From: John.Feltham@f706.n640.z3.fidonet.org (John Feltham)
Newsgroups: k12.ed.comp.literacy
Subject: Paper. 1/4
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 11:46:40 PDT
Organization: FidoNet node 3:640/706 - Coral Sea, Townsville Qld Australia

Taken from "Australian Educational Computing"
The Journal of the Australian Council for Computers in Education.
vol 7, No. 2, September 1992, pp 18-21.

by kind permission of Dr John King.


DEVISING THE DEVICE

micro-computer input decisions for young children


Dr John King and Dr Nola Alloway
School of Education
James Cook University of North Queensland
Townsville. Queensland. Australia.


This article reports on research relating to the efficiency of use of the
mouse, joystick and keyboard by children from preschool through to grade
three. The results indicated an increasing efficiency of use for the task set
from keyboard to joystick to mouse for all the grade levels investigated.
Efficiency of use improved significantly between pre-school and grade one and
then levelled off, while the order of efficiency of use of the three devices
remained constant across age levels. Preference for particular devices varied
according to grade level, with the older two grades showing a clear
preference for the mouse, the most efficiently used device. The pre-school
children preferred the least efficiently used device, namely the keyboard.



INTRODUCTION

The use in society of micro-computer input devices has evolved from a
somewhat exclusive use of keyboards to one in which, for most purposes, some
combination of the mouse and keyboard is used. While this has been a feature
of Macintosh computers for a decade, it has only more recently become common
for other PCs following the introduction of 'windows' environments. Of late,
a further revolution has occurred in the note book computer market with the
introduction of built-in track-balls in one brand.

Upper primary and secondary school students have  been provided with
microcomputers containing input devices identical to those used in the
workplace on the basis of what appears to be two assumptions: firstly, this
type of student needs to become proficient in the use of these tools in order
to develop work-related skills; and secondly, it is assumed that they possess
the motor skills necessary to use them effectively. The question of the
suitability of particular input devices for use with young children, however,
is more problematic.

The input requirements of young children are significantly different from
those of older students and adults. The ability of young children to input
text, for instance, is severely restricted or non-existent. Hence the
requirements for key-boarding can be confined to some combination of the
return key, the 'arrow' keys and in some cases, the Space Bar and Escape
keys. This has had the effect of marginalising the keyboard as the preferred
input device. Also, because extensive use is made of the motivational
features of electronic games in programs for this age group, the operation of
the software lends itself to the use of games peripherals such as the
joystick and mouse, as well as 'iconic' input devices such as the concept
keyboard. However, the literature is somewhat divided on the suitability or
otherwise of particular devices for young children. On the one hand, we see
statements by Cements (1987) claiming that 'Using the standard keyboard is
not a problem for young children, and is often superior to other devices such
as a joystick' (p. 34); and then statements of the opposite kind such as
Blemings's (1988) assertion that and for some children contains 'an
overwhelming amount of distracting and irrelevant information' (p. 74). Other
information has been contained in surveys of such devices as Muppet Learning
Keys and photonic wands, as well as Education Department sponsored
investigations which have tended to report at the level of observer
reflection on children's interaction with the device.

Research evidence on adult usage of input devices has been available for some
time and is exemplified by that of Card, English and Burr (1978) who found
that continuous movement devices, such as the mouse and joystick, are used
more efficiently than key-operated devices. Empirical studies with young
children are far less common and more recent. In an investigation of the use
of computer-based pointing devices by 6-, 8- and 10- year-old children, Jones
(1990) carried out four experiments requiring children to point to and click
on screen targets. The children were required to make horizontal, vertical
and orthogonal moves with the devices, and were timed for different trials.
These experiments provided information on, among other things, the relative
efficiency of use by these children of the mouse, joystick and track-ball.
For the 6-year-olds, the order of efficiency of use in terms of lowest times
across all four experiments was: joystick, mouse, track-ball. For the 8- and
10-year-olds, the joystick enjoyed five of the eight lowest times, with the
mouse taking three.


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