Thursday, May 27, 2010,
Hello!
Finally the long awaited reviews of the educational games for children are here!
However, before I begin my review, let me first tell you briefly on how I am doing this review. To start things off, I would begin by describing the activities in terms of the instructions, rules and basically how to go about playing the game. After that, I would analysis the game based a rubric system (which will be further elaborated later on) before giving my personal rating of the game. Lastly, I would be providing a brief explanation on why I chose these two games, on how effective it is for both parents and teachers to use to teach, in order to enhance the children's learning on a specific subject.
Now, on to the game reviews! The first that I will be reviewing is...
Game Goo - Paw Park (Alphabet Bears)
The name(above) is a link. You can clink on it to access the website, but not after you read my review okay!
Description:
Subject focus: The Paw Park is aimed at enhancing the children's English language skills in terms of their phonics skills and pronunciation.
Setting: At the carnival
Characters involved: 5 bears and 5 cabins of the roller coaster
Skills needed: The ability to use the Mouse, basic knowledge of alphabets and phonics
Technological concept: Drag and Drop
How to play:
In the game Paw Parks, children are required to arrange the bears that in the foreground, by dragging each bear to the cabin of the roller in the background. At the start of the game, 5 bears will be standing in the foreground in a random order. Each bear would have a picture and a word on it's t-shirt, and the children are supposed to arrange the bears in the cabin in an ascending order(from left to right) of the starting alphabet of the word the the bear's t-shirt. The words on each bear's t-shirt will be read out by the program when the Mouse is hovered over it, so that children can identify the words, count the syllables in each word, link the words with the pronunciation, and also to the symbolic representation, which in others, are the pictures above the words.
However, the game gets more and more complicated as one progresses in the rounds. There are three levels in total, with 5 rounds (rounds are indicated in the balloon in the top left hand corner of the game) in each level.
Level 1:
For the first level, the 5 bears would be wearing t-shirts with a series of alphabets. A series of alphabets would be like the letter A to E, F to J, K to P, etc... In this case (below), the letters F,G,H,I and J are used in the first round. The children are then required to drag and drop the bears into the cabins according the alphabets, in ascending order.
Children who have difficulty identifying the starting alphabets of the words need not worry as the starting alphabets would be highlighted in red. However, this hint is only available in round one.
Subject focus: The Paw Park is aimed at enhancing the children's English language skills in terms of their phonics skills and pronunciation.
Setting: At the carnival
Characters involved: 5 bears and 5 cabins of the roller coaster
Skills needed: The ability to use the Mouse, basic knowledge of alphabets and phonics
Technological concept: Drag and Drop
How to play:
In the game Paw Parks, children are required to arrange the bears that in the foreground, by dragging each bear to the cabin of the roller in the background. At the start of the game, 5 bears will be standing in the foreground in a random order. Each bear would have a picture and a word on it's t-shirt, and the children are supposed to arrange the bears in the cabin in an ascending order(from left to right) of the starting alphabet of the word the the bear's t-shirt. The words on each bear's t-shirt will be read out by the program when the Mouse is hovered over it, so that children can identify the words, count the syllables in each word, link the words with the pronunciation, and also to the symbolic representation, which in others, are the pictures above the words.
However, the game gets more and more complicated as one progresses in the rounds. There are three levels in total, with 5 rounds (rounds are indicated in the balloon in the top left hand corner of the game) in each level.
Level 1:
For the first level, the 5 bears would be wearing t-shirts with a series of alphabets. A series of alphabets would be like the letter A to E, F to J, K to P, etc... In this case (below), the letters F,G,H,I and J are used in the first round. The children are then required to drag and drop the bears into the cabins according the alphabets, in ascending order.
Children who have difficulty identifying the starting alphabets of the words need not worry as the starting alphabets would be highlighted in red. However, this hint is only available in round one.
As one progresses through the different rounds, the game becomes much more difficult as letters in the series of alphabet would be skipped occasionally. In this case (below), the bear with the t-shirt that has the letter X was skipped in the series of U,V,W,X,Y and Z.
Level 2:
As for the second level, the names and objects on the bears' t-shirts would have changed to people and their names. The rules of the game are still the same; that the children are required to arrange the bears in ascending based on the letters on the bear's t-shirt.
An example of level would be like this:
A preview of the second round of level 2
An example of level would be like this:
As you can see, the letters P,R,S,T and U are used in this round. Since it is at a more advanced level, letters will be skipped. In this case, the letter Q had been skipped. However, this would not occur in every round of the level. You also notice that the first alphabet of the word is no longer highlighted in red.
