The presence of digital mobile applications (apps) designed to promote early literacy skills has surged in the last few years. This study explored children's affect and engagement as they interacted with three apps: Endless Reader, Hideout: Early Reader, and Preschool Matching Game: Rhyming Words. The study consisted of 12 children, age 4 to 5, who interacted in pairs with each of the apps while their classroom teacher facilitated the experience. The researchers examined videos and transcripts of the children's actions and nonverbal expressions as they encountered the apps. Transcripts included verbal and nonverbal information with codes assigned to represent child behaviors. Descriptive analysis of the data led to characterizing behaviors children exhibited in light of the different apps' design features and with respect to group dynamics. The researchers found that all three apps had relatively equal proportions of positive and negative child behaviors. However, the types of behaviors varied according to the demands and constraints of each app. The researchers also observed differences in child behavior depending on the dynamics that occurred as children interacted with each other and with their teacher. The results of the study imply that parents and teachers seeking to choose quality apps must consider a variety of factors, including the type of child engagement that the app tends to elicit and the instructional value of the content. Future research should explore the extent to which different types of positive and negative behaviors are related to design and pedagogical features of apps in order to aid parents and teachers in choosing apps that are engaging as well as instructionally sound.

La hipótesis básica de esta investigación es valorar si el programa AUGIE es una herramienta tecnológica que ayuda a las personas con autismo a comunicarse y a implementar aprendizajes. Partiendo de la base de que, en el trastorno del espectro del autismo (TEA), existen cuatro aspectos básicos característicos: las deficiencias en comunicación, socialización e imaginación, y los patrones de actividad e intereses restringidos y repetitivos, este trabajo se ha centrado fundamentalmente en una de las áreas afectadas: la comunicación. Todas las personas con TEA muestran alteraciones en la comunicación y en el lenguaje de forma muy heterogénea: desde la persona con mutismo pasando por la ecolálica, que repite frases sin cesar, hasta los que tienen lenguaje verbal pero carecen de habilidades a nivel pragmático. Dada la importancia del desarrollo comunicativo como mecanismo de control del entorno, de autodeterminación y de relación social, este trabajo pretende demostrar cómo la intervención de las nuevas tecnologías, en este caso del iPad a través de un programa específico como el AUGIE, maximiza las posibilidades comunicativas por encima de métodos clásicos, como sistema de comunicación por intercambio de imágenes (Picture Exchange Communication System PECS). Tras realizar una búsqueda bibliográfica, en primer lugar, se describen las hipótesis explicativas de las causas del autismo desde diferentes perspectivas como el psicoanálisis, conductismo y el cognitivismo pasando por las explicaciones biológicas o la hiper o hiposensibilidad a diferentes estímulos. A continuación, se explican las características del trastorno y se hace un especial énfasis en el aspecto comunicativo como se ha explicado anteriormente. Seguidamente, se abordan las necesidades educativas de las personas con TEA desde las necesidades de interacción social y de comunicación. Posteriormente, se explica cómo las tecnologías de la información y de la comunicación (TIC) constituyen un área de rápido desarrollo e implementación en el ámbito educativo. Las TIC son un medio tecnológico de intervención educativa para las personas con discapacidad y, en concreto, para las personas con TEA. Son un potente recurso para varios ámbitos de su vida: educación, comunicación, ocio y tiempo libre. Un objetivo de las TIC es proporcionar un modelo de comunicación válido a una persona que no es capaz de verbalizar. Una de las principales ventajas de las TIC es que se erigen como un poderoso aliado a la hora de potenciar y mejorar la comunicación de las personas con TEA. Dentro de las TIC, destaca el uso del iPad ya que proporciona inmediatez, movilidad y autonomía; proporciona una enseñanza individualizada. Los objetivos específicos de este trabajo son: 1. Comprobar que, si se usa el iPad con el AUGIE, se facilita que las personas con TEA realicen intercambios comunicativos, peticiones y transmitan necesidades. 2. Valorar que, si se utiliza el iPad con el AUGIE, se facilitan aprendizajes a través de la secuenciación visual mediante imágenes de pasos para lograr ejecutar una tarea (Método TEACCH, Treatment and Education of Autistic related Communication Handicapped Children) como, por ejemplo, poner la mesa, vestirse, ir al baño, etc. (autonomía personal), comprar en el supermercado siguiendo los pasos de la lista de la compra, desplazarse y tener una conducta adecuada en un lugar público como una cafetería (habilidades sociocomunitarias). 3. Verificar que, si se usa el iPad con el AUGIE, se puede favorecer el aprendizaje de los tiempos de espera. 