"Press, swipe and read: Do interactive features facilitate engagement and learning with e‐Books?"

Doctoral candidate Ying Xu, alumna Joanna Yau (Ph.D. ’19), and Associate Professor Stephanie Reich published an article in the Journal of Computer Assisted Learning analyzing how use of touchscreen media impacts learning in early childhood.

The title of their article is “Press, swipe and read: Do interactive features facilitate engagement and learning with e‐Books?”

Xu’s research interests center on technology assisted language learning, digital literacy, and learning analytics. Prior to joining the doctoral program, Xu worked in a digital publishing company, designing educational software for young children. As part of her doctoral studies, she is exploring the potential of conversational agents in promoting young children’s literacy development and science learning. Xu, who is advised by Professor Mark Warschauer, is specializing in Language, Literacy, and Technology.

Yau is a postdoctoral scholar/research associate in the Department of Psychology at the University of Southern California. Her research interests include media psychology, developmental psychology, educational psychology, and child and adolescent development. For her doctoral work, she specialized in Human Development in Contest (HDiC). Reich served as her advisor.

Reich is a community psychologist studying contexts that support children’s development. Her research focuses on children’s direct and technologically mediated interactions with family, peers, and educational settings. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Society for Community Research and Action. Reich is director of UCI's Development in Social Context Lab (DISC).
 
Abstract
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Young children are introduced to mobile technology at an early age, with many using touchscreens daily. One appeal of touchscreen technology is that it seems to be intuitive for very young children. As a result, many children's e‐books are designed for tablets rather than for e‐readers or computers. E‐books often contain hotspots—interactive areas children can press to receive immediate auditory or visual feedback. This study assessed whether children's (N = 76, aged 3–5 years) interactions with hotspots increased their engagement with reading when using an e‐book independently and how such interactions were related to their learning from the story. Our results suggested that interacting with hotspots enhanced children's emotional engagement and sustained visual attention but not verbal engagement. Interacting with hotspots also benefited children's recall of story elements relevant to the hotspot but not their overall comprehension of the story. These findings inform the design and use of touchscreen media in early childhood.