Development and evaluation of a mobile app to support reading education

Mthethwa, Lindiwe Carol; Matthews, Paul

Abstract

We report on the design, development and evaluation of an app to support teachers in the teaching of reading at primary level. The app was developed with two main features: book levelling, where a book photograph, OCR and a simple machine learning model was used to suggest the appropriate reading age; and pedagogical tips, giving the teacher suggestions for how to structure reading sessions with learners. We conducted evaluation with in- and pre-service teachers in three Districts in KwaZulu-Natal using survey and focus group sessions. Participants found the app useful for planning and delivering teaching. The pedagogical advice was more widely used than the reading age prediction function. Barriers to accessibility were encountered in terms of device signal and compatibility. We discuss the outcome of the prototype development and evaluation and how the app might be integrated into digital support environments for literacy educators.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: AfriCHI 2023: 4th African Human Computer Interaction Conference
• Start Date: Jan 30, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Jan 30, 2024
• Publication Date: Nov 27, 2023
• Deposit Date: Feb 15, 2024
• Publisher: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
• Pages: 58-63
• Book Title: AfriCHI '23: Proceedings of the 4th African Human Computer Interaction Conference
• ISBN: 9798400708879
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3628096.3628751
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/11717701
• Additional Information: Published: 2024-01-30