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Cho, Kim, Kim, Kim, Kim, Kim, Kim, and Kim: Development of 'Children's Food Avatar' Application for Dietary Education
Original Article

Korean Journal of Community Nutrition 2013; 18(4): 299-311.

Published online: 31 August 2013

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5720/kjcn.2013.18.4.299

Development of 'Children's Food Avatar' Application for Dietary Education

Joo-Han Cho, Sook-Bae Kim1, Soon-Kyung Kim2, Mi-Hyun Kim3, Gap-Soo Kim4, Se-Na Kim5, So-Young Kim5, Jeong-Weon Kim6

Major of Elementary Science & Technology Education for Life, Graduate School of Seoul National University of Education, Seoul, Korea.

1Department of Food Science & Human Nutrition, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, Korea.

2Department of Food Sciences & Nutrition, Soonchunhyang University, Asan, Korea.

3Department of Food and Nutrition, Kangwon National University, Samcheok, Korea.

4Department of Computer Education, Seoul National University of Education, Seoul, Korea.

5Department of Agrofood Resources, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, RDA, Suwon, Korea.

6Department of Science & Technology Education for Life, Seoul National University of Education, Seoul, Korea.

Corresponding author: Jeong-Weon Kim, Department of Science & Technology Education for Life, Seoul National University of Education, Seochojoongang-ro 96, Seocho-gu, Seoul 137-742, Korea. Tel: (02) 3475-2516, Fax: (02) 3475-2263, kimjwe@snue.ac.kr

Received 16 November 2012       Revised 9 February 2013       Accepted 31 July 2013

Copyright © 2013 The Korean Society of Community Nutrition

(open-access):

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

An educational application (App) called 'Children's Food Avatar' was developed in this study by using a food DB of nutrition and functionality from Rural Development Administration (RDA) as a smart-learning mobile device for elementary school students. This App was designed for the development of children's desirable dietary habits through an on-line activity of food choices for a meal from food DB of RDA provided as Green Water Mill guide. A customized avatar system was introduced as an element of fun and interactive animation for children which provides nutritional evaluation of selected foods by changing its appearance, facial look, and speech balloon, and consequently providing chances of correcting their food choices for balanced diet. In addition, nutrition information menu was included in the App to help children understand various nutrients, their function and healthy dietary life. When the App was applied to 54 elementary school students for a week in November, 2012, significant increases in the levels of knowledge, attitude and behavior in their diet were observed compared with those of the control group (p < 0.05, 0.01). Both elementary students and teachers showed high levels of satisfaction ranging from 4.30 to 4.89 for the App, therefore, it could be widely used for the dietary education for elementary school students as a smart-learning device.

Keywords: application, dietary education, children's food avatar, children

Figures and Tables

Fig. 1
UX flow of Children's Food Avatar App.
kjcn-18-299-g001
Fig. 2
Screens of log-in and feedback messages of the App.
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Fig. 3
Food choice menu of the App by Green Water Mill guide.
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Fig. 4
Examples of children's frequently consumed food database.
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Table 1
Developing stages of the App by ADDIE model
kjcn-18-299-i001

The ADDIE model : The five phases-Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation-represent a dynamic, flexible guideline for building effective training and performance support tools

Table 2
Core elements for the development of the App contents
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Table 3
Contents of the classroom education by using developed App
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Table 4
Comparison of the levels of knowledge, attitude and behavior of treatment and control groups before using the App1)
kjcn-18-299-i004

1) 5-point Likert scale questions: 1 for strongly disagree, 2 for disagree, 3 for neutral, 4 for agree, and 5 for strongly agree

2) T: Treatment group (n = 27)

3) C: Control group (n = 27)

4) Mean ± SD

Table 5
Comparison of the treatment and control groups with regard to the scores of correct answers on nutritional knowledge before and after using the App1)
kjcn-18-299-i005

1) Multiple choice questions

2) T: Treatment group (n = 27)

3) C: Control group (n = 27)

4) N (%)

5) Mean

*: p < 0.05, **: p < 0.01, ***: p < 0.001

Table 6
Changes of nutritional knowledge, attitude and behavior in the treatment group of the App1)
kjcn-18-299-i006

1) 5-point Likert scale questions: 1 for strongly disagree, 2 for disagree, 3 for neutral, 4 for agree, and 5 for strongly agree

2) n = 27

3) p-value of the t-test

*: p < 0.05, **: p < 0.01, ***: p < 0.001

Table 7
Comparison of the levels of knowledge, attitude and behavior of treatment and control groups after using the App1)
kjcn-18-299-i007

1) 5-point Likert scale questions: 1 for strongly disagree, 2 for disagree, 3 for neutral, 4 for agree, and 5 for strongly agree

2) T: Treatment group (n = 27)

3) C: Control group (n = 27)

4) Mean ± SD

*: p < 0.05, **: p < 0.01 by independent samples t-test

Table 8
Satisfaction levels of children and elementary teachers for the App
kjcn-18-299-i008

1) N (%)

Notes

This research was supported by a grant (PJ008237) from Rural Development Administration in 2012 for the development of national information system on nutrition and functionality of food.

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