The effects of free rotate gestures in multi-touch screen design on childrens achievement in learning shape for pre school children

Mohd Razali Fadhlina, Abdul Aziz Nor Azah, Salim Siti Aisyah, Mohamad Rasli Roznim, Zulkefly Nur Farah,

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The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of free rotate gesture used in multi-touch screen design on pre-school children’s achievement in learning shape. Multi-touch screen design enables users to perform multiple finger gestures such as free rotate, pinch and spread. The gestures are often selected because it is similar to real-life movements. Free rotate gesture enables users to rotate the objects on screen which can enhance the interaction between users and virtual objects. As the actions are natural, spontaneous and easy to learn, it has been widely used in learning purposes. Therefore, it is important to investigate how these free rotate gesture affect children’s achievement in learning shape as the children can interact with the virtual shape naturally. The study involves 20 childrens aged 5 to 6 years old from National Children Development Research Centre (NCDRC). The samples had been given a pre-test and post-test about shapes before and after they used the mobile application of Learning Shape which include the free rotate gestures. Then the pre-test dan post-test score had been analyzed by using Paired Samples T-Test in SPSS by comparing its means. The results indicated that the post-test mean is higher than the pre-test mean with significant value is less than .05. It shows that the free rotate gestures can effects children’s achievement in learning shape. The study also observes children’s interaction while using the mobile application. The results shows that the children are happy and can understand the topic more easily because they can interact with the virtual shape naturally. As for conclusion, the free rotate gestures is an important factor that should be be taken into consideration when designing mobile applications for pre-school children.

References

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