The purpose of this study was to compose and validate a rating scale for educational applications for children by studying preceding studies and literature review, and to utilize the system, to analyze and rate educational mobile applications for chil...
The purpose of this study was to compose and validate a rating scale for educational applications for children by studying preceding studies and literature review, and to utilize the system, to analyze and rate educational mobile applications for children and analyze the differences by mobile operating systems.
Based on the findings, I plan to apply it in the fields of child education and analyze the use of applications.
To achieve the purpose of this study, Questions established in order this study are as follows :
Question 1. What are the general propensity of the contents and types of child education apps by smart device OS?
1-1. What are the contents and types of Android applications for children?
1-2. What are the contents and types of MS applications for children?
1-3. What are the contents and types of Kidspad applications for children?
Question 2. What are the results and differences of educational mobile applications for children by smart device OS?
2-1. What are the results of educational mobile applications for children by smart device OS?
2-2. What are the differences of the results?
Question 3. How are the cases of use of educational mobile applications for children by smart device OS?
This study was conducted in the following procedure.
For Question 1, I conducted literature review for reliability and validity and revised extent validate evaluation table for mobile applications for children , in the end I could get 39 questions in 6 parts. They were also revised and validated by several experts in early-childhood education field. Based on this, a group of researchers had evaluated 90 of mobile applications and analyzed its contents and types.
For Question 2, I have investigated the rating results of the 90 mobile applications by Operation system based on the questions.
For Question 3, to analyze its usage or mobile applications in early childfhood education field, I organized appropriate situation in one of kindergarten in Gyeonggi Province with 8 children.
The results of the study are as follows :
Finding 1, I analyzed the contents of each of 90 applications and categorized them into 9 kind of types such as simulation, practice, game, personal learning, problem solving, and tool. and also its contents were categorized into 5 kinds by Korean national common core for early childghood education called NURI.
Finding 2, I conducted comparative analysis on the ratings of applicaions by mobile Operation system. With the exception of level of engagement, there was no statistically significant differences in all domains.
Finding 3, When kids play with mobile applications the result was kind of different compare to its evaluation result. Therefore, it is important to utilize them as objective references providing quantified information which respect distinct and individual characteristics of each child.
Through this study, I anticipate to provide an scale to evaluate an mobile applications for the parents, kindergarten teachers and someone who works for child education institute, as well as implications of application selection through case studies of use of such applications.