Research Report by Tiffany Park 

Research Report: Personalized Learning by Huang, Liang, Su, & Chen

By Tiffany Park, Letters From Felix: A Virtual World Team

1. Abstract. The item that I have chosen is more of a study that will be used for relevance rather than a tool that will be used to finish my team project.  In this study, an Interactive E-book Learning System (IELS) was developed for elementary school students in the study.  The interactive principles in multimedia learning were adopted to empower students’ personalized learning experiences with e-books.  Two investigations were conducted: 1) to evaluate the usability and functionality of the developed system and the feedback from the students 2) to evaluate the learning effect of the developed system.  

    

2. Description.  Today, various types of electronic use, including iPad and Android tablets allow for undergraduate students to have a more interactive and innovative form of education.  Though many studies have investigated e-books targeting undergraduate students, less attention is paid to children.  Therefore, an Interactive E-Book Learning System (IELS) was developed for elementary school students in this study.  The interactive principles in multimedia learning were adopted to empower students’ personalized learning experiences with e-books.  Meanwhile, in order to meet student’s learning needs, a group of in-service teachers were consulted for acquiring their domain expertise.  Personalized learning functions, such as e-annotation and bookmarks, content searching, and learning process tracking, were designed to reinforce student learning.  Two investigations were conducted for evaluation of the developed system.  The first investigation was conducted with 166 elementary school students to evaluate the usability and functionality of the developed system and the feedback from the students.  It was found that the usability and functionality of the developed system were well-suited for most of the students.  The second investigation was to evaluate the learning effect of the developed system.  The results showed that using an e-book or printed book made no significant difference to the students’ reading accuracy; however, the learning process tracking technique of IELS can provide detailed logs about the actual learning processes which can be used by the system to provide further assistance to individual learner. 

 Younger generations have different expectations and behaviors towards the use of digital media due to the new technology throughout their          childhood development.  Due to this, it is important to take new approaches to teaching children, whether it is reading or math.  Coyle pointed out    that the present e-book industry is aimed primarily at how to digitize printed works rather than how to develop and use the new technology to          support learning. 

 Results showed that using an e-book or printed book made no significant difference to the student’s reading accuracy; however, the learning          process tracking technique of IELS can provide detailed logs about the actual learning processes which can be used by the system to provide          further assistance to an individual learner.  A tailored e-book learning system could achieve a better personalized learning experience for          elementary school students.  

1. Commentary. The unique project that my team and I chose deals particularly with the way in which children may find a way to learn amongst a new generation of ever-growing technology.  Unlike previous generations, the children of today’s generation encounter new advancement that was never introduced to humans ever before.  Because of this, are children being affected?  With parents that are most likely on an electronic device for a noticeable amount of time, or siblings who spend most of their time on the internet, will children’s learning experience alter or will learning techniques be altered for them? 

         The study that our team chose is inspired by Laura Lindgren’s Letters From Felix.  As we are going to present a virtual world tour for children, this           study proves relevant with our project because the authors of this study believe that e-book technology should look beyond digitizing printed           books.  What we want to find are how the new technology can support learning, while still being a great experience for children. 

          Although our project does not revolve around the idea of creating a children’s e-book, we do plan on creating a website that incorporates           involving both adults and children in having a more enriched experience of a book that has a world-view theme.  

1. Resources for Further Study. 

          Houston, Cynthia. "Digital Books for Digital Natives." Children & Libraries: The Journal of the Association for Library Service to Children. 9.3 (2011):                39-42. Academic Search      Complete. Web. 4 Nov. 2013.

Lysaker, Judith T., and Angela Miller. "Engaging Social Imagination: The Developmental Work of Wordless Book Reading." Journal of Early Childhood      Literacy. 13.2 (2013):      147-74. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Nov. 2013.

Thompson, Asha, Brianna Barriga, Andrea Liedloff, Nathalie Vera, Tiffany Park, Kelley Oorloff, and Michelle Ann. "Lettersfromfelix2013." Letters      from Felix. English 149, 5      Nov. 2013. Web. 06 Nov. 2013. <http://lettersfromfelix2013.wordpress.com/wp-admin/>