THE CLASSROOM KEYS
Theodora Wood assesses teaching programs for older children.
As children pass into their teens the limitations imposed by lack of basic skills are no longer applicable. Programs therefore can be produced with a far greater proportion of written text. Following from programs designed for younger children, many packages rely on the demonstration and examine formula and there is far less emphasis on the entertainment aspect. This month, I shall look at programs which are complementary to school work up to O level. Some incorporate games, some are straight revision packages, others are demonstration models.
Astro Maths - Spectrum 48K, ZX81, Scisoft £6.95 - illustrates how software houses have mixed games with learning, appealing to the games player by offering a reward for correct answers in the form of zap-the-alien-ships. Unfortunately, although the graphics of the spaceships seem exciting when first shown, the game is a pale shadow of games available. The ships do not appear on the screen and the player is presented with an X to move over an invader which is only a square. Control of movement by means of a cursor is also rather shaky and slow.
The bulk of the program is concerned with testing in two areas - decimals to fractions and percentages. Parameters range from easy to difficult and the time-span for answering the questions can be as little as 20 seconds to as much as five minutes 20 seconds. Fractions to decimals deals with questions such as "Type-in the following fraction as a decimal - 20/41 = ?".
The program notes suggest that calculators could be used and for this kind of fraction a calculator would certainly save a great deal of time spent in long division, though obviously it provides practice in it. Percentages tests knowledge in this area is such questions as "What percentage of 200 is 14?". The game is the same and also the parameters, which unfortunately cannot be changed without reLOADing the program.
By contrast, Mathskills II Spectrum 48K, Griffin, £9.99 - is a no-nonsense revision package aimed at complementing courses up to O level in mathematics. The subjects dealt with are areas, perimeters, simple equations, percentages, sets and Venn diagrams. Operating rather like a textbook, instructions are given at the beginning of each section, and even when attempting the questions there is a help facility in case the formulae have been forgotten - a useful revision aid.
After each question has been answered there is the game, different for each section. It is in the form of a ball reaching a goal if five correct answers are given, as in the case of percentages.
Although not really a game in the interactive sense of the word, that diversion breaks up the tedium of answering questions, giving a short break between each one. When the student has completed a section, a certificate is displayed giving the number of questions answered correctly or incorrectly, also expressed as a percentage.
The section on sets and Venn diagrams is especially clear and would certainly be an aid, not only to students, but also to parents whose own school curriculum did not cover these concepts.
Sequencing - Spectrum 48K, Chalksoft, £6.95 - demonstrates the textbook formula by providing examples of sequences, halving, Fibonnacci, prime, square, triangular and multiples of three and nine. Two or three pages of explanation precede each sequence being displayed on the screen. Unlike Mathskills II, which uses the computer to act as a marker, thus pinpointing areas of the subject which need more revision, this is a demonstration tape and has no inherent advantage over a textbook, except that the student sees the sequences built on the screen rather than being presented with the complete set of figures on a page.
For a complete teaching package, Angle - Spectrum 48K, Chalksoft, £11.25 - attempts an introduction to the concept of angle. Four programs are included in the package. Program A demonstrates the concept graphically by showing circles turning through quarters, halves and full turns, and when that has been done the idea of degrees is introduced.
Then follows a program to test these ideas based on a multiple-choice format. Program C moves into a demonstration mode to explain the use of a protractor to measure angles with graphics demonstrations. The testing mode in program D, however, reveals how closely a textbook format has been followed and the user has to hold up a protractor to the television screen to measure the angles. Come back pen and paper, all is forgiven.
Arnold Wheaton's Angle Turner - Spectrum 48K, £13.95 - covers the same ground but has strategies for testing which are not so tied to the conventional. Designed originally for use in the classroom, it is a thorough exploration of the concept embodied in its title. Two tapes and a users' handbook are included.
The demonstration package operates on a menu. The user has a choice of quarter turns, right angles, 45-degree, 10-degree and one-degree turns, The practice mode is designed "to reinforce the concept of angle as a quantity of turn" and test on each of the demonstration models, identifying such aspects as how many right angles?
