Kien Tsong Chau, Zarina Samsudin and Wan Ahmad Jaafar Wan Yahaya
Keywords: Physical object, Multimedia, Physical Multimedia, Preschoolers
Abstract: Based on the idea of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, a learning gap emerges between preschoolers and multimedia learning system where the cognitive capability of a preschooler whose cognition is still in a state of preoperational level and the condition of multimedia which only delivers information in digital visual-auditory format. In light of the compelling theory, a multimedia prototype augmented with the use of physical objects named “PhysiCook” has been designed and developed. PhysiCook is a game-like learning system in cooking. Acquiring know-how to cook is not the final objective of the system, but to understand the real objects and ingredients involved, how and when they are used in the cooking process. To examine the capability of the prototype, a research that deployed the instrument called Smileyometer, which capable of measuring the level of enjoyment of subjects towards experimental system, on 248 preschoolers recruited from seven Malaysian kindergartens was conducted. Analyses revealed that the PhysiCook system stimulates preschoolers’ enjoyment significantly more than regular multimedia. Overall, the findings led to the conclusion that the physical multimedia is one of the source of state of enjoyment in multimedia learning for preschoolers.