Impact of Computer Touch Screen and Mouse Input Devices on Counting Skills of Nursery School Pupils in Benue State, Nigeria

Uje Aondoaka Beatrice, Abubakar Kabiru Muhammad

Abstract


The study is an investigation on the impact of touch screen and mouse input devices on counting skills of nursery school pupils in Benue state, Nigeria. Four specific objectives, four research questions and four null hypotheses guided this study. A quasi-experimental design was adopted for the study. The population comprised of pupils in private nursery schools located within Makurdi metropolis of Benue State, Nigeria. The sample consists of 340 nurseries three pupils purposively selected from ten private nursery schools in Makurdi. Two experimental groups were formed and subjected to the use of touch-screen and mouse input devices respectively. The exercise lasted for six weeks using a Pupils’ Computer Achievement Test (PCAT) designed by the researchers and validated by experts. Data collected was analyzed using mean, standard deviation and t-test statistics and all the hypotheses were tested at a level of significance of 0.05. The results revealed that the use of a touch screen input device has an advantage over using the mouse in all four tasks undertaken by the participants. The tendency of using more than one finger was found among the children that performed the touch screen operation. Also, children that used the mouse input device were found to have experienced certain difficulties in performing clicking and dragging operations. The study generally established evidence of the existence of differences in pupils’ achievement in computer usage. It was recommended among other things that all nursery schools should be adequately equipped with microcomputers to enable children to get acquainted with both mouse and touch screen operations so that preschool children can operate these input devices in a play like activity to facilitate the acquisition of early computer skills. 


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