For more complicated options of 10-and one-degree units the computer draws an angle and the user is asked to estimate the angle. The margin of error can be fixed at the beginning of the program, as can the number of incorrect attempts before help is given in the form of calibrations round the circle so the pupil can count. Calibrations also reinforce a correct answer. After eight questions, or whatever number set, the mode changes and the pupil has to stop the circle being drawn when it reaches a given angle.
The tutorial program draws a shape and gives the number of degrees in digital form at the side; the child has to study the shape and then it is re-drawn; pressing any key will stop the drawing process at the desired point. There is a danger that children will just match the reading given in a box to the one required but pressing T will hide the shape readout and prevent that. The packaging is excellent and although that is no guide to the quality of the program, good design is always a delight, no doubt reflected in the price.
Another area which is susceptible to rote learning and testing is that old chestnut of French irregular verbs and their changes through the tenses. Tense French - Spectrum 48K, Sulis Sottware, £9.95 - would be equally useful at home or in the classroom. Once LOADed there is a menu with choices of change of tense - the program starts in the present tense; a list of verbs; tests on meanings; test on one verb; and a test on all/some verbs.
The choice of tenses covers the range, including the subjunctive. Once a tense has been chosen, either of the two testing situations can be chosen. When choosing one verb the user is presented with the verb of his choice and has to type in the correct form of the verb after the initial preposition has been given. A score out of eight is built at the side of the screen and at the end of the exercise there is a choice of analysis or the menu.
The analysis option is useful, as it shows the correct forms of the verb which have been entered incorrectly by use of a bar of colour, thus highlighting the forms which need revision. Accents, circumflexes and cidillas are obtained by entering graphics mode and pressing the appropriate key.
The list of verbs shows all the verbs to be tested and the tests on meanings does precisely that, from English to French or vice versa. Tense French covers that area of revision in a thorough way and would certainly help users to concentrate on those forms of verbs where they had a weakness, even into the realms of the past historic.
Buying commercial programs can prove to be expensive, however, and for keyboard wizards there is the alternative of writing their programs. Educational Uses of the Spectrum, a Sinclair computer guide, by Tim Hartnell, Christine Johnson and David Valentine - John Wiley, £6.95 - would be of great assistance in writing programs such as those reviewed.
The first five chapters deal with basic programming, which would be superfluous for anybody who had worked through the Spectrum manual. The section on using the Spectrum for advanced mathematics includes routines to cover series, square roots and quadratic equations, as well as graphics sections to cover such concepts as sine design and tangent curves for demonstration purposes.
Testing routines are also supplied and there is a useful section on primary school work with the Spectrum. The book is designed for parents and teachers and, although the price is high compared to works of fiction, it is about average for a computer publication, and the savings would be considerable if the routines were used in place of commercial software.
Examples of software produced for the older child for the Spectrum have an immediate advantage over traditional methods in the immediacy of feedback to the user, and programs such as Mathskills II and Tense French would not only save hours of classroom time spent in testing but also be of assistance at home to identify and revise areas where a pupil was having difficulty.
It has to be said, however, that there is a relative dearth of secondary software produced so far. The market in the field has been dominated mainly by the smaller software houses, as the larger educational suppliers have been producing mainly for the school market, mostly for the BBC micro and the Research Machines models.
That is likely to change as software houses 'Spectrumise' programs previously available only to schools. Heinemann has started the trend by adapting programs such as Car Journey, Ballooning and Special Agent for the age range up to 13 from a suite of programs produced by a team of teachers working at Dudley, called The Dudley Programs, and tentative plans are afoot to adapt more titles. Understanding Your Weather, Dairy Farmer and Town Planner are three of the possible candidates. Arnold Wheaton is inclined to do the same.
There are many titles available in the games section which are educational without relying on the demonstrate-and-examine formula. Programs such as The Hobbit develop problem-solving skills and encourage a logical approach, without being specifically educational packages.
A TOUCH OF CLASS
Home computers, they tell us, are the ideal vehicle for education - but what exactly supports this claim? Sandy Dewhurst, computer studies schoolteacher, sifts through the pages of various literary texts devoted to the subject.
Let's get something straight right from the start. I have never read Mindstorms, that wise book of computer education by Seymour Papert. What's more, I have no regrets. I did take it with me on a 32-hour flight to Sydney a couple of years ago. After wading through the section about his childhood obsession with cogs and gears, quite frankly I decided to opt instead for the in-flight movies. As a classroom teacher, I'm more interested in texts of a less 'celestial' nature.
