skills (e.g., phonological awareness, letter knowledge) and outside-in skills (e.g., language, conceptual knowledge). These different domains are not the product of the same experiences and appear to be influential at different points in time during reading acquisition. Whereas outside-in skills are associated with those aspects of children's literacy environments typically measured, little is known about the origins of inside-out skills. Evidence from interventions to enhance emergent literacy suggests that relatively intensive and multifaceted interventions are needed to improve reading achievement maximally. A number of successful preschool interventions for outside-in skills exist, and computer-based tasks designed to teach children inside-out skills seem promising. Future research directions include more sophisticated multidimensional examination of emergent literacy skills and environments, better integration with reading research, and longer-term evaluation of preschool interventions. Policy implications for emergent literacy intervention and reading education are discussed.
This research investigates children's use of two common mouse interaction styles, drag-and-drop and point-and-click, to determine whether the choice of interaction style impacts children's performance in interactive learning environments. The interaction styles were experimentally compared to determine if either method was superior to the other in terms of speed, error rate, or user preference, for children. The two interaction styles were also compared based on children's achievement and motivation, within a commercial software environment. Experiment I used an interactive learning environment as children played two versions of an educational puzzle-solving game, each version utilizing a different mouse interaction style; experiment II used a mouse-controlled software environment modeled after the educational game. The results were similar to previous results reported for adults: the point-and-click interaction style was faster; fewer errors were committed using it; and it was preferred over the drag-and-drop interaction style. Within the context of the puzzle-solving game, the children solved significantly fewer puzzles, and they were less motivated using the version that utilized a drag-and-drop interaction style as compared to the version that utilized a point-and-click interaction style. These results were also explored through the use of state-transition diagrams and GOMS models, both of which supported the experimental data gathered.
This paper describes how writing has been integrated into a kindergarten emergent literacy program in classrooms in the San Antonio, Texas area. The idea of "constructing writing " with other activities in the children's lives and with other subject areas in the curriculum prove to be especially important in fostering the kindergartners ' literacy development. Three such connections are described: (1) connecting writing to functional purposes, (2) connecting writing with reading, and (3) connecting writing with children's literature. Finally, the importance of connecting kindergarten writers with each other is emphasized. Teale & Martinez Connecting Writing-2
Emergent literacy consists of the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that are developmental precursors to reading and writing. This article offers a preliminary typology of children's emergent literacy skills, a review of the evidence that relates emergent literacy to reading, and a review of the evidence for linkage between children's emergent literacy environments and the development of emergent literacy skills. We propose that emergent literacy consists of at least two distinct domains: inside-out skills (e.g., phonological awareness, letter knowledge) and outside-in skills (e.g., language, conceptual knowledge). These different domains are not the product of the same experiences and appear to be influential at different points in time during reading acquisition. Whereas outside-in skills are associated with those aspects of children's literacy environments typically measured, little is known about the origins of inside-out skills. Evidence from interventions to enhance emergent literacy suggests that relatively intensive and multifaceted interventions are needed to improve reading achievement maximally. A number of successful preschool interventions for outside-in skills exist, and computer-based tasks designed to teach children inside-out skills seem promising. Future research directions include more sophisticated multidimensional examination of emergent literacy skills and environments, better integration with reading research, and longer-term evaluation of preschool interventions. Policy implications for emergent literacy intervention and reading education are discussed.
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