alk down the aisle of any computer store or thumb through any educational
materials catalogue, and you'll see lots of educational software
for children. Choices range from popular titles geared to grade
level -- such as The
Learning Company's Reader Rabbit series and Knowledge
Adventure's Jump Start series -- to software devoted to specific
disciplines like biology, math, writing, or foreign language skills.
How can you assess the quality of the software?
Consumers often associate quality with price, and there
is some validity to that assumption. If the software is
free or inexpensive, chances are the investment to create
it also was small. The challenge for educators is to be
clear about the role the software will play. Will it provide
the actual instruction? Or will it supplement classroom
instruction? Is the goal to provide practice to reinforce
rote learning, or is it to provide information? Different
answers to each of these questions would result in different
criteria for evaluation.
The promise of online learning
The majority of educational software available today is
designed to complement other forms of instruction. This
is often referred to as "drill and practice" software (or
"drill and kill" software, as instructional designers facetiously
call it). For applications in which the subject matter needs
to be mastered through memorization of facts or replicable
patterns, this type of software can be useful in reinforcing
knowledge.
But in my experience, the best potential use of computers
for learning lies in adapting the software to the learner's
goals and knowledge. The computer can find out what a student
knows and provide instruction matched to the student's needs
and learning styles. Personalized learning can yield many
benefits. It can provide a patient, always available coach.
Instruction can include customized navigational paths and
multiple forms of media.
Realizing the promise of online learning remains elusive,
however, since there are few programs that can provide an
adaptive -- even a programmed adaptive -- learning environment.
Adaptive learning research from the world of artificial
intelligence has not yielded any practical innovations that
have been applied to instructional software. Instructional
designers still need to think through the different paths
students might follow through a software program and then
apply these "branches" in the software so the students can
select from possible pre-scripted interactions.
Ultimately, we will be able to create software that will
offer instruction on demand, to be delivered to students
whenever and wherever they need it, via wired or wireless
Internet connections. Efforts to define software standards
are progressing so developers can now develop content that
can be used in various teaching and learning systems.
Guidance for software selection
While you wait for the brave new world
of educational software, there are ways to evaluate the
current software on the market. Here are some points to
consider:
•
Information is not instruction. Making good-quality information
easily accessible can provide enrichment for education.
Multimedia encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other sources
of information are useful tools to students in the classroom
and at home. Understand what the software is, and what it
is not, and buy accordingly.
True instructional software includes
interactive tutorials, exercises, engaging simulations,
and assessment. Instruction should be designed with explicit
learning goals and a visible scope of content -- that is,
it should be clear what the instruction will cover and what
students will learn as a result -- though the sequence in
which elements of the content are presented should be adaptable
to different students' needs. Lessons should contain both
instruction and forms of interactions that allow students
to apply what they've learned. Ideally, the course's structure
will be tailored to the students, either by allowing them
to control the flow or by having the software adapt to a
series of interactions.
If the software is designed to provide
only practice exercises, make sure that the exercises relate
to the topic and that supporting feedback and resources
provide instruction when students don't answer correctly.
In all cases, software should clearly reinforce correct
answers and provide feedback for incorrect answers.
•
Simplicity matters -- in screen design, font, and color.
Software frequently is designed to include a combination
of information and instruction. Often, the result is screen
clutter. Look for screens that use colors that enhance the
material and don't use too many different font types and
sizes.
•
Graphics should enhance content. Using spinning globes or
other glitzy graphics because they are cool just doesn't
cut it. The graphics need to be relevant to the subject
matter as well as to the learner, and they should be well-designed
and displayed in an uncluttered format. Gratuitous animations
can derail the learner's attention.
•
Navigational designs should work intuitively for novices
and experts alike. Good instructional applications combine
flexibility and control, depending on the learner's style
and learning objectives. Menus offer flexibility in organization,
yet they can be overused and can slow down experienced users.
Commands help speed through applications, but the integration
of commands, icons, and menus needs to be carefully orchestrated
so as not to deliver a confusing and cluttered interface.
Icons should be intuitive. Obvious
quitting options are important. Many CD-ROM developers do
not provide obvious ways to quit the application, forcing
people to use control-alt-delete to end the program. Look
for materials that are created in consumable chunks, yet
still flow. Most instructional software is created in lesson
sizes that are larger than most learners' attention span.