The first, and possibly most important thing an educational computing text must be is 'reader friendly' (sorry - just my computer humour). If it's a book for children, there needs to be the degree of informality needed to communicate with children on their level rather than the more usual artificial adult-imposed level. This requires a careful blend of both style and vocabulary. If the book is for teachers it needs to be clear and succinct. Busy teachers have little time for the wordy ramblings of computer enthusiasts.
One unfortunate aspect of many texts is that it's not altogether clear who they are for. The situation in computing today is such that the distinction between teacher and student is not as clearly defined as in other subject areas - and this is particularly so in primary schools. In many cases the pre-knowledge of the student is greater than that of the teacher. I don't intend to apologise for the authors of computing texts, but this must lead to confusion on their part. Far too often they counter this situation by simply writing a bland general text, with no real idea (or indication) of who should be reading it. Some books dealing specifically with the Spectrum are included in this category. A typical example of this is the Spectrum publication in the Learning to Use... series. In the publisher's own words, it is for "...potential users, established users, teachers, students and businessmen..." Is there anyone else? I think that just about covers the entire population of the world (except businesswomen!). In fairness to author Robin Bradbeer, I don't think it was ever written specifically for the education market; but it does demonstrate how general many of the books are.
A clearly defined purpose is essential for any text and for some this is more easily done than for others. Two books I looked at simply contained listings of programs - hence providing that clear and very specific purpose. Educational Programs for the Spectrum by Ian Murray and 40 Educational Games for the Spectrum by Vince Apps both provide a wide variety of programs. They also include quite extensive notes on each program, giving detailed program descriptions, explanations of how to play each game, programming hints and even some educational notes! However, their use is limited by their very specific purpose. I've often questioned the validity of books containing nothing other than listings - surely it would be quicker and easier for everyone concerned if the programs were put on cassette and sold as a software compendium. Someone in Century Publishing must have had similar thoughts, as cassette versions of the programs in Ian Murray's book are now available. The problem is, of course, the chances are you don't know this until after you've bought the book!
The listing in Ian Murray's book have obviously been printed, via an interface (see Getting into Print, YS issue 2), on a professional printer. Unfortunately, a ZX Printer has been used to provide the listings in the other book, and several others I've looked at have done the same. The reproduction from such printouts is not up to a satisfactory standard for book publishing. It's a great pity that publishers haven't seen fit to obtain quality printouts of program listings. A little extra money in production would make quite a difference to the end product. In many cases the listings are illegible, and therefore totally useless. This is particularly the case when inverse video characters are used in the listing.
ON TO PROGRAMMING
Another area of specific focus for texts is programming. Most books in this field are supposedly designed with the student in mind. The first thing a text of this kind has to do is not speak down to the reader. Shiva has recently published Programming for REAL Beginners - Stage 1 & 2, which although not specifically saying 'educational text book', certainly implies it through the presentation. The major failing of these two is the fact that they are not machine specific and therefore there's a limit to the level the reader can progress with her/ his own machine. Again, this is a case of trying to keep everyone happy, including the publisher's bank manger.
The presentation has been quite carefully planned - I was going to commend it until I saw the cartoon on page 78 of Stage 2. Pardon my high horse but it's sexist and not at all relevant to the rest of the text. The less obvious one on page 82 of Stage 1 is equally bad. Publishers should not be able to get away with such rubbish, and their use in the classroom should be limited.
Books focusing specifically on programming for children originated in the United States. Although good in their simple step-by-step development of programming skills, they lost a lot through their 'americana' style presentation - what I generally call 'gee whizz books'. Fortunately, they tended to be specific to American machines (Tandy, Apple, etc), so Britain was shielded from them to a large extent.
One final point on programming books - do they have to be in book form at all? One company, EDU-CAL, markets programming workcards, but unfortunately only for the BBC machine. A workcard is much easier to handle at a keyboard than a book, and it might well be worth investigating the possibility for the Spectrum (publishers, take note!).
