Floppyshop 2/Floppyshop - 2.zip/Floppyshop - 2.iso/diskmags/0022-3.564/dmg-0130/news.txt/educat.asc

Text File | 1997-04-16 | 14KB | 262 lines

                    Spelling And Educational Sotware
                    ********************************

Four Titles From Soft Stuff
***************************

Spelling seems to be a subject in education at the moment that is causing
the some controversy; certainly as far as the press are concerned. We
hear reports of falling standards and poor levels of ability in our
children and we are naturally concerned as to the real situation. The
importance of spelling is an ideal supported by many teachers and, indeed
the National Curriculum itself stresses how vital the ability to spell
correctly is to us all. Parents are being told that they also have a role
to play in the raising of spelling standards.

So, in the light of this speculation what role can the computer play in
the acquisition of good spelling? Reviewed here are a number of
educational programs with an emphasis firmly on learning how to spell.

Let's Spell series from Soft Stuff
**********************************

These programs, which for the purposes of this article, are Let's Spell
At The Shops, Let's Spell At Home and Let's Spell Out And About,are all
based around the same core program and once this core program is loaded
the disks containing the various locations scenarios can be swapped at
will.

The manual accompanying the game explains that the program is designed to
teach children, from about the age of four, letter shapes and spelling
with the aid of graphics, synthesized sound and a careful monitoring of
the child's progress.

There are two levels of operation depending on the ability of the user,
and emphasis is also placed on the fact that the programs are not
designed to be phonically based. All the games are completely controlled
using the mouse and, of special use for the younger aged child, contain a
set of lower case letters.

There is an option to use the look, cover, spell and check method of
learning , which is a technique used in many primary schools to aid  a
child's progress.

Once loaded the game progresses through a number of information and title
screens, at which time a variety of options can be chosen.

There are, at present three Let's Spell scenario disks, but others may be
available shortly.

Let's Spell At The Shops
************************

Once loaded this disk shows a view of a shopping arcade and the mouse
pointer becomes the figure of a little girl, which is animated as the
mouse is moved. The pointer can be changed to show a little boy  merely
by clicking the right button.

Any shop in the picture may be entered by moving the mouse pointer to the
shop doorway and pressing the left mouse button, the scene now changes to
a view of the inside of the shop. The pointer now becomes a shopping
basket and as it is moved around the screen a bell will ring when it
passes over an item for sale, pressing the left mouse button at this time
will select the item in the shop and take the user to the spelling
screen. This is where most of the program's learning aspects will take
place.

This screen contains a lower case alphabet grid at the bottom, a finish
icon, a delete icon, two small teddies, a larger teddy face, a picture of
the object selected for spelling and a thermometer.

At this stage there are two levels of play, to select the lower age range
(4 to 6) the smaller of the two teddies has to be clicked on. The correct
spelling of the object in the picture will be shown in a series of small
boxes. The user now clicks on the matching letters in the alphabet grid
and if correctly chosen each of the letters of the word will fill with
colour. This continues until the word is completed and then the finish
icon is clicked on.

Mistakes can be altered by clicking on the delete icon which uncolours
the last letter previously filled, but this must be done before using the
finish icon.

A correct spelling receives a well done message and after the playing of
one of a number of little tunes the game goes back to the shop scene.
However, if the word is spelt incorrectly the whole word is respelt with
a bell sound being heard for any letters correctly placed and a shooting
sound for those incorrect, and the letter altered to the correct one. The
child is then asked to try the whole word again.

At the older age range (6 to 9), which can be selected by clicking on the
larger of the two teddies on the spelling screen, and is also the default
setting, the word does not appear under the picture and the child must
try to spell the word without any permanent on screen help. However, some
assistance may be obtained if the eyes on the teddy face are clicked on
the word will be displayed on screen for a short period of time before
vanishing to allow the child to try. This is the look, cover, spell,
check method of learning spellings referred to earlier.

The thermometer can also be used by both age ranges, by clicking on the
thermometer it will show, by a rise in temperature, if the mouse pointer
is close to the correct letter when on the alphabet grid.

Each shop contains some form of exit sign, which leads the child back
into the arcade from where another shop may be entered or the program
finished. Before finishing the program will show a list of words
correctly spelt during the last session. This list can be printed out to
allow a parent or teacher to keep a permanent record of each child's
progress.

Let's Spell Out And About
*************************

This scenario disk begins by showing a view of a coach park, eight
coaches can be seen each having a different destination, ranging from the
zoo, the seaside and a farm. The pointer, again in the shape of a little
girl, or boy, is then moved onto the coach required and the left mouse
button pressed. The view changes to one of the appropriate scene and the
mouse pointer becomes an arm. As before the pointer is moved around the
screen and the left mouse button is pressed when it is over an object.
This then leads onto the same spelling screen, as described earlier.

Let's Spell At Home
*******************

As with the other scenario disks this shows a picture, this time it is a
cut away section of a house with garden and garage, and the child has to
move the pointer to the required portion of the screen and press the
mouse button. The picture of the inside of the room, or the garden, will
appear and the child can select the object to be spelt by moving the
pointer, in the shape of an arm, and clicking when necessary.

