IS IMPLEMENTING DIGITAL LEARNING MEDIA BENEFICIAL IN STIMULATING EARLY CHILDHOOD LITERACY SKILLS?

Bahasa merupakan aspek penting dalam perkembangan anak usia dini yang memerlukan keterlibatan terus-menerus untuk menjamin anak-anak memperoleh keterampilan verbal yang kuat. Kemampuan anak dalam mengekspresikan diri dan berkomunikasi secara efektif dengan lingkungannya erat kaitannya dengan bahasa. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji secara komprehensif pemanfaatan media pembelajaran digital untuk meningkatkan kemampuan membaca dini anak. Teknik ini menerapkan metode penelitian Kuantitatif dan memanfaatkan publikasi dan artikel resmi secara nasional sebagai alat pengumpulan data dan sumber referensi. Fokus utama penelitian ini adalah untuk mengkaji penggunaan alat pendidikan digital untuk mengembangkan kemampuan membaca penting pada anak-anak. Keterampilan literasi mencakup indikator penting pengenalan kata, seperti keahlian dalam mengenali huruf, asosiasi bunyi-huruf, kesadaran fonemik, dan pemahaman aturan penulisan. Studi ini mengeksplorasi solusi permasalahan literasi dengan menggunakan aplikasi digital yang dapat diakses oleh seluruh pemangku kepentingan, termasuk guru, orang tua, dan siswa. Penelitian ini tergolong penelitian kualitatif dan menggunakan teknik studi kasus, khususnya dengan melakukan observasi literatur pada tahun 2010 hingga 2018. Temuan penelitian menunjukkan bahwa penggunaan media pembelajaran digital dapat meningkatkan keterampilan literasi anak usia dini di lembaga PAUD secara signifikan dengan membekali guru dengan materi yang sesuai. sumber daya untuk memanfaatkan alat pendidikan ini. Penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa penggunaan sumber daya pendidikan digital dapat meningkatkan kemampuan literasi anak usia dini di lembaga PAUD

Storybook as a Preventive Measure Against the "Sexual Harassment" of Children in the Elementary School

The three great sins of education, bullying, sexual violence and intolerance - still occur in schools. Cases of sexual harassment were found to occur in primary schools. Guidance and counseling are considered the most important parts in this case, where class teachers implement counseling services in primary schools. Sex education can be provided through interesting media. This research aims to produce a learning medium: a storybook about sexual harassment. This research method uses the ASSURE research and development model (Analyze learners, State objectives, select methods, media and materials, utilize media and materials, require learner participation, Evaluate and revise). The research was conducted on students of Grade VI of SDN Sungai Miai 7 Banjarmasin. Material experts, media experts and students as users validated the storybook media. The results showed that the storybook materials met the criteria of being very feasible regarding media and materials and that students' understanding of sexual harassment increased after reading the storybook

Open Educational Resources (OER) initiatives: Global and Indian Quo Vadis

Galloping speed of technological development and intense research activities in ICT over last couple of decades has facilitated opportunities of rapid expansion in creation, distribution and consumption of educational resources across the world. While fulcrum motivational factor for such technological advancement is indeed profit driven, a substantial gain has also been drawn by academic communities using the same set of technologies for greater social good. Open Source Software, Creative Commons, Open Access Initiatives have paved the way for Open Educational Resources (OER). With these impetuses, nations are trying to bridge the gaps between information have and haven’t and reduce the digital divides amongst its communities. This discourse attempted to explore and review the historical perspective of OER, major global and national initiatives and attempted to peeped in to future scope of expansion

Digital Learning: Reforming Teacher Education to Promote Access, Equity and Quality in Sub-Saharan Africa

The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of the present and future impact of digital learning on teacher education in Sub-Saharan Africa. Digital learning in this report is defined as any instructional practice that uses new communication technologies effectively to improve access to and strengthen learning. The focus of the report is student-teachers and teachers. The 2015–2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) explicitly seek to substantially increase the supply of well-qualified teachers in the region, drawing on international forms of development and co-operation where necessary (Goal 4)

