Drew Buddie writing for Teachers Evaluating Educational Multimedia
May 2003
Despite a couple of minor points, mainly cosmetic, this CD-ROM is absolutely perfect for delivering a range of Technology and ICT-related topics. I have no doubt that it will become an indispensable part of my own software library and its plethora of uses goes far, far beyond those which I used it for. I have found that the program has given me the opportunity to teach programming in a much more exciting way than ever before. Schools with limited resources, especially expensive control apparatus, will benefit greatly from this package.
I wanted all students to have a basic understanding of simple computer programming. I would normally cover this topic by using textbooks, or worksheets. The problem with this is that students do not always find it easy to follow this sort of activity, as they cannot always see the outcome of the decisions they have made. Students were able to work through the tasks at their own pace once the topic had been introduced to them as a whole and they worked individually throughout the use of this package. They were able to continue with tasks in their own time for homework (I did not want to spend too much lesson time on this topic). The program is intuitive, but slightly idiosyncratic as you have a window, which shows 'books' and you pick a book that you want to look at. In addition, some of the windows require scrolling from left to right, rather than up and down which can be extremely off-putting. This is one of only two criticisms of a truly outstanding package. The other problem I found was that many of the multiple-choice question sections include the option 'all of the above' and usually when this option exists, it is true. Students quickly 'wised-up' to this and would choose that answer whenever it appeared. I think that the structure of these questions could be better, with fewer 'All of the above' answers.
Having said this, I was extremely impressed with the interactivity that was possible with this package and have no hesitation in recommending this title to any other ICT/ Technology teacher. All of our Year 10 students follow an examinable ICT GCSE short course. I used this program to introduce the topic of Programming to a group of students who had never covered this topic before. The topic was not an integral part of the course that was being covered, but I wanted to ensure that all students had a cursory knowledge of programming and I wanted to spend no more than two lessons on the topic. In my previous experience, the more traditional ways of covering this topic have yielded relatively poor results, with students either finding the lessons boring, or remembering very little of the programming language that has been taught. This title allowed me to approach the introduction of programming in an entirely different way. I was able to show the whole class how to use the program and then leave them to work through the unit at their own pace.
I am in no doubt that the use of this title has proved much more effective than previous methods I have employed. The program motivated students and proved to be more interesting for them than listening to dictation or working from worksheets, or textbooks. This is particularly due to the interactive nature of the unit, as students are required to make frequent decisions and they can instantly see the outcomes of the decisions they have made.
I cannot overstate the usefulness of being able to let students play around with their own ideas in order to discover how to solve a problem for themselves. Students are able to experiment with their ideas and they can see what happens once they have made a certain decision. If the outcome is not as desired, they can then go back and make changes until the outcome is correct. From a teaching point of view, the package made it much easier to deliver this topic, as it allowed me to work with individual students who were experiencing difficulty, whilst others who understood the tasks could work away at their own pace. Students were told that they would be having a brief test on this topic and how far they had to progress within the unit. They had to complete written worksheets (to aid retention) as they went along.
Read the full content evaluation
Read the full classroom evaluation