The usage of tablet PC to support young childrens' geometric shapes recognition

Abstract

For children growing up today, digital media are part of everyday life, and children accept technology as a completely natural and inevitable means. The old notion that children must reach the level of specific operations to get ready to use a computer is outdated. Growing up of Neomillennial generations require completely amended educational approaches, as well as, the development of new skills and attitudes in almost all areas. The aforementioned initiated an experiment conducted with aim to test the potential differences in performance between traditional (paper form) and contemporary (using a tablet PC) mode of testing. The nonverbal abilities tests related to the recognition of 2D and 3D geometric shapes were used in the study. The test material was arranged by the authors for the purposes of this research. Two- or three dimensional geometric shapes were presented either on the screen or in paper form. In the 2D presentation mode the items were polygons like circles, triangles, squares, etc., while in the 3D test objects which contained the elements of prisms, cylinders or cones were presented. The task was to recognize the particular shape among the three offered and to select the correct answer. The participants were 120 children aged from 7 to 8 years. The results show that there are no statistically significant differences in achievement between the paper and tablet PC mode of testing for 2D geometrical shapes. However, there are significant differences for 3D geometrical shapes, in favor of using tablet PC. Based on the contact with children during the testing for recognition of 3D geometric shapes, the impression is gained that they were very engaged, fascinated and naturally interested in interacting with the touch screens. Accordingly, policy makers should consider introducing new technologies as to facilitate the adoption of (geometrical) concepts, as well as in order to achieve childrens' more efficient mastering of courses contents.