Educating Through Mobile Devices: The ABC Game, a Study Case

Abstract

Electronic games have an important role in contemporary society, affecting it economically, socially and culturally. With a huge market, a proportional number of games, in all flavors, have been offered for all ages, especially for kids, who are patently fond of them. Observing this fact, researchers and teachers realized that games might develop cognitive abilities that formal study could not. Taking advantage of this situation, this paper proposes and presents the development of an educational game for mobile devices aiming to aid small children in the process of literacy, making it playful and engaging, trying at the same time to entertain and to teach, keeping students motivated and, in best cases, leading them to study on their own. The game is composed by several activities involving the alphabet. The activities vary from games that order the alphabet, connect an image to a certain character letter, complete words and unscramble words. There is also a trophy room, in which the student may check the trophies collected during the activities to follow their development.