The LiFT research agenda combines insights from three streams: Vocabulary and Creativity, Joint Media Engagement, and Learning Analytics, to investigate language learning (for native and non-native speakers), creativity development, and parent-child interaction outcomes arising from the use of technology.
One of the areas we are investigating is ‘joint media engagement’. Young children’s learning is enhanced considerably when they have positive support from adults. For example, when children are beginning the process of learning to read, they can really benefit from reading with an adult or older sibling, who can help them process the text, support their reading comprehension and support them to make appropriate inferences from their understanding of the text. In the same way, we believe that supporting this crucial parent-child interaction while they are playing with the app will enhance the child’s learning experience and outcomes. So far we have begun looking at this by preparing a survey that is available to parents or adults of children who use Applaydu. This survey asks general questions about how the child and the adult use technology and apps like Applaydu. We are going to be able to use the results of this survey to help generate further content for Applaydu aimed at supporting this key interaction between adults and children. We will also be investigating whether and to what extent our newly developed content will facilitate positive joint media engagement. We are confident that this work will be invaluable to our general understanding of how positive interaction can be supported through learning through apps.
Another area of our research centres around Language. This is because we know from decades of research that Language is at the core of everything we do in life, and it is a fundamental part of what a child needs to learn and master in their formative years. Therefore, we have worked closely with Gameloft to develop a vocabulary game for the app, which we are calling the Word Explorer game. In this game children are presented with different types of vocabulary, many words in this game have more than one meaning. Like the word plant which can refer to a green, living botanical organism, OR it can also mean something like a factory (the recycling plant). We know very little about how children come to learn different meanings of words and we are right now using this game in Applaydu to find out more about this important question. Currently we have researchers in some primary schools in the Oxford area who have tested children on different aspects of language. We are then following them as they play this word game in Applaydu. We are then going to test them all again to see whether and to what extent they made gains on some of their language tasks as a function of playing this word game in Applaydu. We are confident that this work will provide us with important insights about the potential for mobile applications such as Applaydu in supporting these fundamental aspects of children’s language learning.
Associated with this we are also developing an area of work within Applaydu to look at Creativity. Creativity is another important area of development in young children, one which is related to many different aspects of children’s academic learning as well. We are currently preparing a research stream within Applaydu where we will be creating new content in collaboration with our colleagues at Gameloft to examine how apps can support the development of children’s creativity.
Finally, another main area of research we are currently engaged with is what we are calling the ‘learning analytics’. Applaydu is a popular app used by children all over the world. Every time a child plays with Applaydu it has the potential to provide us with some important data which can be revealing in terms of their engagement but also their learning. We have been working very closely with our colleagues at Gameloft to be able to use the ‘big app’ data that is collected from Applaydu and to analyse these in key ways that can signal specific aspects of children’s learning. This is a burgeoning but increasingly important area of work and something that thus far has been under-researched. We are really excited then about the opportunity to work with Gameloft in analysing the learning analytics and its potential to reveal important elements of children’s learning through Applaydu.