4. Cotejar que, si se emplea el iPad con el AUGIE, se puede facilitar el juego y el entretenimiento (ocio) de las personas con TEA. A continuación se describen diferentes programas informáticos como el AZHAR, e-Mitnza, Sc@out, Picaa y el AUGIE, analizando las ventajas y las desventajas de cada uno de ellos. Durante los últimos años, el iPad se ha convertido en una tecnología popular para la educación de las personas con TEA. La popularidad del iPad en la educación de estudiantes con TEA puede relacionarse con su portabilidad (Shah, 2011; VanLaarhoven, Johnson, VanLaarhoven-Myles, Grider y Grider, 2009), el diseño de gran pantalla táctil (Shah, 2011), la facilidad en la individualización de la presentación de materiales educativos y una multitud de aplicaciones educativas (Kagohara, Sigafoos, Acmadi, Van der Meer, O´Reilly y Lancioni, 2011; Kagohara, Van der Meer, et al., 2013; Shah, 2011). Aunque los iPads son ampliamente utilizados, hay poca investigación para apoyar sus beneficios de aprendizaje (Kagohara, Sigafoos, et al., 2011; Kagohara et al., 2013). Se ha escogido el programa americano AUGIE para la investigación puesto que se trata de un programa muy completo y sólo se puede utilizar con el iPad. Este programa, AUGIE AAC Aumentative and Alternative Communication; (Comunicación Aumentativa y Alternativa), fue creado por Víctor Morris (2010) en Illinois (Estados Unidos). De la población de 80 usuarios que posee un Centro de Educación Especial de la Comunidad Valenciana, se ha seleccionado una muestra de forma incidental que consiste en seis personas con autismo de entre 18 y 30 años de edad, los cuales, se han dividido en dos grupos de tres sujetos. Un grupo (experimental) ha utilizado el iPad con el AUGIE y el otro grupo (convencional) ha utilizado un sistema de comunicación más tradicional con pictogramas utilizando el sistema PECS. Se ha creado una hoja de registro para la observación participante realizada. Esta hoja de registro es una plantilla en donde se registra a mano toda la información sobre cómo utilizan las personas con TEA el programa. Del mismo modo, se han registrado los avances comunicativos y las diferentes características asociadas al grupo de sujetos que no trabajan con el AUGIE y utilizan el sistema PECS. El programa se ha probado con las personas con autismo de manera individualizada en sala y con un ambiente estructurado. El tipo observación por parte del investigador principal ha sido de observación participante. En total se han realizado 12 sesiones de trabajo con cada sujeto (6 sujetos) dando a lugar 72 registros realizados de forma cualitativa. Así mismo, a cada sujeto se le ha aplicado un total de 28 variables relacionas con las peticiones, pasos a seguir realizando tareas, elecciones, juegos, etc. Los resultados muestran que el AUGIE en el iPad consigue mejorar la comunicación de las personas con TEA por encima del método tradicional PECS ya que, en la primera sesión, consiguen alcanzar una media de 13 habilidades siendo estadísticamente significativo dicho resultado y cumpliendo la hipótesis alternativa de que existe diferencia en la consecución de habilidades comunicativas entre ambos grupos (uso del iPad y uso de PECS). De esta forma, el programa AUGIE en formato iPad aparece como una herramienta muchísimo más ventajosa que los medios tradicionales como el PECS ya que los sujetos aprenden en menor tiempo a pedir de forma espontánea, piden más cantidad de cosas, solicitan más información, aprenden antes a rechazar cosas, piden acciones como, por ejemplo, descansar o beber agua, reduce estereotipias, centra la atención, favorece el desapego hacia objetos, no hay conductas disruptivas y les hace comprender antes y de forma más adecuada la espera y el paso del tiempo.

Music therapists are expected to provide live music for clients with diverse preferences, yet these therapists face many barriers preventing them from recreating client-preferred music in a way that adheres to the expectations of the genre, or with “musical authenticity.” The purpose of this study was to investigate music therapists’ perceptions and practices regarding musical authenticity. Survey responses (n = 904) indicated that music therapists highly value musical authenticity, but a major theme in the qualitative data revealed they often balance its importance with other factors. Descriptive survey data and qualitative themes revealed lack of training in functional musicianship and electronic technology as major barriers to musical authenticity. A major qualitative theme regarding therapists’ practices was the use of collaboration with clients and creative solutions. Most participants indicated use of non-electronic strategies and reported they had not used electronic technology to increase musical authenticity. Descriptive survey data and qualitative themes revealed frequent and effective use of recorded music. Finally, chi-square analyses revealed significant relationships between age and use of technology and iPad and between gender and use of technology. Music therapists would benefit from additional training, more research on authenticity, and music therapy specific guidelines for using music authentically.