THE NON-SPECIFICS
So, now let's look at the general educational books, which are neither program nor programming specific. What should they contain? How should they be presented? The short answer to these questions is, I don't honestly know. They all seem to follow a similar pattern, in both content and presentation. But, whether this is because the perfect formula was discovered early on which made an obvious model for everyone to follow, or because it's easier to follow previous published patterns with minor alterations to present a degree of 'individuality', who's to know. I have my own opinion on this matter, but I'll leave it up to you, the consumers, to decide for yourselves.
Whichever of these opinions you believe, it's unfortunate that the result is a lack of diversity in computing books in education. It's even more unfortunate when one considers the wide variety of texts available in other areas of educational publishing. One of the few publishing variants is Usborne, a company that, following on from similarly presented books in other fields, has produced bright, reader-friendly books on several subjects within the computing field. These are packed full of colourful illustrations - something that's all too frequently absent from other books in this field.
One book which didn't impress me at all to begin with was Learning with your Computer by Susan Curran and Ray Curnow (one of the Clear and Simple home computer series). However, subsequent readings have convinced me otherwise. There's a brief section on the background to educational computing and anything of a highly technical nature has been omitted, although not to the detriment of the text. If anything, this proves a positive move which gives the reader an informative but general overview of a complex subject. It's all that anyone, apart from a real enthusiast, would want.
One very important section in this book is the chapter on software selection where again the friendly, yet informative approach has been adopted. One thing though, all the suggestions offered involve obtaining information on programs from other sources - for example magazines and user groups. There's no effort made to advise readers on how to assess software themselves. The 'high priests' syndrome lives on: 'We are the chosen few, we have the knowledge, and we're keeping it to ourselves'!
The one factor that would keep it off a Spectrum user's shopping list is that of recurring problem, namely, that it isn't Spectrum specific. In fact, although it is a general computing text, all the program listings are for the Dragon 32. All right, so they only need minor adaptations to get them working on other machines, but again, what busy teacher has time for this sort of activity?
THE SPECIFICS
The Spectrum is quite a unique machine, so teachers (and students), really require books specific to it, and publishers must realise this. For this reason, I will finish by looking at two recently published books which attempt to fulfil this criterion, both being written by people highly respected in the computing world. The two books are Spectrum in Education by Eric Deeson, and Educational Uses of the ZX Spectrum by Tim Hartnell, Christine Johnson and David Valentine. The former is from Shiva's Friendly Micro series and the latter is the companion volume to Tim Hartnell's other Sinclair computer guide, The ZX Spectrum Explored.
Both titles mirror each other quite closely, even to the point of having some identical chapter titles. The first few chapters of each provide some basic ideas on computers and their educational applications, and these are followed by an introduction to programming. Eric Deeson tends to develop this to a higher degree, although there are two very useful chapters on the use of graphics in Tim & Co's book. In fact, they probably achieve the same results, programming-wise, by developing programs in specific subject areas of the curriculum.
Space is also devoted to the actual use of micros in schools. Eric's book focuses on the theory and historical context of micros in schools, whereas Christine Johnson contributes an enlightening couple of chapters in her book on the use of micros in a much-neglected part of the education system - the infant school. Another useful area in Educational Uses... concerns itself with software evaluations. It's useful because as well as all the previously mentioned sources of information, it actually explains how, without much effort, teachers can evaluate software themselves. So, there's no need to consult a 'high priest' after all!
I've always found a good guide to the quality of a computer book is to decide whether I would have it off my shelf. I say 'off', because books like these need to be used, not left on shelves. Top of my usability list would be Educational Uses of the ZX Spectrum, simply because it is the book I would find most useful as a primary teacher. If I was a high school teacher, however, I might well find the approach in Spectrum in Education more suited to my needs. I think I would also have Educational Programs for the Spectrum on my list, or better still, write off for cassette versions of all the programs.
Apart from these, there is very little that I could honestly recommend. It looks like education is the loser once again. I really look forward to the time when educational computing authors break free from their chains and follow the lead of some of their counterparts in the software field.
By the way, do you know what CAF is? it's worth buying Eric Deeson's book just to find out. His views on the future are very interesting. Read them. You may never view computers (or classrooms!) in the same light again.
All information in this page is provided by ZXSR instead of ZXDB