Involving the end users in the development of language learning material

This study aimed at a user centric design of a hybrid book concept for elementary schools. The user groups of interest were 6th grade pupils and their teachers, and the concept was tested for language learning materials. It is quite common that the printed and digital learning materials for elementary school children are developed separately. In our approach, the printed and digital materials were combined into one entity by enabling the access to the digital material through images in the book. We paid special attention into mobility and easy usability of the hybrid book. The concept was tested by pupils, teachers and parents of the children, after which a final application was made and given to one class for actual use and evaluation for a period of three weeks. The feedback from the users was very positive. As the end users, the children and the teachers, had been involved in the design process and the tasks were selected and modified based on their preferences, the tasks received excellent comments. The teachers and the parents saw many potential benefits of utilizing mobile phones for learning purposes. In addition, the teachers saw the concept of a hybrid book as a promising and motivating approach. The children have different learning styles, preferences and needs for which the teachers want to have a variety of solutions in order to adjust their teaching to these differences. The concept of a hybrid book enables differentiation in a convenient way. The children were also excited of using mobile phones for school work. They were able to give very mature comments on the advantages of the hybrid book and were interested in taking part into the research. As the children are so well accustomed to use mobile phones in general, their basic attitude was positive and they found the use of the application easy. The children were active users of the application also outside the school hours. On the other hand, it is possible that the novelty of the application made them more interested in the school tasks during the test period. (6 refs.)