Abstract:

Children grow up with different mobile devices, at home as well as in elementary school. Interactive picture book applications (IPBA) are one way of combining this digital world with the undisputedly important educational tool of reading aloud. Nevertheless, the application landscape for elementary education is confusing for educators, because there is a lack of quality criteria and evaluation options, which are already partly available in the school sector. This study explores what the criteria for selecting IPBA for elementary school teachers are. Therefore, to answer this question, a criteria grid was created using two models, the extension of Lewis' ecological theory of the picture book (2014) and ViSAR2.0 (2021). Textual and visual features, animated and multimodal attributes, usability, and pedagogical criteria are the four categories in which the interactive applications were analyzed. Additionally, it was researched which conclusions can be made after applying such a catalog of criteria to three different picture books (Was die Sonne alles kann, Oh, wie schön ist Panama, and Drei kleine Schweinchen). Based on the resulting grid, a database search of German-language interactive picture books was made within iOS and Google Play Store. Diversity was taken into account in the selection of IAPBs, such as story origin (fairy tale, book template, fictional story), different design forms, free as well as paid, but also valuable recommendations and high quality ratings in the two app stores. The three IPBAs were examined and characterized in this pilot study. Based on the grid evaluation, findings indicate that the studied IPBAs differ mainly in two categories: animated and multimodal features, and usability. The differences in the interactive features lead to changes in children’s involvement in the story and the process of reading aloud. There were also major dissimilarities found in usability between the examined three applications. The objective is not to rate the interactive school books but to create awareness researched on educational criteria to provide a basis for elementary school teachers to select IAPBs evolved from existing scientific knowledge, and to analyze them for usability and appropriateness in the classroom. Based on this information, the grid can then be expanded (in further research) to include content, individual as well as curriculum-related aspects.

Keywords:

Elementary school, education, application, interactive picture books.