Delays in communication are one of the defining characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Educators have begun using technology to teach students with ASD to label different items. However, more research needs to be conducted with technology (such as iPads and other tablets) to find the most effective teaching procedures. We wanted to find the most effective way to teach children with ASD age-appropriate action verbs, such as drawing and painting. Five preschool-aged students with ASD participated in this study. We taught these participants to label action verbs using pictures and short video clips, to test which method was the most effective. With two of the five participants, we wanted to see if the action verbs we taught as pictures generalized to video clips, and vice versa. With these same two participants, we asked if they remembered all of the verbs two weeks later, to see if the skill maintained. At the end of the study, we conducted an assessment with the participants to see if they preferred learning action verbs with pictures or video clips. The results show that all of the preschoolers with ASD learned to identify verbs both as pictures and video clips.

Mobile applications stores such as Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android Market revolutionized the distribution of applications for mobile devices. However, with thousands of application submissions, limited testing resources and the lack of an effective filtering mechanism, application stores suffer from information overload and a risk of releasing poor quality applications that could create confusion to consumers and may seriously affect the App store markets. Thus concern has been raised whether applications have been developed according to the need and interest of consumers. Therefore, the purpose of this study was mainly to identify and get insight into the main factors that mobile application consumer takes into consideration when purchasing mobile applications from the desktop iTunes App Store and the mobile App Store on the iOS devices: iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. In this study both qualitative and quantitative case study approach was used. Accordingly twelve participants were selected from Stockholm and Uppsala area and their behaviour in the Apple’s App Store from the desktop iTunes and the mobile App Store on iOS devices was observed and recorded. Additionally questionnaires were administered to all participants in order to gather the necessary information. Consumers on the App Store behave differently depending on the unit they are using. This is because applications on the App Store are presented differently in the desktop iTunes App Store and the mobile App Store on the iOS devices. The study shows that young consumers with lower income purchase apps more frequently than the consumers with higher income. It also shows that consumers often consider the description, the screenshots, and the ratings when they are interested in buying applications. Furthermore consumers take a look more on ratings in the list on the iPhone and iPad App Store because the ratings are not shown in the list on the iTunes App Store. Similarly consumers tend to read the customer reviews more on the iTunes and iPad App Store as the customer reviews on the iPhone App Store is displayed in another page. Consumers were found to be more attracted by visual elements that they are already familiarized with, apps with famous logos and known fonts and styles but also to coherent and descriptive app names and strong colors (i.e. red, green, yellow, black and blue, respectively). The majority of the participants found the iTunes App Store messy and cumbersome to use. They preferred using the iPad App Store because they found it to be a good mixture of both iTunes and iPhone App Store but also because it has more options to consider. Although consumers behave differently depending on the unit they are using, the visual element of the apps, prior knowledge of consumers about the name of the apps, ratings, easy accessibility of screenshots and customer reviews of the apps were found to be the main factors to be considered by consumers when they visit app stores for purchase. Thus application developers and digital magazine publishers should consider these consumer behaviours in order to influence more downloads and successfully sell apps on the app stores.

Medievanorna förändras fort. Dagens mediekonsument kräver medier med ett ”rikt” utbud, med rörliga bilderoch musik, ungefär som i den smarta mobilen. Och produkten ska vara möjlig att ta med sig överallt, för det är juvad den nya teknologin vant oss vid. Ipaden erbjuder just detta. Många medieexperter menar att den är lösningenmed stort L för den krisande magasinsbranschen.Men hur förändras journalistiken i klivet från papper till Ipad? Det är vad min undersökning vill ge ett svar på.Den bygger på ett närstudium av de första åtta utgåvorna av Svenska Dagbladets Insikt, det mest utveckladeIpadmagasinet i Sverige just nu.Surfplattan är framför allt ett visuellt medium, men det ger också en totalupplevelse, på ett helt annat sätt än enpapperstidning. Flera sinnen stimuleras samtidigt, syn, hörsel, känsel. Texter kan vara praktiskt taget hur långasom helst här – men min studie visar att antalet bilder ökar ännu mer. I Insikt är det det rikt illustrerade ochtidlösa kulturreportaget med många interaktiva inslag som är särskilt gynnat. Mycket tyder också på att arbetetmed den nya plattformen har inspirerat till ökad lekfullhet och kreativitet på Svenska Dagbladets redaktion.

