Innovative Teaching and Digital Literacy in Preschool. App Content Analysis and Experimental Case Studies in a Sociological Perspective

The objective of this article is to illustrate, from the theoretical and methodological perspective, the construction of an experimental process of a “digital education app” in several preschools in the municipality of Rome. The general objective the project fits into is related to a sociological analysis, based on the relationship between theory and empirical research, of the effects of introducing digital media into preschool didactics. Preschools are a privileged site for observing and analyzing the formation and development of children’s capabilities (Nussbaum, 2000), since the plasticity of the child’s thought begins to be configured as early as preschool and evolves progressively taking into account the perceptive, sociocultural and behavioural conditions emerging from different educational agencies (Piaget, Inhelder, 1950). The article refers to the research project of the Mediamonitor Minori Observatory of the Sapienza University of Rome entitled “Media Usage in Pre-school. Analysis and Evaluation of the Influence of Digital Media on the Socialization of Children between 0-6”. The article retraces in particular the stages of the research strategy designed to structure a formative, experimental protocol to be experimented in some case studies in Rome and illustrates the main results.

"The results of the research may be referred to the two main actions: the content analysis app and the experimentation with integrating the apps into the teaching. In the first case, the analysis was done starting from the most popular apps in the market store, not necessarily for didactic/educational purposes. Overall, about 400 apps designed for children “under 6” were analyzed, and may be categorized1 as follows: Baby talk apps (171 apps, 47%), for children 2-3 years of age. These apps have a basic narrative and graphic interface structure with a low degree of interactivity and usability, but with just as little orientation towards the commercial and marketing side. • User friendly apps (146 apps, 40.1%), for children 4-5 years of age. These apps focus on the user’s psycho-emotional and cognitive-behavioural characteristics. This central importance can be seen in a number of aspects: in the lack of brands and advertising, showing an attention to protecting the minor; in the strong usability of the interface combined with the food level of interactivity and multimediality; and in the constant presence of a navigation guide, at any rate letting the child understand the virtual presence of a guardian. • Marketing apps (47 apps, 12.9%), for children 6-7 years of age. These apps are more oriented towards commercial objectives. In this sense, a central role is played by brand and advertising in these apps, while attention to the interface’s interactivity, multimediality, and usability is of secondary importance. [...] In the second case, the integration of apps into teaching was done in a manner complementary to the didactic objectives, the tools, and the materials already used by the educators in the classroom on a daily basis, so as to guarantee educational continuity for the child’s psycho-emotional equilibrium. [...] In light of the initial results of the pilot study, in may be stated that the incidence of digital didactics within an experimental protocol appears more evident with children who show lower levels of competence at the start of the path. Both fields of experience at the end of the experimentation path were acquired better by the children in the experimental group than the control group." (Cortoni & Lo Presti, 2018, pp. 50-51)