CONVERTING THE RAYMICK EDUCATIONAL TOY-GAME CONCEPT INTO AN INTERACTIVE DIGITAL MODEL FOR ENHANCING OBJECT RECOGNITION AMONG NURSERY PUPILS IN ZARIA

Abstract

This article is premised upon the Raymick toy game model concept designed and fabricated by Shadrack Abayomi Adeshina as an M.A. Industrial Design project in 2015, aimed at enhancing learning among nursery school pupils in Zaria. The toys were created as physical models using cardboard paper, reinforced with strawboard and mounted on an iron rod stand, affixed to a wooden pedestal. It displayed 26 different photographs of selected objects with their corresponding names and strategically arranged on a cuboid like a giant dice. The toys were used in teaching object recognition to 33 pupils, who were randomly selected from classes 1 to 3 and ages 3 to 5-year old at the Home Economics Laboratory Nursery School, Faculty of Education, Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria. They were given the Raymick toys to play and interact with for a period of 3 weeks, the essence being to measure the impact of the Raymick toys on their academic performance. Interestingly, the result revealed that 85% of the respondents passed the picture recognition and naming tests. In effect, a new research direction has been initiated that attempts to create a digital game application using the Raymick toygame concept, with a view towards producing a game based platform for children to complement the traditional classroom process.The research adopts the Digital GameBased Learning (DGBL) instructional model, which incorporates educational contents and learning principles into video games. The significance of digitization of Raymick concept on the pupils is to make the digital game more interesting and flexible. This is in addition to enhancing multi-sensory learning,