Educational Software Review

Sammy's Science House and Math Trek 1, 2, 3

RESULTS:
For the software review assignment, I decided to look at Sammy's Science House and Math Trek 1, 2, 3.
Sammy's Science House is geared towards the primary grades and provides students with the opportunity to explore several science topics. The topics which include the classification of plants and animals according to characteristics, making weather and building simple machines to name a few, are directly related to the Ontario science curriculum for the primary grades making it an ideal resource for teaching in terms of content. In terms of look and feel, the software is designed in a manner which very I find very confusing as no clear direction is given to guide students through the activities, although the bright images, background music and sounds make it engaging for the young learner.

When looking at Math Trek 1, 2, 3 my first impression was that the organization and clarity of direction made it much easier to navigate in comparison to Sammy's Science House. The Bear that describes the activities makes it clear as to how to play each game and there are also written directions for students who are visual learners. Activities are categorized by each primary grade from Kindergarten to Grade 3 and also by the math topic. It touches upon various math curriculum topics and relates directly to the expectations within each grade. The bright animations and sounds also make this program engaging for young students.

DISCUSSION:
To review Sammy's Science House, I played each of the activities and considered it's effectiveness in terms of the student perspective. After going through the activities which took a approximately 20 minutes, I used the various evaluation tools on the internet as well as the tool developed in class to address the specific aspects of the software. In terms of ease of use, I think that the program layout and design may confuse some students as there are no direct instructions as to how to access the various activities (you just click on various images in the background of Sammy's house) and not all of the activities clearly describe the game or activity to be played. In terms of educational value, the software does lend itself to the Ontario science curriculum and most of the activities do correspond to the primary expectations. The activities such as classification do encourage critical thinking and add to the learning of the student. While the graphics and sounds are simple, they are engaging and fun to interact with. I think that anything more for primary students who might not be overly computer literate as of yet would be confusing and overwhelming. I would argue though that there could be more auditory explanation given throughout the activities to guide student learning and provide explicit goals for each of the activities. While I believe that Sammy's Science House holds some merit as a program that could compliment the science curriculum, I would argue that teachers using the program need to be wary of students not fully understanding how to play the games as well as the reason that they are playing the games.

In reviewing Math Trek 1, 2, 3, I spent much more time, approximately an hour, going through the activities in each grade and math topic. I simply found that the clear organization of the program made me more eager to try out each activity and explore the program. The clear labeling and highlighting of each activity in the main 'lobby' area made it visually organized and the auditory instructions made the program easy to use and engaging from a students perspective. In terms of educational value, the activities directly relate to the math curriculum expectations throughout the primary grades. The content of the activities compliments the curriculum well and I would recommend this program to teachers and students as an additional math resource. The fun graphics and clear auditory explanations make it appealing to both boys and girls and it challenges students at an appropriate level. While both Math Trek 1, 2, 3 and Sammy's Science House contain educational content that is related to the curriculum, the organization and detailed information in Math Trek 1, 2, 3 make it a more desirable tool for the classroom.

When considering the use of both of these software programs in the classroom, I would have to take into consideration the classroom/school environment. Not all the primary students with whom I have worked with have demonstrated an adequate amount of technological literacy to navigate the program independently, even though I would consider it fairly easy to navigate as a teacher. I believe that students could easily learn to navigate the program, but would need assistance in the beginning stages of learning. In addition, the classrooms in my PDS school only have 1 computer in each and there is 1 computer lab with several computers which must be shared amongst all classes in the school. This limits the opportunities for students to access the program and the ability of the teacher to have the whole class use it at the same time to provide group instruction on how to navigate through each. As I mentioned before, the need for more explicit instruction in Sammy's Science House may lead to special needs students requiring additional assistance, further making it difficult if the rest of the class needs guidance as well.

RECOMMENDATIONS:
The 2 evaluation sheets I used to review Sammy's Science House and Math Trek 1, 2, 3 both contributed to my evaluation of the programs. I used Kathy Schrock's Technology Administrator as well as the Evaluation Tool developed in class. I found that the generality of both tools allowed room for further explanation of the evaluation. While some may see this as an advantage if they see the evaluation tools as a starting point for critical reflection, others may see it as not very useful since it does not go in enough depth to offer a thorough review of the usefulness of the software and contributions to student learning. I believe that these tools are great starting points when evaluating software and with a little more clarity and specific expectations added to the Evaluation Tool created by the class, it would serve as an excellent tool.