A small, ten page booklet is provided with the programs, the same
booklet appears to be supplied with each of the Let's Spell programs.
the booklet provides the minimum amount of information needed to run the
programs, but it would have been nice to have been provided with further
ideas, perhaps for extending the work of the program away from the
computer.

Each of the Let's Spell disks could be of great value to children in the
younger years of a primary school, or indeed could be used throughout an
infant school. Once familiar with the system of operating the program a
child from about the age of five may be able to cope with the program,
but would achieve greater progress if used together with adult
supervision. However, even though the program is partially designed with
slightly older children in mind, I find it hard to imagine a nine year
old wanting to sit though a program that he or she would probably consider
babyish.

Overall I would definitely recommend this program to anyone wanting to
improve the spelling of their child. Together with other methods of
learning how to spell these programs could provide real assistance to
both parents and teachers. Children of the relevant age will find the
programs both entertaining and appealing, many children will want to
return to the programs time and time again. The graphics, whilst not quite
state of the art, will appeal to young children, who should have no
difficulties in recognising most of the objects for which a correct
spelling must be sought.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------


Spell Book from Soft Stuff
*************************

Spell Book is a program designed for primary school children, up to about
the age of nine, and allows children to practice spelling in an isolated
fashion. The program uses only lower case letters and is completely mouse
controlled throughout. The disk comes with six complete alphabets, three
for a younger age range (4 to 6) and three for older children(7 to 9).

Following a bright loading screen featuring moving letters and a lively
tune the program asks how many wish to play, the choice is either one or
two users. The child using the program is encouraged to enter his or her
name at this stage. To do this letters have to be selected using the left
mouse key from a grid of twenty six letters at the bottom of the screen.

The mouse now becomes the chosen letter and this must be moved to the
correct position to spell the child's name, confirmation of the letter
chosen must be made with the right mouse button. This is not easy for
children to do, a fact admitted to in the accompanying notes for parents.

The program is now able to welcome the user by name. Next the program
asks how good you are at Spell Book and after a response moves on to give
a choice of which of the six alphabets contained on the disk you wish to
use, this is followed by a choice of where within that alphabet to start
to spell from.

Four pictures are now shown on the screen, each showing something with
which the child should be familiar. Each picture is accompanied by it's
initial letter. The letter of the word coming earliest in the alphabet
is shown in the centre of the screen. Match the letter to the correct
word using the mouse and the scene switches to a picture of an open book,
underneath which is the grid of letters used earlier. Your selected
letter is placed on the next page of the book, click on it and the
picture appears under which are some lines to represent the number of
letters in the word.

Using the same combination of mouse keys to select,  move and confirm
your choice the user now has to try to spell the word. A correct spelling
at this point leads to a blackboard scene containing a  message of
congratulations confirmation of your correct spelling and the playing
of a tune. However if a word is spelt incorrectly the program initially
removes any letters from your word that are not right, leaving any that
may have been correctly placed, after a few seconds these letters also
disappear and the user is allowed to try again. After three incorrect
attempts have been made the word is spelt correctly for you and you are
taken to the blackboard scene.

Points are awarded by the computer depending upon how many attempts have
been made before successfully spelling the word. Correct first time
scores three points, incorrect after three attempts scores no points at
all. The user can see their current score displayed on the blackboard
between each new word. The game then progresses through the alphabet in
order until the end of the alphabet or until the user decides not to play
any more. The choice of weather to continue or not is also given before
each new word. The blackboard also displays a final score at the
conclusion of each game.

If two people are playing together then they take it in turn to spell
alternate words, each player is prompted to play by the program at the
appropriate time.

Apart from some brief notes when letters are being selected during the
actual spelling of a word and the playing of a short nursery rhyme when
spelling a word correctly noise is kept to a minimum, leaving the child
free from other distraction to concentrate on the program. The pictures
used are on the whole well drawn and are of things familiar to most young
children.

The small eight page booklet supplied with the software explains that
each of the words on the disk has been chosen because they are phonetic;
they sound how they look. So children should be encouraged to select
letters because of the sound that they make. This is a standard procedure
with children new to school and just beginning to learn how to read and
write.

Apart from a rather tricky selection of letters problem the program is
very simple to use, but children should not be left to work on their own,
greater learning will be achieved if parents and children work together
and talk about what is happening on the screen. The emphasis placed on the
use of the mouse throughout and the use of lower case letters means that
a child using the program should be able to fully immerse him or herself
in the required task without the added complications of an uncomfortable
working environment.

All in all a useful package and one which has an important educational
use but confines it's role to one small, but important part of a child's
learning process.


Soft Stuff Software are the producers of a number of educational programs
for the Atari ST computer. If you require further details of their
products they can be contacted at:

Soft Stuff Software
19 Quarry Hill Road,
Tonbridge.
Kent.
TN9 2RN.