For this product, I selected four educational applications and games - Edmodo, Educreations, ABC-a-Pillar, and Balloon Pop Subtraction - to evaluate and wrote descriptions about how to use them in the classroom.
The first application I evaluated was Edmodo. Edmodo is a Learning Management System (LMS) for teachers, students, and parents. Regarding childhood education, this application would be used for age groups grades 4 through 6. After looking the standards, I can see the age does match its standards grade level. This application matches Comprehension and Collaboration for Speaking & Listening standards for grades 4 through 6 (SL.4.1, SL.5.1, and SL.6.1) and Production and Distribution of Writing for Writing standards for grades 4 through 6 (W.4.6, W.5.6, and W.6.6). Edmodo allows for collaborative discussions that allows users to express themselves and build on different ideas. In addition, this application uses technology and the Internet to publish pieces of writing and collaborate with other users. Also in regards to the learning standards, the content seems appropriate. I made that connection since the application is great for engaging and collaborating on topics appropriate for grades 4 through 6. Edmodo also allows peers and adults to provide guidance and support. The application allows for accessible use for ELL and low literacy students. It’s also accessible for students with special needs but may be difficult for students who might be blind or deaf since they might have trouble accessing the content. The application is very diverse and is directed towards students, teachers, and parents of all backgrounds. The website is simple and very easy to navigate – almost like a Facebook for educational purposes. The application seems to be ethically appropriate and the online environment surrounding the application experience is advertisement free. There are only links within the site and it is ethically appropriate for grade 4 and older. This application is really helpful with the subject of English Language Arts since it improves discussion and writing. There is true learning value to the application and corresponds with an LMS software’s intended purpose of monitoring the students’ success. A user can create an account as a teacher, a student, or a parent. Once logged in, the user can connect with classmates and create posts with the option to include media and attachments. The teacher can use the Assignment Center where students can turn in assignments or respond to quizzes. Finally, regarding true learning value, the application allows for data to be collected while the students engage with the application. The students improve their tech skills as they use an educational social media while the teacher can see their actions on his or her end. This allows for communication and collaboration inside and outside of the classroom and can help students achieve the National Education Technology Standards for Students (ISTE for Students) of becoming a digital citizen by appropriately using technology and the Internet.
The second application I evaluated was Educreations, an interactive whiteboard tool. It’s directed for older age groups, grade 6 or above. For grade 6, this application correlates with the Speaking & Listening standard of Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas (SL.6.5) since it includes multimedia components and the Production and Distribution of Writing standard (W.6.6) using technology. This content seems appropriate since it uses graphics, sound, and images to clarify information with presentations on-the-go. Primarily it is used on an iPad device but lessons can also be created on the website. The application is free for the basic version but costs $11.99 a month for the full version. After looking at the learning standards, the content seems appropriate since the application is used to make presentations to clarify information using the Internet and technology. The application also involves collaboration with others. The application allows for accessible use for most students, however, I feel the application might create challenges for students who are blind or deaf since the purpose of the application is to create presentations and lessons using audio and visual effects. I did not find any special accessibility features that could help students with these possible challenges. On the other hand, I found examples of lessons which could be helpful for language learners. For example, I found a lesson on teaching adjective agreements in Spanish. This presentation could be helpful to a student who is learning Spanish. Teachers could use this application to benefit English Language Learners as well. Aside from language and reading, the application can also be used to create presentations for other subjects. I found an assortment of lessons related to history and math as well as miscellaneous videos such as how to organize an iPad Home Screen. The application is very diverse and can be created by any teacher or student with an account. Since the presentations are created by people from all over the world and country, I believe there is limited cultural bias. On the other hand, since any user can create a presentation of whatever he or she likes, influence bias thinking may occur in addition to possible misconceptions if the information is not accurate or taught incorrectly. Although the majority of content I viewed seemed accurate, there are many videos created with this application, and not all of them might provide correct information. The application seems to be ethically appropriate, since the online environment surrounding the application experience doesn’t include advertisements and is very straightforward and easy to navigate. The iPad application is ethically appropriate for the given age group over age 13 and older; there are five different sections of the interactive whiteboard: lessons created by the user, classes joined using a class code, favorited lessons, recent lessons viewed by other users, and featured lessons grouped by subject. The eight different subject tabs offered in the featured lessons section is Math, Science, Language Arts, Social Studies, World Languages, Creative Arts, Computing, and Health / P.E. that can be selected and viewed using the application. Overall, I believe there is true learning value to the application since it is helpful for teachers and students to convey information and main ideas to others. If students successfully and effectively create their own digital presentations, it could be linked to the ISTE for Students of becoming a “Creative Communicator.” However, when I think about true learning value regarding assessment, I do not believe the application allows for accurate data information to be collected while the students engage with the application. Students and teachers can informally give feedback but it does not maintain information or send information to the teacher like an online learning management system is capable of doing. For example, a teacher might not know if the students actually viewed the presentation outside of the classroom like LMS are often capable of. I find this application effective but not as useful as Learning Management Systems can be.