¡@In pace with the digital service development and technology expansion, the traditional media environment is in a transformation period. Along with the innovation of mobile reading, there is coming an emerging trend, digital mobile reading in the entire world. Therefore, it is clear that print media is toward to the digital convergence trend. ¡@ ¡@It is iPad, first launch tablet in 2011. Apr., contributed to the highest tablet market share among all for Apple Inc. In the future, tablet is going to be a kind of innovative and leading media tools. For that reason, there are plenty of traditional print media companies plan to launch iPad applications. Then, print media not only becomes the potential novel media technology but also leads the trend of print media transformation. However, print media application at present is still in the primary stage. It is still waiting for market test that print media application could be the main stream or not, in the coming future. ¡@¡@This research, on the basis of Rogers¡¦ ¡§Diffusion of Innovations,¡¨ investigates and analyzes the print media applications. Also, setting United Daily News iPad Application as an example, it is focus on the relationship among the features of the early adopters, demographic variables, perceived characteristics of innovations, lifestyle and the willing of print media applications intension. Through the collaboration between academy and industry, UDN. COM, it is 396 effective samples after collecting that distributes to United Daily News iPad Application and UDN. COM. (digital information area) ¡@¡@The result shows that the profiles of the early adopters using United Daily News iPad Application are middle-aged males, well-educated and high income. It is demographic variables, perceived characteristics of innovations and media usage behavior that significantly impact on the willing of print media applications intension. Further, the lifestyle prototype, much closer to sophisticated and fashionable, life expansionists and preference for foreign products, owns superior adoption intensions to United Daily News iPad Application.

This study was aimed to examine what happened when a municipality in Sweden invested in ICT. The purpose of this study was also to find out how the change of process with ICT investment was expressed the need for more knowledge. This was called “one-to-one” with the goal that all students would have their own computer during their years in school.Teachers have been interviewed and observed about how they work with ipads during reading and writing lessons. The teachers in this study said that they need more knowledge to improve their everyday work with ipads. They see many positive developments in students’ acquisition of knowledge. The intention was also to study how the teachers work with writing and reading for students at risk of future disabilities. Research that was presented in this study said that efforts and work to help students with reading and writing difficulties should start early and be done in a structured way to help students connect phoneme and grapheme to create alinguistic awareness.

National early childhood organizations have posited that technology tools might be used to expand young children's thinking and experiences if offered in playful ways, and organized with interactive activities that allow for individualization and social interaction (NAEYC & Fred Rogers Center, 2012). Furthermore, these organizations have argued for the need to study newer technologies such as touch-screen technologies (NAEYC & Fred Rogers Center, 2012). The purpose of this study is to examine young children's technology-related play choices and actions particularly as they occurred with touch-screen tablets in a classroom setting. The 10-week qualitative study, organized around a classic grounded theory methodology (Glaser, 1978, 1992, 1998) and conducted within a single classroom, reports the close observation and description of 14 public- school pre-kindergarten students' actions with open-ended, symbolic-play tablet apps and interactions with one another, toward building a grounded theory of children's socially situated, tablet-centered digital play. The findings of this study demonstrate how participants' play choices were situated within multiple nested social spheres, including layers of digital play, the iPad activity-center, and the classroom as organized by the teacher. Examination of children's changeable play actions and choices revealed students' use of reflexive tracking as they actively navigated between personal and social interests to engage in three types of play: sampling, experimenting, and engaging in pretense. The findings and theorized model of socially situated dual-tablet play inform the discourse on technology integration in early childhood classrooms as well as the discourse on play, particularly in regards to digital play. / text

Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur pedagoger och elever kan arbeta med Ipads i undervisningen i grundsärskolan, vad elever och pedagoger tycker om att arbeta med Ipad i undervisningen och om Ipads kan vara ett lämpligt digitalt verktyg i undervisningen och som stöd för kommunikation för elever med en utvecklingsstörning. Undersökningen är av kvalitativ art och intervjuer gjordes med både pedagoger och elever i klassen. Flera observationer gjordes av undervisningen. Slutsatsen av studien visar att pedagogerna är positiva till att eleverna på grundsärskolan arbetar med Ipads och att Ipad kan vara ett bra pedagogiskt verktyg för elever med utvecklingsstörning på särskolan med många variationsmöjligheter.