Educational games software lacking

Dear David,
Your six year old might be interested in Fred's Island Adventure, a
phonics teaching program which has just been updated to run on OSX.

www.eigonoshima.com

The homepage is all in Japanese, but you can email the production
company here: fredeigonoshima.com

I don't know, it's aimed at teaching reading and spelling to children
in Japan and the notes and on screen guidance is in Japanese, but it
has received rave reviews.
I run a small English school north of Tokyo and have just bought a copy
of the CD Rom. I'm now working on introducing it and computers to my
classroom.

Thought you'd like to know that there is stuff out there.

Will Percy

On 12/6/04 12:33 pm, "David Leitch" <davidleitchoptushome.com.au> wrote:

> As a longtime user of Macs (20 years) with 4 children (6-20) and 4 mac
> computers its frustrating how difficult it is to get "good", "reliable"
> educational software that is Mac OSX native.

Take a look at the Microsoft Magic School Bus series -­ therešs some good
stuff in there.

--
Barry

As both a longtime Apple user (ever since I received an Apple II+ as an Apple Education Foundation grantee) and a K-8 elementary school teacher my favorite educational program by far is Stagecast Creator. (Available online for about $50 at http://www.stagecast.com - free trial version also available.) Creator is a cross platform kid's object oriented graphical rules-by-example programming environment (which is easier to use than describe!) It's not for everyone - only one of my two now-teenage girls, who have been messing about with computers since they were two, got into it. But there are many stagecast "simulations" and games made by other teenage & younger kids and educators readily available via the internet to give a new user different ideas and activities. The company may not doing so great financially but the software continues to win awards. It has a whole bunch of built-in on-line tutorials and a tutorial project booklet to get you started but after that you're more or less on your own. Stagecast Creator's greatest strength is also it's achille's heel: it unleashes immense creativity and enthusiastic ideas from kids once they grasp it's potential, but requires more skill than a novice has internalized to implement the novice's personal ideas. During the initial programming process, I find it requires supervision to keep projects do-able and to reduce frustration. I use it each year with with my 5th graders to make games and animations and we (the kids and I) think it is fantastic. I have used it successfully in the past with 3rd and 4th graders. There is no upper age limit to it's fascination. It runs best with a G3 cpu or better and has OS 9 and OS X (not to mention PC) versions. I have used both the OS 9 and OS X versions extensively and both work well.

StageCast has also has an educators website and a mailing list: <http://www.stagecast.com/educators> <mailto:subscribe-educatorsstagecast.learningtech.org>

- Brian --

Brian McLaughlin 301-881-4100x105 fax 301-881-3319 Green Acres School 11701 Danville Drive Rockville, MD 20852

Thanks for the replies. I will look into the Magic School Bus series. Stagecast may be a little ahead of my 6 year old's capabilities.

What I am really looking for is Reader Rabbit updated to OSX.

Again if you want to keep Macs in the classroom, particularly the junior classrooms, where its interface is well suited, we need the software. Robust, reliable, exciting and educational.

At 4:55 AM -0700 6/16/04, David Leitch wrote:
>Thanks for the replies. I will look into the Magic School Bus
>series. Stagecast may be a little ahead of my 6 year old's
>capabilities.
>
>What I am really looking for is Reader Rabbit updated to OSX.

We have Reader Rabbit 1st Grade and it is Mac OS X native. We bought
it around a year ago.

--Paul Chernoff

This discussion about educational games reminds me about some
thoughts I have had about children and computers. I first came in
contact with computers in my teens, and I guess that is true for most
people on this list. We have become quite good at computers despite
that. Something else prepared us for this life.

If I get kids I'm not so sure I will encourage them to use the
computer before they want to send an e-mail to there grandparents.
The educational games I have seen border on the same passivating
effect as TV. What can an hour with a educational games give that an
hour with a book or some old style Lego can't do better?

A lot of people will spend a good part of there adult life in front
of a computer. Is there a point in making the children start this
more early then they must? I live by and of my computers, I really
don't want to be without them. But I don't se how that is relevant
for children.

Fredrik

[We've addressed this over the years as well; see these articles and (at the bottom of each) their related TidBITS Talk threads. -Adam]

<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06211>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06294>

--
Web site: <http://xdeb.org/wiki/Fredrik>

There is "SuperMemo" for the Windows platform that spaces reviews
according to the capacity for memory of the student or the difficulty
of the subject.

It is a Q & A or flashcard style package. You can put in what you want
and children could easily turn the most terrifying schoolwork into a
memory game: provided that the teachers were kept out of it.

If a normal game could fetch a flashcard from SuperMemo each time there
was a penalty to pay or a life to save that would quadruple the
enjoyment. Getting a percentage right would go towards winning the
game. <www.supermemo.com>

George
4002 BC

On 17 Jun, 2004, at 11:44, Fredrik Jonsson wrote:

> This discussion about educational games reminds me about some thoughts
> I have had about children and computers. I first came in contact with
> computers in my teens, and I guess that is true for most people on
> this list. We have become quite good at computers despite that.
> Something else prepared us for this life.
>
> If I get kids I'm not so sure I will encourage them to use the
> computer before they want to send an e-mail to there grandparents. The
> educational games I have seen border on the same passivating effect as
> TV. What can an hour with a educational games give that an hour with a
> book or some old style Lego can't do better?

I'm afraid that you are right unless you get the kids designing their
own games.

> A lot of people will spend a good part of there adult life in front of
> a computer. Is there a point in making the children start this more
> early then they must? I live by and of my computers, I really don't
> want to be without them. But I don't se how that is relevant for
> children.
>
> Fredrik
>
> [We've addressed this over the years as well; see these articles and
> (at the bottom of each) their related TidBITS Talk threads. -Adam]
>
> <http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06211>
> <http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06294>
>
> --
> Web site: <http://xdeb.org/wiki/Fredrik>
>