Research and Reflections about children and young people's use of technology

Presented by David Messer, Centre for Education and Educational Technology, The Open University

The presentation provides an overview of two research strands that explore ways in which technology can be used by and be of benefit to children and young people.

One of these strands has been concerned with a randomised controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of a computer based tutorial system to assist children with reading difficulties. There have been surprisingly few evaluations of computer based interventions which have been successful. This evaluation involved X children, random allocation to an experimental and a waiting list control group, a range of standardised assessments, and was carried out over a period of 18 months. The findings suggest that the intervention was effective.

The second of the research strands concerns the development, use and investigation of an app called Our Story (). The app has been developed over several years at the Open University. It is designed to enable children and young people to make digital picture books. The app enables digital images to be selected and ordered into a sequence; written text and sound to be added to digital images. The resulting digital picture book can then be ‘played’ or sent to others. The latest iPad version includes the possibility of including video recordings. We have carried out a number of investigations of the use of iPads and of the app (researchers at other institutions have also investigated the app). One of our first investigations concerned case studies of the adoption of iPads into pre-school and primary settings. We have also carried out other case studies into the use of Our Story with children who have complex needs. There have been examinations of the use of the app by pre-school children and its use as a method of reporting children’s research investigations.

The presentation will end with a discussion of the uses of new technology and the issues raised by a dramatic change in the availability of low cost ‘educational’ apps.

This seminar is also available on a live stream, to view please visit:
https://lecturecapture.nottingham.ac.uk:8443/ess/echo/presentation/ba6bc993-40a7-4d4d-8c94-4c86385d6395