SpelLit: Development of a multi-touch application to foster literacy skills at elementary schools

This paper describes SpelLit, an application, which fosters literacy skills at elementary schools. For the development of our educational software, traditional concepts of learning have been adapted to fit the UniTable, a multi-touch tabletop system for educational purposes, aiming at students of all ages. Multi-touch technology lets users interact in easy and direct ways with computers. Being able to combine auditory, visual and haptic senses can improve the quality of learning, especially for young children. In this paper, it is shown that aspects of learning improve when well-established learning concepts are mapped to this new kind of interface. The UniTable as well as SpelLit have been developed in a user-centered process during several iterations, tests, and discussions with children and teachers as well as a speech therapist. With their help, it was possible to design hard- and software, appropriate for the use in schools.