I reviewed two pieces of educational software: Bailey’s Book House, a program aimed at improving language and literacy for emerging readers, and Math Circus Act 4, a puzzle-based math program.
For Bailey’s Book House, the pedagogy seemed appropriate. The reading and writing goals were straightforward, and an oral voiceover helped the reader along. However, the technical deficiencies of the program overshadowed any positive learning opportunities. It tied in nicely to the kindergarten and grade one reading and writing curriculum, however, it was confusing and provided almost no instructions or navigational assistance. The look of the software was on the low end (really simple graphics), but I still think, once kids figured out how to work it, they would find it fun because it is so interactive and creative.
Math Circus Act 4 provided many different levels of difficulty in the realm of math puzzles. It could apply to the math curriculum for grades 3 and up, and the student can set the level of difficulty from puzzle to puzzle. I think this would be really helpful for differentiated learning. As for pedagogy, however, I am not sure if these puzzles would really help to teach new skills---I think it is more beneficial as a tool to practice math skills that are already established. The program was relatively easy to understand, and adequate instructions were given. The look of the software was pretty low-budget, which is surprising for a $110 game.
Discussion
I tested the software by reading about the games online to get an overview, and then playing them each for about thirty minutes. I made sure to test out each level of difficulty, and each different activity offered for each piece of software. I felt that I got a basic understanding of what these programs have to offer.
The next classroom I will be in is a grade 3-4 split, and so Bailey’s Book House is too easy for them. Math Circus is a game that I could feasibly use in my class. I will be in a classroom that is one of only two designated “Smartboard Classrooms” in the school---the kids have almost every lesson delivered via the Smartboard. The entire class is quite technologically literate. So I could explain the game to the whole class by displaying it on the Smartboard, and then have the kids go over to the computer lab to play it on individual computers. Would this game be an appropriate use of my very limited computer lab time, however? I don’t think so. It looks fun, and would be a good “filler” if students had their work done early, but because we don’t have multiple computers in the classroom, this would not be possible. So, I would not likely ever use this game in my classroom. But I could recommend it for parents if they wanted a fun math game to buy for their kids to play at home.
Evaluation Sheets
The first evaluation sheet I used was the one put out by Kathy Schrock. One of its advantages over the class evaluation sheet was that it asked for supplemental information about the program, the technical requirements, the price, etc. This is useful information to have, as a teacher and as a consumer.
Another advantage of the Kathy Schrock form is that it mentions ease of exiting the program---something we forgot to add as a class. It also notes the feature of allowing the teacher to set the user level. This is important, and was not mentioned in the class form.
One disadvantage of this form is that the “Category of the Software” section is potentially confusing for digital immigrants. I did not know what many of those terms were referring to. For example, “Standard addressed:”. What standards are these???
One advantage of the class-generated evaluation form is that it categorized the features into five sub-categories. This is well-organized, and helpful for both the evaluator and the reader.
Another advantage is that it allowed for lengthy “Other comments” at the bottom. The Kathy Schrock form only allowed for two lines of text.
One problem with the class-generated form is that it was impossible to fill in the little circles indicating your answer. I had to print out the sheet and fill them in by hand.
Recommendations
Overall, I think the class-generated form is concise, helpful, and appears professional. My recommendations would be to add a section for general information about the program (name, price, year, grade level, computer requirements). And also to add the two ideas (ease of exiting program, teacher control over difficulty level) that I mentioned above.