Hyperlinks can be very valuable in providing a robust framework
that allows users to fill in gaps in knowledge.
•
Interactions should engage the student and be valuable to
instruction. Good interactions include drag-and-drop types,
in which the learner has to do something, and simulations,
in which the learner must manipulate an object and then
see the result. Questions and assessments also provide opportunities
to engage students.
•
Delivery options can influence performance. Students expect
Nintendo-like responses to every click of the mouse. If
you are considering software on a CD-ROM, chances are you
won't have to worry about performance unless you will run
the software on a slow computer. For Internet-based applications,
remember that different users have different expectations
for performance, and different web browsers and modes of
Internet access produce different results. If you are going
to use an application that contains extensive use of graphics,
make sure the bandwidth can handle it. Slow applications
are frustrating. The same is true with interactions: Feedback
should be instantaneous and relevant.
•
Assessments should be well designed and should support instruction
appropriately. Assessment can play a powerful role, from
providing learning plans for individual students to evaluating
their performance. Look for types of assessment that promote
thinking, not guessing. Feedback should be tailored to the
answer. For incorrect responses, the correct answer should
be presented along with further information or instruction
about the specific topic. Because computer-based assessment
depends on the user's typing skill, an incorrect answer
might mean that the student knows the correct answer but
has made a mistake in typing. For that reason, students
might be given more than one opportunity to answer questions.
Assessment should not frustrate the learner.
Most of the educational software titles available in retail
stores don't offer high-quality instruction, though many
contain good information, and some offer engaging practice.
An example of educational software that does provide a well-integrated
teaching and learning environment is the award-winning Interactive
Mathematics software from my former company, Academic
Systems, a division of Lightspan,
Inc.
This software includes more than 400 hours of mathematics instruction
on topics ranging from pre-algebra through college algebra.
It is typically used in a computer lab or by students in a distance-learning
class. The software was created by educators with a focus on
instructional goals, ease of use, and use of multiple forms
of media, including extensive use of audio. It is now in use
by more than 200,000 high school and community college students
and has proved to be a powerful instructional aid. 
A screen shot from Interactive Mathematics remedial algebra
software illustrates many of the principles of good instructional
design. Note that the screen is not overcrowded and cluttered.
Navigation arrows in the lower right-hand corner let students
move forward or backward easily. Giving students too much
flexibility in jumping around from topic to topic has some
drawbacks, though. Students can get confused or lost and
might go on to a new topic before finishing the current
one. The "done" button in this example clearly indicates
that students should press that button when they are finished
before moving on.
Engaging students is important. Thanks to video games,
students expect to see immediate results on the screen.
In this example, students enter different values, and the
results are shown on the graph. This approach has a number
of benefits: It creates a visual connection between the
input and the result; it gives students a sense of control
by allowing them to select the input; and it provides reinforcement
through an immediate response.
The software is personalized in several ways. The name
of the student at the bottom of the screen lets the teacher
identify the user. In addition, the curriculum is created
on the basis of students' performance on pretests, which
are used to generate customized learning plans. Students'
answers are fed back to a management system, so teachers
can see how students are progressing and deliver instruction
where it's needed.
Underlined words in the text link to a glossary, allowing
students to get information about specific concepts. Additional
links are displayed through icons in the bottom left-hand
corner. The speaker icon lets students turn the audio off
or on; the book icon links to a homework book; and the flowchart
icon lets students see where they are in the lesson.
The navigation bars on the top and side are clean and straightforward.
All the modules in this software package use the same navigational
approach, so students and instructors can easily understand
what is included in each section. The navigation includes
various forms of interactions, such as buttons and sliders
that let students manipulate variables.
Finally, by relating abstract algorithms to everyday situations,
the software helps students understand the relevance of
mathematics to today's world. One geometry lesson, for example,
involves planning a stage layout. Another exercise asks
students to sell custom-made jackets to a department store
that wants discounts based on the volume of units it purchases.
Plenty of other high-quality software applications are
also available today, including applications created with
such authoring tools and multimedia technologies as Macromedia's
Flash. It can be hard to separate valuable education software
from offerings that are glitzy but have little substance.
But being prepared and knowing what you want before you
shop can save you and your district time and money -- if
you look beyond the glitter and focus on sound instructional
design.
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