Report from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center
Learning: Is there and app for that? Investigations of young children’s usage and learning with mobile devices and apps
Cynthia Chiong & Carly Shuler 2010
This report focuses on how new forms of digital media are influencing very young children and their families in the United States and how we can deploy smart mobile devices and applications in particular, to help advance their learning. Part one discusses new trends in smart mobile devices, specifically the pass-back effect, which is when an adult passes his or her own device to a child. Part two presents the results of three new studies that were undertaken to explore the feasibility and effectiveness of using apps to promote learning among pre-school and early-elementary-aged children. Part three discusses the implications these findings have for industry, education and research (Chiong & Shuler).
The report specifically explores smart mobile devices, with a focus on iPhone and iPod touch applications (apps) as these two devices are known for supporting innovative children’s apps. However, the findings of this report reach further than these two devices and have repercussions for the design of educational content across a variety of smart mobile devices.
The three parts of the report together offer insight into how children are using and learning from smart mobile devices and apps. Although this was written based on US data I believe that there are many parallels with Australia. For me the report was thought provoking for many reasons. Partly, because I have evidenced the pass-back effect in action on many occasions, even in my own family. My three year old niece sits on the lounge room floor watching children’s movies on her mother’s smart phone when the adults want to watch television. She sits quietly and happily for extended periods of time. I also appreciated the implications for education that were found in the report.
The explosive growth of mobile media is a constant point of discussion as parents, educators and academics question whether your children should be using these devices. Mobile devices are everywhere children turn, and inventive models of mobile learning are coming up worldwide. It was found that most parents let young children use their mobile devices despite perceptions that such play is not educationally beneficial. However, they also showed evidence on when and how mobile media can help young children by promoting literacy skills they can learn from high quality apps. They found in one of the learning studies that when they tested a vocabulary app with 3-7 year olds, gains were seen for every age group. The five year olds gained the most from the app.
One of the concerns with apps is can they successfully sustain young children’s interest and learning? As quoted in the report, Greystripe (2009) found that adult iPhone users spend an average of 9.6 minutes with an app each session, and use a particular app, on average 19.9 times before they stop using it. The learning study confirmed that interest in the apps can be fleeting, but it also revealed insights into how to sustain interest.
Part three of the report was the most important for me personally. It suggested ways in which app designers, teachers and parents can engineer positive interactions to promote learning. A summary of the content of part three is listed below.
Design principles:-
Design principle 1: create apps that are developmentally appropriate
Design principle 2: create apps that sustain interest and learning
Distribution strategies: Bringing education apps to the market. How can this be done?
Lead kids (and their parents) to appropriate content
Build parent expertise and promote quality
Provide something old and something new
Bridge the digital divide
Implications for education:
Optimize children’s time with mobile devices
Use mobile devices as supplemental tools
Surround children with high-quality resources
The distribution strategies and the implications for education are areas where I can have some control over. I have limited control over the design of apps other than to only download apps that meet the suggested design principles. According to Shuler 2009 on April 23rd, 2009, the one-billionth app was downloaded from Apple’s revolutionary iTunes app store. Apps are available in a variety of different subjects, including: foreign language, literacy, general early learning, math, test prep, learning tools, creativity, astronomy, IQ, geography, quotes, sign language, animals, and other. Foreign language and literacy are the most popular subjects overall, however, other topics including general early learning, math and test prep are also amongst the most popular subjects in the top 25 ranked apps, supporting the conclusion that children’s educational apps is an important market.
Quality control of apps is in the hands of the suppliers. Improved policies and laws for the assessment and receiving of content in various apps stores could be a method for encouraging the development of high quality educational apps. But as stated above we can control the implementing of quality apps by careful scrutiny before allowing them into our classrooms. The iTunes store has opened a dedicated section for apps for kids.
Although access to information is easier now than in previous eras, learning in the digital age is more complex as there is more information, a greater variety of resources and the ability to personalise learning. (Wall & Ryan, 2010) Young children are surprisingly adept at using smart mobile devices – nearly all the children observed in the studies could master operations, even after initial difficulty.
While researching for this task I came across a blog called Do we really need a blog for that? interestingly when I put that sentence into Google I found 484,000,000 entries. This is clearly a popular discussion. Obviously I didn’t read all entries, though opinions vary widely but I can honestly say (that after reading this report and all the other related articles) Yes, We do need and app for that!
In my opinion mobile medias have positive and negative effects. The positive side is that we are very up to date regarding the news and events in our world, thanks to online and mobile media. We know one second after something has happened, what has happened and where. We can also spread the news very fast, and with internet on our mobile phones, we can check Facebook and Twitter whenever we want to. On the other hand, these habits have also a negative side. Mobile media is very distracting – as a teacher in a high school I continually have to ask students to put phones, ipods and lately ipads away while we are working in the classroom. Today we can see everything we want online, but because of all this information, we can also be influenced. The consequence of this, is that we are living more in the online world than in the real world.
References
Chiong, C., & Shuler, C., (2010). Learning: Is there an app for that? Investigations of young children’s usage and learning with mobile devices and apps. New York
Wall, J., Ryan S., (2010). Resourcing for Curriculum Innovation: Learning in a Changing World, Acerpress, Vic , Australia
Shuler C., (2009). iLearn: a Content Analysis of the iTunes App Store’s Education Section. New York, Joan Ganz Cooney Centre at Sesame Workshop
After reading this blog entry, I identified more concerns about apps for learning than I did favourable arguments.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, I doubt whether the pass-back effect, which was described as when an adult passes his or her own device onto a child, is actually supporting an educational role. It depends on the context in which adults model its use and pass it on. For example, if it is modelled primarily for entertainment purposes, it may not be respected by either the adults or the child as having an important educational benefit.
I believe, as educators, we have to dispel the commonly held perception by adults and young learners that these mobile devices are for play and that play is not educationally beneficial. Their educational value has to be further researched and presented by the likes of Chiong and Shuler (2010) to educate the public in a positive manner.
Secondly, another concern is whether apps can successfully sustain young children’s interest and learning? If adult interest in an app is fleeting, as confirmed by the Greystripe’s study (2009), it is reasonable that young children may not be engaged for a significant length of time. Therefore designers need to consider developments that will sustain young learners’ interest.
Another worrying factor is that the quality control of apps is in the hand of suppliers. Educators need to get more involved in the design part of the process especially if the market for mobile learning devices is strengthening, as reported. I question whether we are trying to include mobile devices and apps prematurely before such concerns are addressed or alleviated.
As this report and others submit, public interest in apps and the learning capacity of apps is high so there is a strong argument for their educational potential. I am in favour of encouraging the development of high educational quality apps and their monitored implementation into education in this digital era.