WENDY COOK evaluates four new educational programs
THE educational software from ASK consists of four tape packages
of games for three to 12-year-olds. Each contains the cassette
and a small information booklet about how to load and play the
games and about their educational value.
The games load in modules, taking about four minutes to load
in, which seems a long time if they are to be used in the classroom.
But they are extremely well protected and defy attempts to transfer
them to disc.
Fundamentally, all the games are "driven" in the same
way, using a limited number of keys. This is an advantage because,
once a child is familiar with driving one package, he will be
able to transfer this familiarity to the others.
The only quibble I have with the way the programs are organised
is that most of them do not give you the choice of returning to
the menu at the end of a game. So unless you ESCAPE back to the
beginning, the same game will come up ad nauseum.
A criticism from the hardware side is that the BREAK key is
not disabled, which could be hazardous with young children on
the loose.
Pacemaker by Gloria Callaway.
A literacy game for five to 12-year-olds.
THE rationale behind Pacemaker seems to be that children enjoy
drawing faces and so they will enjoy a computer program which
does the same.
Dubious this may be, but I suspect children will be amused by
the computer's stiff efforts to draw Aunty Kathleen or whoever.
There is a lot of reading involved in this program, as the children
have to read about various features before selecting what the
computer should draw.
I suspect that many of the younger age-group - say, five and
six year olds -would need help from an older child or adult.
As the reading is only slightly structured and as there is such
a lot of vocabulary that is likely to be new, I doubt whether
this really is a valuable tool for improving reading.
What it does provide is an intensely interactive situation where
the child can
readily see his responses controlling the computer.
Any educational value in the program probably lies in the fact
that the child learns about interacting with a computer program.
Educational value aside, the game is fun and it holds your attention.
But I am very doubtful whether it would do so for more than a
few goes.
The blurb in the booklet says that this is not a game to keep
the children amused over a wet playtime, but it strikes me that
this is exactly the use to which it would be best suited.
The other children would have a wonderful time telling "the
driver" to put earrings or a pompon hat on the headmaster.
So, for a classful of children, maybe a good idea for fun and
class discussion. But it would probably pall too quickly to make
it a worthwhile expenditure for a family.
Let's Count by Michael Holt.
Number games for children of three and over.
THE games are based on sound educational principles. Each one
demands progressively more complicated mathematical skills.
The first game deals with matching objects, the second with
matching objects to numbers, the third with ordering numbers and
the last with "greater than" and "less than".
All the games can be played with numbers in the ranges 1-3,
0-4, 5-9 and 0-9. Introducing the concept of zero is a valuable
feature as it is often neglected when we introduce children to
numbers.
Treasure Island, the first of the
games, plays jolly tunes and pops ships, with various numbers
of shields on their sides, onto a sea dotted with treasure islands.
Your job is to send the ships to the island with the same number
of treasure chests on it.
The child practises matching skills -matching the number of
shields to the number of chests without necessarily being able
to count them. This is an important skill to acquire in the understanding
of numbers.
The only snag with this game is that often the first ship which
appears has zero shields on it, which is a bit confusing at first.
But on the whole, a useful exercise and quite good fun.
Space Stations begins life with one big disadvantage - the most
anguished rendering of the Star Wars theme ever heard. After two
goes I could stand it no longer.
That aside, the idea is to send the rocket with three windows
to the space station with the number three on it, and so on.
Here the child learns to associate particular numbers of objects
with certain numerals. Again the philosophy is sound and the game
quite a good one for young children.
The third game, Roll-a-Ball, deals with ordering the numerals,
such as 2,3,5,7.
The child sends a ball rolling down alleys to knock down each
number successively, beginning with the smallest. The sound effects
are very satisfying and this is another game that is quite good
fun.
Unfortunately, the last game in the
package, Which Way?, is by far the weakest.
The game is designed to introduce the concepts of more than,
less than and equal to.
A hopper of red and blue beads appears and the beads have to
be sent down the appropriate chute - more reds than blues, more
blues than reds, reds and blues equal. It is quite tricky to decide
quickly and, as the beads won't go down the wrong chute anyway,
it is much easier to just see which chute they will go down without
bothering to count them at all.
I'm sure I'm not the only delinquent who will spot this!
Furthermore, once at the bottom of the chute, the beads are
separated out into blues and reds but not in such in a way that
you can easily see which beads there are more of.
