Session Information
99 ERC SES 05 M, Open Learning: Media, Environments and Cultures
Paper Session
Contribution
In the era of digital immersion for children, understanding the factors that make educational apps appealing and effective is of utmost importance. A comprehensive exploration of the motivations, attitudes, and preferences surrounding educational apps in preschoolers unveils a multifaceted landscape. Elements such as entertainment value, emoji usage, and the role of positive reinforcement play significant roles in shaping the educational experience. This investigation not only illuminates the dynamics of preschool learning but also contributes to the optimization of educational applications for this crucial developmental stage.
Current research reveals several properties that make educational applications attractive to preschool children. Lu et al. (2021) emphasize the importance of providing a fun learning environment that enables children to actively participate in teaching activities. The user interfaces of these applications, as highlighted by Kolak et al. (2023), are designed to be neat and user-friendly, ensuring ease of navigation for preschoolers. These apps boast higher entertainment value, as noted by Own et al. (2023), making them not only interesting but also motivating for children to engage in the learning process. Moreover, despite having lower lexical diversity compared to child-directed speech (CDS) and books, educational applications can offer an enriched supplementary form of language input (Kolak et al., 2023).
Children's motivation to repeatedly use educational apps is linked to the enjoyment and perceived usefulness of the activities, according to Amaefule et al. (2022). Menon's (2022) research supports this by indicating that enjoyment of the app and perceived usefulness of mobile technologies strongly predict children's intention to use educational apps. Positive attitudes towards using emojis during learning activities, as highlighted by Camilleri & Camilleri (2020), also contribute to children's intention to use the app. The motivations behind using educational apps encompass academic assistance, convenience, social influence, novelty, engagement, and activity, as outlined by Camilleri & Camilleri (2022). Tiede et al. (2022) further emphasize that perceived enjoyment, perceived usefulness, and ease-of-use of the apps play significant roles in children's intentions to continue using them. In summary, enjoyable learning activities, perceived usefulness, and positive attitudes towards using emojis emerge as pivotal factors motivating children to repeatedly engage with educational apps.
By centering on enjoyable learning activities and understanding the preferences of young users, we can create educational apps that effectively engage and support the educational journey of preschool children. The ultimate goal of the activities that follow this study is to leverage these insights in designing educational applications that not only captivate children's attention but also foster a positive and enriching learning experience. Through a continued focus on user satisfaction and learning efficacy, we aim to contribute to the ongoing enhancement of educational technology tailored for the unique needs of preschool learners. In connection with the aim of this study, two research objectives were determined: (1) To identify which features of educational applications are attractive for preschool children. (2) To identify what motivates children to use the chosen educational applications repeatedly.
Method
This research study adopted a mixed-methods experimental design in two phases. In the first phase, an on-line questionnaire survey was distributed to preschool teachers in Czech Republic. Self-selection sampling method (Keiding, Louis, 2018) was used to obtain the research sample consisting of 80 preschool teachers. The objective of the questionnaire was to identify which widely accessible educational applications are being used in Czech preschools when integrating a touch-screen ICT devices (such as tablets and interactive boards) to school curriculum. Four educational applications were selected based on teacher's answers: iSchool, CTEdu, Alfik and Hravouka. In the second phase, selected applications were tested by 43 preschool children from Central Bohemian region, Czech Republic (M = 25, F = 17), age 4 - 7. Each participant had a time-limited interval to free-play applications using touch-screen tablet in the presence of the researcher. Data acquisition was carried out through individual structured interview with participants after they finished using the applications and subsequent focus group discussions (Morgan, 1996), conducting two focus groups discussions – focus group 1 (FG1, N= 10) and focus group 2 (FG2: N = 10). The focus group interview was used as a complementary method to individual interviews which aimed to identify what experiences the participants had during the free play. Children were asked, what they liked about the applications. Which games they would want to continue to play and why. The data was analysed from the perspective of thematic reflexive analysis using open coding and interpreted to in relation to the objectives of the study into categories (Saldaña, 2016).
