Digital technologies are increasingly being used to support school learning, but few studies have assessed the effectiveness of these new teaching methods for very young students. The aim of the present study was to assess the impact of implementing a digital notebook application designed for a stylus-oriented tablet in kindergarten classrooms. This digital notebook was dedicated to the acquisition of handwriting skills by beginning writers. Using artificial intelligence to finely analyze the spatiotemporal characteristics of handwriting (i.e., shape, order and direction of the segments), the exercises were personalized, and extrinsic feedback was delivered at the end of each trial to inform learners of their results. A total of 22 kindergarten classes participated in a 12-week teacher-implemented program, half working exclusively with paper and pencil, and half partially undertaking their handwriting training with the digital notebook. A paper-and-pen writing task was administered as a pre-test and post-test to assess the progress of all the children. Data analysis showed that learning outcomes with the digital notebook were contingent upon the students’ initial handwriting level, as the benefits of training with the app were only demonstrated for children with a medium level at the start of the study. The results are discussed in the light of the literature on the impact of extrinsic feedback and learners’ initial levels.

中文翻译：

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平板电脑应用可以支持手写学习吗？幼儿园课堂学习成果调查

数字技术越来越多地被用于支持学校学习，但很少有研究评估这些新教学方法对非常年轻的学生的有效性。本研究的目的是评估在幼儿园教室中实施专为面向手写笔的平板电脑设计的数字笔记本应用程序的影响。这本数字笔记本专用于初级作家获得手写技能。利用人工智能精细分析笔迹的时空特征（即句段的形状、顺序和方向），练习个性化，并在每次试验结束时提供外在反馈，以告知学习者他们的结果。共有22个幼儿园班级参加了为期12周的教师实施计划，一半专门用纸和铅笔工作，一半用数字笔记本进行手写训练。纸笔写作任务作为前测和后测进行，以评估所有孩子的进步。数据分析表明，使用数字笔记本的学习结果取决于学生的初始手写水平，因为使用该应用程序进行培训的好处仅在研究开始时对中等水平的儿童进行了证明。根据关于外在反馈和学习者初始水平的影响的文献，对结果进行了讨论。数据分析表明，使用数字笔记本的学习结果取决于学生的初始手写水平，因为使用该应用程序进行培训的好处仅在研究开始时对中等水平的儿童进行了证明。根据关于外在反馈和学习者初始水平的影响的文献，对结果进行了讨论。数据分析表明，使用数字笔记本的学习结果取决于学生的初始手写水平，因为使用该应用程序进行培训的好处仅在研究开始时对中等水平的儿童进行了证明。根据关于外在反馈和学习者初始水平的影响的文献，对结果进行了讨论。