The Effect of eBook Reading on Overall Literacy Development

This study examined the effect of eBook reading, in contrast to traditional print reading, on developing overall literacy in lower elementary school students. It focused on student motivation, phoneme awareness, word recognition, and comprehension as they pertain to student achievement. This research study is important since it investigated a unique way to implement technology to assist both early and struggling readers. The study was designed to examine the effect of using an eBook application (Raz-Kids) instead of the traditional reading curriculum to engage the students through the interactive activities. The study involved 106 lower elementary school students in a private, Christian school with 96 students completing all assessments required for the quasi-experimental static-group comparison research design. This research study used the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey and the STAR Reading Enterprise assessment to evaluate student progress after incorporating the Raz-Kids application into their current reading program for a six-week period. A MANOVA was used to analyze all of the research data pertaining to motivation to read as it pertained to academic and recreational reading, phoneme awareness, word recognition, and student comprehension. The analysis indicated that there was not a statistically significant difference between the scores of students who participated in the treatment group and those in the control group. Data was collected through these assessments and analyzed using SPSS statistical software

Foundation Phase reading materials: what do commercial publishers and educational NGOs offer African language speakers?

A research report submitted to the School of Literature, Language and Media, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Publishing Studies, 2017This study has aimed to investigate what reading materials commercial publishers and education NGOs currently offer to Foundation Phase learners in the nine official African languages and also the extent to which these materials are marketed and made available to the general public by the publishers. It has been guided by two research questions. The first is as follows: What is available for early readers (learners) to read in their home languages? This question seeks to address the issue of what kind of reading material is available for Foundation Phase learners to use in early literacy, in the nine indigenous South African languages, ranging from readers, to fictional and non-fiction information books which are likely to develop their interest in reading and their literacy skills. In addition to what is available for learners, the second main question is: How do people find out about materials that are being published? How are the materials being marketed by the publishers? Who knows about them and how do they know about them? How would people get access to the materials if they wished to purchase them? The study is in two parts. The first part involved a survey of published reading materials and the second part was a personal investigation of accessibility, in terms of ease or difficulty of finding and/or purchasing these reading materials. One of the main findings is that outside the mainstream educational publishers there is reluctance on the part of many publishers to publish texts in African languages for young readers. At present, much of the reading material published by the mainstream educational publishers for Foundation Phase readers conforms to the requirements of the CAPS curriculum. The limited variety may discourage children from reading in their home languages. The limited availability to the general public of existing texts in African languages is another of the key findings of this study and the lack of information about freely available texts is third. One encouraging development is that education NGOs are finding creative ways to make interesting texts available to young readers in a range of languages.XL201

Effects of a Mixed-Mode Instructional Program on the Communicative Turns of Preschoolers with Down syndrome who use Augmentative and Alternative Communication

