| Summary: | The Swedish government has created several strategies for digitalizing and modernizing the Swedish society, with a goal that Sweden should be leading in digital competence. The ministry of Education states that the use of digital learning material should be used when the educator finds it suitable. In Sweden today 63% of all computers used in pre-schools are tablets. The use of tablets for educational purposes has increased during the last decade and with it the market for educational applications has grown. With this in mind, this thesis aims to evaluate some of the most popular educational mathematics applications available in Sweden. The applications are analysed on how well they relate to research on design principles. The thesis also aims to create simple guidelines for educators to be used when selecting educational applications. This thesis considers theories in Child-Computer interaction and theories related to children’s cognitive and physical development. This is complemented by theories and concepts of learning, flow and game design. To understand how educators in pre-schools use applications in their work several interviews with educators were held. During the interviews the respondents were encouraged to critically analyse why and how they use tablets and applications as study material. As a complement to the interviews a survey with the purpose of bringing forward the most popular apps was created. The survey was sent to all pre-schools in the municipality of Malmö. In the conclusion this thesis presents how the most popular mathematics applications relate to established design principles and presents simple guidelines for educators to be used when deciding which application to use as study material.
|
|---|