A preview of the second round of level 2
Level 3:
In this case, A,C,E,G, and I (which are the odd numbered letters) are used in this series.
An important point to take note of: Children are given three 'chances' to make mistakes while arranging the bears. If a child makes a mistake again, the computer would provide the answer by arranging the bears accordingly, while reading out the words on the t-shirt of the bears in ascending order of the starting alphabet.
Evaluation:
On to the evaluation bit.
I did mention about the Rubric system earlier on. It is actually system to aid in evaluating the effectiveness of the game in the education setting. The 'marking criteria' of the Rubric is based on three categories: ''Organization and design', 'The instruction, design and delivery', and 'The game-based learning'.
To sum it up, here is the evaluation for Game Goo's Paw Park (Alphabet Bears) based on the Rubric System:
Hold 'Shift' while clicking on the image to view it in another window.
Finally, in level 3, the items on the bears' t-shirts are back to objects instead of people and their names. However, instead of skipping a letter, the series of letters are of odd letters or even letters of the alphabets. In other words, the starting letters of the words on the bears' t-shirts are alternating letters. You can view the screenshot below to have a better understanding of it.
In this case, A,C,E,G, and I (which are the odd numbered letters) are used in this series.
As one progresses through the rounds in level 3 however, the letters used in the series becomes more jumbled up. As you can see, the letters C,G,K,R and N are used in the series. At such, the children would having to arranging the bears according to the letter which appears first in the alphabet, instead the series of the alphabet.
An important point to take note of: Children are given three 'chances' to make mistakes while arranging the bears. If a child makes a mistake again, the computer would provide the answer by arranging the bears accordingly, while reading out the words on the t-shirt of the bears in ascending order of the starting alphabet.
Evaluation:
On to the evaluation bit.
I did mention about the Rubric system earlier on. It is actually system to aid in evaluating the effectiveness of the game in the education setting. The 'marking criteria' of the Rubric is based on three categories: ''Organization and design', 'The instruction, design and delivery', and 'The game-based learning'.
To sum it up, here is the evaluation for Game Goo's Paw Park (Alphabet Bears) based on the Rubric System:
Hold 'Shift' while clicking on the image to view it in another window.
You can click on the thumbnails (below) to view the rubric marking criteria as well as the scores for the game.
Hold 'Shift' and click the image to view it in another window.
Last but not least, before I end this post, I would like to explain to you as to how you, parents and teachers alike can use this game to educate in a much more enjoyable manner. For starters, this game should only be introduced to children aged 5 and above. This is because of the complicated concept of the ordering of the alphabets which requires the use of higher level thinking in order to accomplish the activities.
However, this game is aimed at building a firm foundation of the alphabet, while at the same time, enhancing the children's pronunciation and phonics. At such, parents and teachers can introduce this game to the children once they have mastered remembering the alphabet. This is so as to test their understanding of the letters of the alphabet, how pronounce simple words, that are introduced in the game and lastly, to enhance their eye-hand coordination as they drag and drop the bears into the cabins.
In conclusion, this game is an effective strategy to further enhance children's understanding of the alphabet and how to identify starting letters of words in an interactive manner, where children can be encouraged to repeat the words pronounced by the computer program whenever the mouse is hovered over the word.
I would personally give this game a four out of five, thus it is highly recommendable for teachers and parents alike, to introduce this game the children.
We have come to the end of the first review. Stay tuned for the second review of another game!
But before you leave, Click Here to access the game!
However, this game is aimed at building a firm foundation of the alphabet, while at the same time, enhancing the children's pronunciation and phonics. At such, parents and teachers can introduce this game to the children once they have mastered remembering the alphabet. This is so as to test their understanding of the letters of the alphabet, how pronounce simple words, that are introduced in the game and lastly, to enhance their eye-hand coordination as they drag and drop the bears into the cabins.
In conclusion, this game is an effective strategy to further enhance children's understanding of the alphabet and how to identify starting letters of words in an interactive manner, where children can be encouraged to repeat the words pronounced by the computer program whenever the mouse is hovered over the word.
I would personally give this game a four out of five, thus it is highly recommendable for teachers and parents alike, to introduce this game the children.
We have come to the end of the first review. Stay tuned for the second review of another game!
But before you leave, Click Here to access the game!
Labels: Children, Early Childhood, Educational, Game, Games, Review
6:06 AM