Children with Down syndrome are at increased risk for a variety of deficits, including those in the area of speech, language, and literacy. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) have historically focused on building children\u27s verbal and signed vocabulary, but these efforts do not always result in significant changes in children\u27s functional communication. Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems and interventions have been recommended by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association as appropriate options for facilitating functional communication skills with children with Down syndrome ([American Speech-Language-Hearing Association [ASHA], 2010; New York State Department of Health [NYSDOH], 2006). In spite of these recommendations, there exists a critical shortage of SLPs who are clinically competent in providing necessary AAC services to children with Down syndrome (Edgar & Rosa-Lugo, 2007; Light, McNaughton, Drager, Roberts, & Wilson, 2004). As a result, families of children with varying disabilities, including Down syndrome report high levels of stress related to accessing important professional expertise and intervention for their children (Dabrowska & Pisula, 2010). Researchers and clinicians alike must consider alternative treatment delivery options that are responsive to the needs of families and children with complex communication needs (Cirrin et al., 2010; Light & McNaughton, 2015). A telepractice service delivery model has been documented to ease burdens felt by families when attempting to access rehabilitative services (Gladden, 2013). Telepractice involves the use of technology to connect clinicians and clients at a distance for the purposes of assessment, intervention, or consultation (Theodoros, 2011). An expanding body of research promotes the use of telepractice service delivery within AAC to address the needs of both children and families. One evidence-based AAC intervention of interest is communication partner instruction. Communication partner instruction, even in small doses, has been proven to be an effective method for providing parents and children with complex communication needs, specifically children with Down syndrome, access to necessary intervention (Kent-Walsh, Murza, Malani, & Binger, 2015). Partner instruction involves educating those critical stakeholders who surround the child most frequently (e.g., parents, educators, educational assistants) to recognize and respond to children\u27s communicative signals and to create opportunities for children to participate in the conversation (Pennington, Goldbart, & Marshall, 2004). Despite the evidence supporting the use of communication partner instruction, SLPs continue to struggle with implementation in billable contexts (Ogletree, 2013). SLPs in the United States often operate in a billable context, where the client must be actively involved in the therapy session in order for practitioners to receive reimbursement from insurance companies for time spent with clients. This issue has served as a barrier to use of communication partner instruction, as currently accepted research-validated models use introductory parent sessions independent of the children\u27s learning to teach partner skills. Therefore, the current investigation examined the effects of a communication partner instruction using a mixed-mode service delivery model, which incorporated face-to-face and telepractice sessions, as well as a billable context. The focus of the protocol was on educating parents in one aided language strategy using a communication partner instruction program incorporating continuous child involvement and a mixed-mode service-delivery model, including both face-to-face and telepractice intervention components (e.g., Skype/FaceTime), to address the need for interventions which consider stressors faced by families when attempting to access evidence-based AAC intervention. The study utilized a single-case, multiple-probe experimental design across three parent-child dyads. Baseline, intervention, generalization, and maintenance phases were used to investigate the efficacy of the nine-session intervention. Visual analysis and Improvement Rate Difference (IRD) analyses indicated that the intervention was highly effective in increasing parents\u27 use of the target strategy and children\u27s communicative turntaking during shared storybook reading. One-hundred percent of parent participants increased their performance from baseline to post-intervention (IRD = 1.0), and all parents maintained these levels of achievement during the maintenance phase (IRD = 1.0). Similarly, children increased their frequency of communicative turns from baseline to post-intervention (IRD = 1.0), and all children participants maintained these levels of turntaking during the maintenance phase (IRD = 1.0), as well as during a novel book series (IRD = 1.0). These findings suggest that the mixed-mode service delivery model, which includes both face-to-face and telepractice sessions, as well as continuous child involvement is an effective method for increasing parents\u27 use of a target strategy and children\u27s frequency of multimodal communicative turns. Clinical and professional implications, as well as future directions for research are discussed

Children’s reading with digital books: past moving quickly to the future

Digital books, such as e-books, story apps, picture book apps, and interactive stories, are narratives presented on touchscreens with multimedia and interactive features. Evidence suggests that early reading of print versus digital books is associated with different patterns of parent–child engagement and children’s outcomes. Parents’ verbal scaffolding, children’s age, and the congruence between a book’s narrative and its interactive and multimedia features are three documented process variables that explain the difference between reading print and digital books. To maximize the added value of digital books for children, we need to study the interaction among the characteristics of parents, children, and books; we also need to target these interactions through interventions and through collaborations between designers and researchers

Children’s Perspective on Digital Picure Book: A Brief Analysis

Early exposure to symbolic media, such as pictures, drawings, paintings, photos, and videos, is common in western countries. Modern picture books coexist with electronic storybooks and other digital literature, expanding the environment in which young children develop and learn. Since the advent of new technologies, recommendations for kids' use of these gadgets have been covered in numerous papers. Young children and adults can engage in social interaction through picture books, which creates a wonderful chance for learning and teaching. This paper makes an analysis on children’s digital story book reading behavior. Initially, the features (considered questions) are clustered using k means clustering model. In order to analyze the children’s digital story book reading behavior, the questions are made on different drivers such as (i) Characteristics of story book, (ii) Interaction level and (iii) Child learning ability level. The questions are analyzed based upon the responses obtained from 100 respondents with 46 males and 54 females. Here, the study is done using ANOVA, regression analysis along with MSE, correlation and variance computation. Based upon the clustering outputs, the regression analysis is made on correlation and covariance metrics

Benefits and pitfalls of multimedia and interactive features in technology-enhanced storybooks:A meta-analysis

A meta-analysis was conducted on the effects of technology-enhanced stories for young children’s literacy development when compared to listening to stories in more traditional settings like storybook reading. A small but significant additional benefit of technology was found for story comprehension (g+ = 0.17) and expressive vocabulary (g+ = 0.20), based on data from 2,147 children in 43 studies. When investigating the different characteristics of technology-enhanced stories, multimedia features like animated pictures, music, and sound effects were found beneficial. In contrast, interactive elements like hotspots, games, and dictionaries were found to be distracting. Especially for children disadvantaged because of less stimulating family environments, multimedia features were helpful and interactive features were detrimental. Findings are discussed from the perspective of cognitive processing theories