Promoting young Kenyans’ growth in literacy with educational technology : a tale of two years of implementation

Abstract

The study explored impacts of the interactive early literacy software, ABRACADABRA (A Balanced Reading Approach for Children Always Designed to Achieve Best Results for All, ABRA) and the digital library, READS, on primary students’ reading abilities and reading instruction in Kenyan schools. ABRA is an online application that provides an engaging interactive environment for learning literacy for early elementary school-aged children. Embedded in the “Learning Toolkit Plus,” READS (Repository for E-Books and Digital Stories) is a searchable collection of multi-lingual stories available online. As a result of exposure to ABRA and READS, the gap between high and low performing students diminished.