Preschoolers’ STEM Learning on a Haptic Enabled Tablet

Abstract

The research on children’s learning of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) topics from electronic applications (apps) is limited, though it appears that children can reasonably transfer learning from tablet games to particular tasks. We were interested to determine whether these findings would translate to the emerging technology of haptic feedback tablets. The research on haptic feedback technology, specifically, has found that this type of feedback is effective in teaching physics concepts to older students. However, haptic feedback has not yet been sufficiently explored with younger groups (e.g., preschoolers). To determine the effect of playing a STEM game enhanced with haptic technology on learning outcomes, we designed an experiment where preschool participants were randomly exposed to one of three different conditions: (a) STEM game with no haptic feedback (tablet), (b) STEM game enabled with haptic feedback (haptics), or (c) a puzzle game (control). Results revealed no significant differences in comprehension or transfer by condition. Results from this study contribute to the literature on the effectiveness of haptic feedback for preschool STEM learning.

Preschool teachers’ perspectives on (haptic) technology in the classroom

“…Sadly, there is even less known about haptic experiences with young children. Only one study of preschoolers found no effect of haptic feedback on comprehension or transfer of STEM material but did note that young children in their sample enjoyed the game they played on the tablet (Pila et al, 2020). Experiences with haptic feedback technology seem to be extremely engaging for youth of all ages (Hightower et al, 2019).…”

“…The target STEM game that the research team design had embedded haptic feedback that was chosen to introduce the concepts of weight and balance. As described in Pila et al (2020), the research team modified a freely available application, WGBH's Peep and the Big Wide World Bunny Balance game. Using three bunnies of increasing size and a seesaw on the screen, participants could test what happened to the seesaw as they dragged and placed one bunny on each end.…”

“…The other bunny was on the pattern somewhere in between. We also chose to associate particular textures with the bunnies" (Pila et al, 2020). While the participants were engaging with the apps, the moderator and researcher circulated among the groups and recorded the group's initial reactions.…”

Touch to Learn: A Review of Haptic Technology's Impact on Skill Development and Enhancing Learning Abilities for Children

“…Pila et al [67] Tactile Haptic-enabled tablet with a variable friction touchscreen called TPaD [47] is illustrated in Figure 4a.…”

“…Out of 12 studies we investigated, we realized that seven of them choose to employ haptic devices rendering kinesthetic information through complex robotic devices [56,[61][62][63]66,68,69] while the remaining five employ devices rendering tactile information through regular or augmented mobile devices, like tablets and e-book readers. [60,64,65,67,70] We realized that the majority of the studies (four) rendering kinesthetic feedback used a 6-degrees-of-freedom (DoFs), such as Phantom Omni, Falcon, and Touch haptic devices. It has a pen-like end-effector that the children are asked to hold.…”