Resumen de Online tutoring as a pivotal quality of web-based early literacy programs.
Cornelia A. T. Kegel, Adriana G. Bus
In this randomized controlled trial, 312 low-socioeconomic-status children (M age = 52.9 months, SD = 3.2) from 15 Dutch schools participated. Children in the intervention condition played early literacy games via the intelligent tutoring system Living Letters. Control children played a nonliteracy computer game. At the beginning of each intervention session, children received instruction from computer characters about how to play the game. While playing the game, half of the children in the intervention group received individualized feedback, which included oral corrections and cues from a computer tutor. The other half of the children received no individualized feedback. On average the intervention comprised 11 sessions (approximately 110 min). A main finding was that children's code-related skills increased as a result of the Living Letters program but only when the program included a computer tutor that gave oral feedback to children's correct responses and errors. Children with underdeveloped inhibitory control scored disproportionately low in a computer environment without tutoring.
