THE DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF MOBILE LEARNING FOR PRESCHOOL EDUCATION

Abstract

The impacts of the too-early introduction of young children towards mobile learning have been argued on the suitability of content for these little minds which lead to unease among parents concerning the usage of this technology to their children’s education.  This raised acknowledgement that more consideration needs to be given to this area. Hence, the proposed approach offers a mobile learning application named as M-Kids Mobile Apps; adopting serious games augmenting the pedagogical aspect of Islamic education that is in-line with the early childhood developmentally appropriate practices (DAP). However, the key idea in this paper is to address the needs and issues on the usage of mobile learning for Islamic preschool education aged five to six years old. Specifically, the aim of this paper is two-fold 1) to identify the needs of parents and teachers on the usage of multimedia learning application in pre-school learning, 2) to design an appropriate mobile learning application prototype for pre-school children aged five to six years old. The design is based on the analysis findings in needs analysis, supported by validated principles and theories by experts as well as an adaptation of Cognitive Multimedia Learning Theory and Islamic Design Principle in its design and content. Finally, for the evaluation, the review from experts upon the completion of a multimedia learning application prototype is also conducted. Although this study focused specifically on cognitive and behavioural change, the findings may affect the continued growth of children's psychomotor and social emotions. As a conclusion, the present study contributes to the growing body of educational studies that suggest the insertion of Islamic moral meaning in children's curriculum applications to increase children's learning experience of behavioural growth.