Educational Software Review
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I chose to review two games that are available through the Ministry of Education in the Government of Ontario. The Ministry has made many interactive and developmentally appropriate games for students to use. The two games I chose to review were, Clothing Explosion and Sorting Time. Both of these games are made to kindergarten students. I noticed that most of the games on the kindergarten section are part of the Mathematics Curriculum. These games are available online. They have minimal system requirements.
The game Clothing Explosion was synonymous with the Ontario Curriculum in Kindergarten Mathematics. It is an interactive game with lots of graphics and is easy to use. Students can complete this game in about 15 minutes. There were a couple of things that I did not like about this game. First, the game does not allow the teacher to choose a level for their students. Second the game is repetitive and so I wonder about how many new concepts the students actually learn from it.
The second game I reviews was Sorting Time! This game was an interactive game and had both text and audio for students to receive instructions. The text was very advanced and students in kindergarten would have a lot of difficulty following them without audio. The game had good graphics and was easy to play. Once again the teacher can not choose the levels for the students. The teacher is able to gather data on how well each student performs. This game was also synonymous with The Ontario Curriculum in Kindergarten Mathematics.
Both of these games were similar. They have high value considering you do not pay for them if you are part of a publicly funded school board. The designs are good and they are actively engaging to users. The Entertainment values are good becasue they have good graphics and they are fun to play. There is high educational value in them since they are made directly for the Ontario Curriculum and classroom use. They are very easy to use.
I tested the software directly on my school computer, to determine if schools would be able to use them. They worked very well without any flaws. I was able to play both games from start to finish. Both were about 15 minutes long. I played from the eyes of the student and the eyes of a teacher. These games are gender neutral and appeal both to male and female students in the classroom. As noted above, these games must be played with audio or else the text instructions are too difficult for kindergarten students to read and follow.
To evaluate these two pieces of software I used the evaluation tool we developed in class and the tool available from Kathy Schrock. Both were very well developed. I found the tool developed in class to be more relevant to educational software. This is probably due to how we developed it. Since we worked from a collaboration of many software review forms available on the web. Kathy Schrock's tool was easy to use but it was not as comprehensive as the tool we developed.
Overall these games are great to use in a classroom setting. All teachers should be aware of the free resources available through the Ministry of Education here in Ontario. There are many more excellent games that will support your students learning and which are developmentally appropriate to use.
The game Clothing Explosion was synonymous with the Ontario Curriculum in Kindergarten Mathematics. It is an interactive game with lots of graphics and is easy to use. Students can complete this game in about 15 minutes. There were a couple of things that I did not like about this game. First, the game does not allow the teacher to choose a level for their students. Second the game is repetitive and so I wonder about how many new concepts the students actually learn from it.
The second game I reviews was Sorting Time! This game was an interactive game and had both text and audio for students to receive instructions. The text was very advanced and students in kindergarten would have a lot of difficulty following them without audio. The game had good graphics and was easy to play. Once again the teacher can not choose the levels for the students. The teacher is able to gather data on how well each student performs. This game was also synonymous with The Ontario Curriculum in Kindergarten Mathematics.
Both of these games were similar. They have high value considering you do not pay for them if you are part of a publicly funded school board. The designs are good and they are actively engaging to users. The Entertainment values are good becasue they have good graphics and they are fun to play. There is high educational value in them since they are made directly for the Ontario Curriculum and classroom use. They are very easy to use.
I tested the software directly on my school computer, to determine if schools would be able to use them. They worked very well without any flaws. I was able to play both games from start to finish. Both were about 15 minutes long. I played from the eyes of the student and the eyes of a teacher. These games are gender neutral and appeal both to male and female students in the classroom. As noted above, these games must be played with audio or else the text instructions are too difficult for kindergarten students to read and follow.
To evaluate these two pieces of software I used the evaluation tool we developed in class and the tool available from Kathy Schrock. Both were very well developed. I found the tool developed in class to be more relevant to educational software. This is probably due to how we developed it. Since we worked from a collaboration of many software review forms available on the web. Kathy Schrock's tool was easy to use but it was not as comprehensive as the tool we developed.
Overall these games are great to use in a classroom setting. All teachers should be aware of the free resources available through the Ministry of Education here in Ontario. There are many more excellent games that will support your students learning and which are developmentally appropriate to use.