Fall 1999
519.01 Gilbert

Educational Software Evaluation Project

The purpose of the software evaluation project is to engage in a thorough evaluation of two (2) educational applications designed for instructional and’or learning purposes. You will select and evaluate the software using criteria presented in class, your textbook, and prepare a written evaluation of the software Items 4 -12 on the evaluation report will receive a score (5=excellent, 4=good, 3=fair, 2=poor, 1= unsatisfactory, 0=non-applicable) and a written description.

This assignment is due October 28, 1999. You evaluation should include the following:

1. Name, price and publisher of the software.

2. Content area for which the software is designed.

3. Hardware requirements of the software (include RAM and ROM needed)

4. Ease of Use (clear instructions, installation) independence for students, and

Score: ____

5. Age Appropriateness

Score: ____

6. Active learning on the part of student (v. passive learning behavior)

Score: ____

7. Degree of open-endedness and flexibility

Score: ____

8. Clear documentation and good support

Score: ____

9. Follows principles of learning

• Matched to instructional level of students Score: ____

• Appropriate vocabulary Score: ____

• Ability to engage students Score: ____

• Expanding complexity Score:____

10. Technical Soundness

• Animation Score: ____

• Colors Score: ____

• Sound Score: ____

• Printing Score: ____

• Saves student’s work Score: ____

• uncluttered, realistic graphics Score: ____

• consistent operation Score: ____

11. "PC-ness"

Mixed gender and role equity Score: ____

People of diverse cultures Score: ____

Diverse Family Styles Score: ____

12. Process and type of instruction

Discovery, Drill and Practice, Simulation, etc. Score: ____

In addition, you may include any of your own, personal comments regarding the software and the usefulness of the software as an educational tool.

Places to download demos of software

http://www.gamesdomain.com/tigger/index.html

http://www.shareware.com/

http://www.download.com/

Downloading tips

Once you have found the program you seek either by browsing or searching our library, you can click and hold on its name, read more about it on its detail page, and then choose a download option to save a copy of the program to your computer. The download page for each file usually lists more than one location where you can get the file. Generally you want to choose the location closest to you for the fastest, most reliable download. Sometimes you might try to download a program at the same time as many other people on the Internet. The Web servers and ftp servers, which host the files and process the transfers, will return error messages when they are unable to handle your request. In that case, you should try other sites that are listed as download options, or try again in a few moments.

Most of these programs are compressed, because compressing files saves you online time when you download a file. Usually, PC files that have been compressed have a .zip extension; Macintosh files have a .sit or .hqx. To use a program you have downloaded, you must follow three steps.

1. Copy it into an empty directory

2. Decompress it

3. Install it

For zipped PC files you will need a copy of an "unzipping program" such as WinZip which you can get from the sites listed above, or try this site for a Win95 version

http://www.pkunzip.com

For Macintosh .sit or hqx compressed files, you need Stuff-It expander which can be kind-of tricky, Downloading Stuffit Expander for the Mac user presents a unique problem. The problem lies not with Stuffit itself, but with the limitations of Web browsers, which cannot de binhex data or understand straight Mac binary data. The Fetch ftp client will do this, however, and your Internet provider may have provided you with it. Using Fetch, download Stuffit Expander. It should appear on your computer as a self-extracting archive, which you would then double- click to install. If you don't have Fetch, then you are in a Catch-22: you need Stuffit to download Stuffit. For your first copy, get it from me via floppy disk.

The following is a couple of common problems and solutions with downloading.

ftp access problem: You cannot gain access to the ftp site.

solution: Even if you selected a well-rated site that allows many connections, the site

may be busy. Select another site, or wait a few seconds and try again.

Connection problem: Your connection breaks during the download.

solution: This may be a problem with your Internet connection. Try again. If it happens all the time, check whether your network provider allows ftp transfers.