The game doesn't even have the saving grace of being fun. It
lacks pace and frankly I found it boring.
Overall, the games in this package are quite good — no more.
And, although the educational thinking is sound, I would question
whether such early concepts are best acquired using a computer
or through concrete experience.
Even if the computer has an additional role to play at this
stage, I suspect these games are not really exciting enough to
fulfil it satisfactorily.
Number Puzzler by Mike Thomas.
Number games for four to 12-year-olds.
THIS package was definitely my favourite. The audio graphics
are intriguingly unusual and sound a bit like our two-year-old
son singing into a toothmug full of bubblebath - it does happen,
really!
There are basically three options in this package- Additions,
Subtractions and Additions and Subtractions (all variations on
the same theme), Magic Squares and Self Test.
The first three games display "Bingo cards" of nine
or 36 numbers and can all be played either by two people or as
human v machine.
The latter participant, I may add, plays with devilish and mind-boggling
speed and, I suspect, is not above indulging in a little skullduggery
here and there.
At the bottom of the screen you are dealt two cards which you
can either play as they stand or use the sum or difference of
them. For instance with five and three, you might also use two
and eight.
The values you choose change colour on the bingo card and the
aim is to get three numbers in a row while blocking your opponent's
efforts.
This is a game of quick-fire mental arithmetic which also involves
strategies and tactics. It is fun and probably tones up those
flabby brain bits you never knew you had.
Seriously, it is a good tool for training mental agility. It
not only speeds up mathematical processes but helps learning,
using and switching psychological strategies of searching, estimating
and calculating.
The Magic Square program displays a nine square grid with three
numbers already filled in.
Your job is to complete the grid so that — hopefully — all the
rows, columns and diagonals have the same total.
The score is accumulated over three games, the almost impossible
aim being to score over 100. This game is a good test of composition
of number - that is, knowing how a number such as 13 can be split
up in different ways, 8+4+1, 5+2+6, etc.
More obviously, it is a real test of thinking skill, as you
need to hold a partial solution in mind while juggling with its
implications for other lines.
Self Test simply requires answers to 10 sums, such as 3+4 or
76-28. Your score and time are kept.
It is disappointing that the speed of presentation does not
vary whether you select SLOW or VERY FAST.
But at the end, when the score is given, it may say: "That
was better than SLOW." It would be more of a challenge to
have a faster presentation available.
The games in this package are challenging, undoubtedly educational
and great fun. How four-year-olds would cope with much of the
package is dubious, but I think children aged seven plus would
enjoy it very much.
Hide & Seek by Gloria Calloway.
Memory and literacy games for five to 12-year-olds.
THIS package really concentrates on the younger age groups.
It is another
one produced by Gloria Callaway but it beats her Facemaker into
the proverbial cocked hat.
Basically the games consist of a grid of six or nine boxes into
which different objects are placed. Then, accompanied by happy
little tumming sounds, pink and white shutters descend, and you
try and remember what the heck went where.
There are several variations on this theme with varying degrees
of trick-iness, but they are all good fun and quite absorbing.
The objects vary from elephants to geraniums, from rectangles
to parrots.
In one game, as the objects are being hidden away, their names
are printed beside them. Later the blinds are drawn back to reveal
one object missing and the child steps through the various labels
to find the right one.
The final variation is very similar to this except that the
child has to spell out the answer, so practising spelling as well
as reading and memory skills.
The first time I tried this one the missing object was a church
and, when I typed the answer, it played some nice English church
music for me.
Next time around, when the green triangle was missing, I expected
a bit of Schoenberg, but alas I got the same old church music.
Actually, the memory skills these games exploit are extremely
valuable when learning to read, as are the skills of categorising
and labelling which the child is bound to use to aid his memory.
Categorisation is encouraged by the use of obvious categories,
such as birds, buildings, shapes, which in some games appear on
separate lines. For example, one grid contained pictures of:
cat square church
elephant rectangle house
bird triangle hut
The games where the player himself hides the objects are particularly
useful for developing various feature-based strategies for recall.
For example, you can hide all the heavy things in the bottom
squares, all the green things on the left and so on.
I reckon this package represents a sound investment. It will
play more memory games than any parent could stand and makes sound
educational sense.
Moreover, it is jolly good fun. Of all the packages, this is
the one I will use with my pupils.