Expected Outcomes
This research aimed to identify (1) features of educational applications that are attractive for preschool children. Interpretation of the collected data showed, that attractivity was connected to (a) diverse content (CTEdu) - participants preferred applications with variability of tasks where they could choose from, best tasks were action ones (speed games). (b) Interactive role of the player (Hravouka, CTEdu) - participants preferred apps with possibilities to choose their own adventure which gave them the opportunity to have an active role in advancing the story. (c) Engaging visuals (Hravouka) - creative illustrations and rich environment with elements from nature. Outside of the attractivity of application features, others were also identified, such as (d) previous experience (iSchool, CTEde) – participants claimed that they like certain apps because they sometimes play them at home or in kindergarten and (e) age prestige – only connected to iSchool, which according to participants is an app for the “older” children when they are preparing for elementary school. As to what motivates (2) children to use the educational applications repeatedly, participants preferred to stay longer with applications, that had connecting story arc (CTEdu) or a main hero (Hravouka). Participants stated, that they would like to continue to find out, what happens next and what they can discover in other parts of the game. Other motivators were closely connected to (1a) content as children stated that they would like to continue to play action tasks. Results of this can lead not only to understanding of children's perspectives on educational applications, but also towards the development of applications that will be age-propriate and educational, but above all motivating for children to be active and to teach themselves further.
References
Amaefule, C. O., Breitwieser, J., Biedermann, D., Nobbe, L., Drachsler, H., & Brod, G. (2022). Fostering children's acceptance of educational apps: The importance of designing enjoyable learning activities. British Journal of Educational Technology 54, 1351-1372. DOI:10.1111/bjet.13314 Camilleri, M.A., & Camilleri, A.C. (2020). The students’ readiness to engage with mobile learning apps. Interactive Technology and Smart Education 17(1), 28-38. doi: 10.1108/ITSE-06-2019-0027 Camilleri, M.A., & Camilleri, A.C. (2022). Utilitarian and intrinsic motivations to use mobile learning technologies: An extended technology acceptance model. ICSLT '22: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on e-Society, e-Learning and e-Technologies. June 2022. Pages 76–81 doi: 10.1145/3545922.3545935 Keiding, Niels; Louis, Thomas A. (2018) Web-Based Enrollment and Other Types of Self-Selection in Surveys and Studies: Consequences for Generalizability. Annual Review of Statistics and Its Application. PG 25-47. 10.1146/annurev-statistics-031017-100127 [doi] Kolak, J., Monaghan, P., & Taylor, G. (2023). Language in educational apps for pre-schoolers. A comparison of grammatical constructions and psycholinguistic features in apps, books and child directed speech. Journal of Child Language 50(4), 895-921. doi: 10.1017/s0305000922000198 Lu, Z., Liu, N., Xie, Y. & Xu, J. (2023). Augmented Reality based Language and Math Learning Applications for Preschool Children Education. Preprint. doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-2726015/v1 Morgan, David. (1996). Focus Groups. Annual Review of Sociology. 22. 129-152. Menon, D. (2022). Uses and gratifications of educational apps: A study during COVID-19 pandemic. Computers and Education Open, 3. doi: 10.1016/j.caeo.2022.100076 Saldaña, J. (2016). The coding manual for qualitative researchers (3E.). SAGE. Own, C-M., Cai, T., & Hung, C-Y.(2023). Exploring the Potential of Tangible and Multitouch Interfaces to Promote Learning Among Preschool Children. IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies 16(1), 66-77. doi: 10.1109/tlt.2022.3170031 Tiede, J., Treacy, R., Grafe, S., & Mangina, E. (2022). Fostering Learning Motivation of Students with Reading and Spelling Difficulties by an AR-Enhanced Gamified Educational App for Literacy Learning. Proceedings of IEEE GEM Conference 2022, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1109/GEM56474.2022.10017825
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