The third game I evaluated was ABC-a-Pillar, an alphabet game for Pre-K children ages two to five-years-old. Although the game does not have complex graphics, the content seems appropriate for the suggested age group. The content allows for Pre-K students to learn the order of the alphabet by moving segments on a caterpillar’s body, each representing a letter of the alphabet and the color of the rainbow. The game provides two skill levels, one for two and three-year-olds where the letters show on the caterpillar and one for four and five-year-olds where the letters do not show. The game might be difficult for students who are blind since it involves color-coordinating the caterpillar. Sound is not needed to complete the game but the more advanced skill level version might be difficult for deaf students since the letters are not shown on the caterpillar and they wouldn’t be able to hear the letter when they click the segment. Using mouse buttons is necessary to complete the game so students unable to use them will have difficulty with the game as well. The game does not yield cultural bias or influence bias thinking since it is just an image of a caterpillar. The game might be ineffective with teaching the alphabet and ordering letters if a student has difficultly ordering colors or is unaware of the order of a rainbow. The game seems ethically appropriate and friendly, however, the online environment surrounding the game includes advertisements that might be a distraction for Pre-K students, especially the ones that pop up, in addition to the ones located on the side and top of the website. Although there are third-party advertisements, they do not appear appropriate for children. For example, an advertisement I encountered was for free worksheets on education.com. There is also a tab at the top of the Mr. Nussbaum website to pay and subscribe for no ads. This is helpful for families and schools or classrooms that are willing to pay for the yearly subscription. I find true learning value to the game for young students who wish to learn the alphabet and could find this game useful in a Pre-K classroom. The game is a great way to teach students not only the order of the alphabet but the colors of the rainbow and the alphabet song as well and the use of it can be linked to the learning standards of the National Education Technology Standards for Students (ISTE for Students) of becoming an “Empowered Learner” by using technology to improve the practice of the alphabet and demonstrating that knowledge in more than one way. Students learn the alphabet by moving segments of a caterpillar’s body to represent a letter in order. The segments are also in different colors which allows children to learn the colors of the rainbow if arranging them correctly to correspond with the letters. When the students finish the game a “play song” icon appears which can notify the teacher the student is complete. Regarding assessment information, the game does not allow for data to be collected while the students engage with the game. Teachers will have to monitor the students during use to see if the students are making the correct or incorrect order. However, the game does offer a gold medal if the student successfully arranged the letters that the teacher could print out. This is a simple game I believe Pre-K students would find engaging and fun and a Pre-K teacher would find beneficial in his or her classroom.
The fourth and last game I evaluated was Balloon Pop Subtraction on ABCya! The age group it would be used for is for any student learning subtraction. According to the learning standards, students learn subtraction in first grade, so this game is preferably geared towards first grade students. The content of this game seems appropriate since it proposes simple subtraction problems to the game user. The game user or student using the mouse to click balloons to pop by a bumblebee to achieve the answer to the problem. The game might be inaccessible to students who cannot us the mouse button the pop the balloons and students that might be blind or have trouble seeing. It also might not be likable to students who do not enjoy the sound of popping balloons. The game does not consider many issues of diversity since it relates to a simple concept of a bumblebee popping balloons, however, this might influence children to believe bumblebees can pop balloons. This might also encourage students to believe they need to pop balloons in order to do subtraction problems. The game’s website seems ethnically appropriate and friendly to elementary aged students. However, ABCya! contains advertisements as well. Most of the advertisements are on the home page but some are also within the games. I chose Balloon Pop Subtraction since no advertisements or links were on the screen in the game. The advertisements are not inappropriate for children and some are educational links but are more applicable to parents and teachers. Overall, the game’s interface is quite user friendly. I believe there is true learning value to this game since students need to compute the answer to the problem to pop the correct number of balloons, or can use the number of balloons popped to count how many are left to answer the problem. It is a great tool for elementary students, especially first graders to practice subtraction problems in an interactive user friendly game inside and outside the classroom. Learning standards that could be linked to the use of it could be “Empowered Learner” since students are using technology to achieve a learning goal of becoming more efficient in subtraction. Lastly, this game does not allow assessment information to be sent to the teacher. However, it does provide feedback to the student by including a “check” button at the end of each problem and a results page at the end of each round. Students or teachers are able to clearly identify which problems where incorrect and a percentage is given of how many questions were answered correctly. A score of 70% or better is needed to play the bonus round. A bonus round involved popping balloons containing an odd number. The rounds got harder as they went on with great numbers involved. Overall, I found this game effective but feel students might easily get bored with it since it is repetitive and involves a lot of clicking and popping of balloons.
References
ABC-a-Pillar. (2015). Nussbaum Education Network, LLC. Retrieved from http://mrnussbaum.com/abcpillar/
Balloon Pop Subtraction. (2017). ABCya! LLC. Retrieved from http://www.abcya.com/subtraction_game.htm
Edmodo. (2016). Edmodo. Retrieved from https://www.edmodo.com/
Educreations. (2012). Educreations, Inc. (Version 1.2.6) Retrieved from https://www.educreations.com/
International Society for Technology in Education. (2016). National educational technology standards for students. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/for-students-2016
New York State Education Department. (2011). Common core state standards for english language arts & literacy in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects. Found online at: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/common_core_standards/pdfdocs/p12_common_core_learning_standards_ela.pdf