Handheld devices in kindergarten education
have evolved from Palm Pilots and PDA’s (Personal Digital
Assistant) in the past decade to cell phones and
MP3 players more recently. Previous studies
have reported that educational computer games can enhance
the learning interest of children, and also increase
their learning motivation. Researchers have also stated
that games play a significant part of the development of
children’s cognition and social processes while they
may improve their learning performance as well as their
learning motivation. In addition, the idea of games as mean of offering
knowledge has been around for some time and is usually
referred as serious games. This initiative, known as serious
games, has changed the way that educators viewed
instruction to meet the needs of the children and serious
games have impacted the military and firefighters, the
medical and higher business education as well as the
mainstream and special education.
Furthermore, recent studies state that young children
ages 3 to 6 (preschoolers) play a wide range of serious
games, which are now available on large screens,
handheld screens, electronic learning systems, and electronic
toys, and their time spent with games is growing.
