Abstract:

This paper presents three mobile applications designed and developed as the result of the DigEdu-2022 project. In the 10-month period starting February 2022, the project’s main objectives were the digitization and digitalization of formal curriculum-based teaching materials and the development of innovative mobile applications targeting preschool children and the first four grades of primary education. This was accomplished through close cooperation with teachers from the Osnovna škola Trnjanska (engl. Trnjanska primary school) in Zagreb, Croatia, and graduate students from the Zagreb University of Applied Sciences who were the project members.

As a result, the TuneHop application was developed to support children in learning musical instruments through theoretical facts and game-based quizzes applying gamification mechanisms. TuneHop is an educational mobile application intended for children aged between 9 and 12 years. The application was developed in order to motivate and encourage students to learn about musical instruments by implementing gamification mechanisms.

Secondly, the mobile application Pisanka was developed for supporting children in learning the correct writing of uppercase letters of the Croatian alphabet and to facilitate the non-formal and formal learning process of writing alphabet letters. The learning process was enriched by applying gamification mechanisms and visualizations for letter writing. The application was developed for preschool children and students in the first grades of primary education.

Also, the mobile application for encouraging algorithmic thinking and concepts of coding in children of preschool age and school age was developed. The main idea of the application was to teach young children programming through play, which facilitates the learning process itself in a fun way.

Keywords:

Mobile learning, elementary education, preschool education.