Investigation of the usability of free hand interactive technologies in the first literacy teaching process according to views of primary school teachers and field experts

Free-hand interactive technologies (FIT) work remote sensing and interpretation of human body movements through sensors. In this study, it was aimed to examine the usability of Leap Motion and Kinect sensors, which are free-hand interactive technologies, in the first literacy teaching process, according to the views of primary school teachers and field experts. The research was designed with a case study model which is one of the qualitative research methods. The study group consisted of 51 primary school teachers from 5 different schools in Aksaray-Turkey, 4 experts from the educational technology field, and 13 experts from the primary school teacher education field. Educational seminars were held in each participant's school separately at the end of the fall semester of 2019 and the beginning of the spring semester of 2020, with 1 hour of theoretical presentation and 1 hour of practice. In the seminars, FIT was introduced to the participants. Sample application, and games related to the use of technology were tried and played together with the participants. At the end of the seminars, the views of the participants were taken via an 11-item semi-structured classroom teacher interview form, an 8-item classroom teacher education expert interview form, and 5-item educational technology expert interview forms. At the end of the study, most of the teachers and all of the field experts stated that they found the technology necessary and useful for educational settings. It was showed that the participants agreed on the applicability of the technology in the first stage of the teaching stages of the sound-based sentence method. It was stated by the participants that the use of FIT in the later stages will be difficult and unnecessary. Also, all participants emphasized that there is a need for a special classroom for FIT in schools. Experts from primary school teacher education had a common view that SET will be effective in the education of students with special needs and learning disabilities. At the end of the research, it was concluded that the software and digital content of FIT can be used effectively in all schools when adapted to the Turkish first literacy curriculum, and it is necessary to develop technology for efficiency.