# Using Tablets to Teach Basic Literacy Skills to Kindergarten Students: A Case Study
## 5 Discussion
### Implications for Research and Practice  
The study contributes valuable evidence on the efficacy of tablets in boosting basic literacy skills of kindergarten students but also in establishing a more engaging and responsive learning environment, compared to conventional instructional materials. It quantified these effects and gathered data on student perceptions and emotions. The implications of these findings unveil interesting insights for researchers, educators, and software developers engaged in the realm of early childhood education. For researchers, the study highlights the promising potential of tablets to enhance learning outcomes in letter name and sound identification. The significant differences observed when utilizing tablets compared to conventional resources underscore the need for further exploration into the mechanisms through which tablets enhance these skills, including identifying contributing factors and their interactions.  
For software developers, taking into account that the study's applications were developed ad hoc, the outcomes emphasize the importance of designing educational applications for mobile devices specifically for young audiences. The findings highlight the necessity to refine these applications to optimize their educational impact. Despite the positive influence on learning outcomes, there is the need need for developers to design applications aligned with kindergarten students' developmental stages. Developers are encouraged to continuously innovate by integrating features that enhance user engagement, such as game elements and adaptive difficulty levels, helping to maintain high levels of enjoyment and motivation among young users. Developers should also consider incorporating adaptive features to cater to varied learning styles and abilities, ensuring that their applications remain inclusive and accessible to a wide spectrum of learners.  
Educators can extract from this study the significance of incorporating tablets into early childhood educational settings to close gaps in basic literacy skills. Given the study's findings, the increased engagement, enjoyment, and motivation associated with tablets suggest that these devices can be powerful assets in cultivating a positive and engaging learning environment for young children. Educators are thus encouraged to include tablets (and applications running on them) in their teaching strategies. It is also crucial to design classroom activities that complement the interactive and experiential nature of tablets, ensuring that conventional educational objectives are achieved while capitalizing on the unique strengths of tablets.  
By demonstrating significant improvement over conventional materials, the study's findings advocate for broader adoption and implementation of tablets in early education, provided they are effectively integrated with proper pedagogical support and high-quality content. Such insights are necessary for educational policy makers aiming to harness technology's full potential in literacy education. Yet, the development of the applications utilized in this study demanded both time and expertise. Although these tasks are manageable for individuals with intermediate to advanced skills, it is unlikely that educators have the necessary time, resources, or motivation to engage in such activities, given their current workloads. Therefore, it is essential for educational policy makers to provide educators with tablets and a repository of ready-to-use applications. In-service training programs could be proven useful as they can equip teachers with the necessary skills to enhance their proficiency in creating and implementing these applications. Moreover, since integrating tablets and associated activities into existing teaching frameworks requires additional time, it is crucial for education policymakers to consider revising school schedules and curricula.