Taming Technology: Evidence-Based Principles for App and e-Book Use

• In Event: Young Children Learning With Mobile Devices: Research on Design and Implementation

Abstract

Purpose: How can scientists help educators and parents make sound choices about children’s digital media use? While the number of children who have access to smartphones and tablets is rapidly growing (Common Sense Media, 2013), more research is needed to determine how digital media affects child learning and adult-child interactions. This paper uses principles from the learning sciences to better understand (1) adults’ interactions around children’s digital media and (2) features of digital media that may affect children’s learning from these sources. We explore how lessons learned from lab-based studies can inform classroom and home settings.

Perspectives: Aligning the design and use of apps and e-books with known processes of children’s learning provides a framework that can be used by educators and parents alike. This framework is built upon evidence generated from the learning sciences suggesting that children learn best when they 1) actively tackle concepts, 2) engage with material, 3) learn in ways that are meaningful to their own experiences, and are 4) socially-interactive with adults or peers (Hirsh-Pasek, Zosh et al., 2015).

Methods and Results: Adults often turn to apps and e-books as to foster children’s literacy skills. Our work has evaluated which features of traditional and e-books maximize learning. From a study with 42 parent/preschooler dyads comparing comprehension with either paper books or e-books with various features, such as narration and activities, there was no significant impact of book type. This was somewhat surprising; we hypothesized the interactive activities would invite distraction (instead of engagement) and lead to less story understanding. However, what appeared most important was reflected by a trend for children whose parent’s dominant speech style created more meaningful connections between the story and the child’s own life to outperform their peers on story comprehension (p=.07) regardless of book format.

Building on this work, we have investigated preliterate children’s independent e-book reading compared to parent-child reading. Many families and classrooms promote e-books’ potential for independent reading, but it is unknown whether children can learn from engaging with e-books without social interaction. One-hundred-and-thirty-seven preschoolers were randomly assigned to view the same e-book via either: parent reading to child; child engaging independently with audio narration; or child engaging independently without audio narration. Overall, children who read with a parent had better story comprehension than children who encountered the story alone (p = .02). However, audio narration promoted comprehension over engaging independently without audio narration (p < .0001), suggesting that e-books with this feature could be beneficial both at home and in classrooms when adults are unavailable.

Significance: Children are in the midst of a vast, unplanned experiment, surrounded by digital technologies. Though smartphones and tablets appeared only within the past decade, a recent survey reported that three-fourths of children under the age of 4 had their own mobile device (Kabali et al., 2015). Our research suggests that apps and e-books designed to promote active, engaged, meaningful and socially interactive learning are not just labeled “educational” but truly hold educational potential both in the classroom and at home.

Authors

• Brenna Hassinger-Das, Pace University

• Jennifer M Zosh, The Pennsylvania State University - Brandywine

• Rebecca Dore, University of Delaware

• Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, University of Delaware

• Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Temple University