Practice! YUBIMOJI AIUEO: An Edutainment System of Japanese Hand Alphabets for Elementary School Children

Abstract

Practice! YUBIMOJI AIUEO (PYA) is an edutainment system to promote basic expressions of Kana characters (AIUEO) of Japanese hand alphabets (YUBIMOJI) to ordinary children at elementary school age. In this paper, we report how PYA is good in edutainment objectives based on the series of experiments at classrooms of Sumiyoshi Elementary School, in Kobe, Japan. The results have suggested that 1) even if the users do not like personal computers, they can use PYA and keep their interests, 2) PYA users keep the understanding about the hand alphabets longer, 3) they love the puppy hints and they are affective, and 4) they can memorize the character shapes. In one sentence: to use PYA is definitive