Drawfile
Clipart Collections
(Various)
Bob Fox, University College Worcester
Speaking
Starspell CD-ROM
(Fisher Marriott)
Kathy Weston, HND Student (Early Childhood Studies) Hereford
Spellbank
(Semerc)
Emma Brown, Buckingham Middle School
Superspell
(4Mation)
C. J. Warner, University of Derby
The following article should be of interest to every teacher who uses an Acorn Archimedes-series computer. The vector graphics program !Draw, which is supplied with the machine, is far more powerful than many users realise. This review concerns drawfile clip art, which can, desktop publishing or multimedia package, or which can be used within !Draw itself for a wide range of design purposes.
In MICRO-SCOPE 49 I described the basic idea of vector graphics, and set out seven principles by which I think drawfile clip art should be judged. Briefly, these were:
Clip art collections which were originally created as drawfiles are far more likely to comply with these principles than images which have been converted from a different platform.
A wide selection of discs on specific topics is available from SEMERC, under the
general series heading Just Pictures (£14 each; some discs are of bitmapped images
or sprites, and some contain a mixture of sprites and drawfiles). The range of topics is
highly suitable for primary school use, and the images are well produced and comply with
most of the above principles. I sometimes find that they are over-fussy for my purposes -
the Roman centurion or the Victorian lady have a whole range of undergarments, which is
fine if I am doing a project on clothes, but rather tedious otherwise, as they do a sort
of reverse-striptease every time I move the image, which can make them very slow on older
machines.
The SEMERC Treasure Chest CD-ROM includes a considerable number of the Just Pictures images, along with numerous sprites and sound files (including sprites from the MAPE Into Europe pack). It is a dual-format (Acorn and PC) CD-ROM, and, like virtually all SEMERC products, it is angled towards Special Needs users, though it can be used effectively in any primary or middle school context. To my mind it is rather over-priced at £69, though many schools will have received it free under a DFEE scheme a couple of years ago, and if you own the CD-ROM you have a site licence, and can freely copy the images within your school. You could, therefore, make up floppies for individual topic areas, which would save you having to delve through the whole hypermedia structure of the disc every time you wanted an image. For myself, I would rather have all the Just Pictures packs on one CD-ROM, in a hierarchically structured directory system.
The Topic Art CD-ROM from Desktop Projects Ltd. is exactly that - a compilation of what started out as floppy discs of drawfiles on well-known primary school topics. Individual discs are still available at £8 each, and the CD-ROM is a mere £20; both prices include a site licence. Again, the CD-ROM is dual-format, and the images are present in their original drawfile format, and have also been converted into ArtWorks files and Corel EPS files. Because they started out as drawfiles, they comply quite well with the principles set out above. Images are appropriately grouped, and many take apart into logical sections. Acorn users can take advantage of the !Thumbnail viewer to preview pictures (though the version I have does not appear to be compatible with my StrongArm processor). There are over 2000 images, and their quality varies from some rather weedily thin outlines to a number of quite superbly detailed and accurate renditions of farm animals, dinosaurs, insects, etc.. Some topic areas are perhaps of marginal use (whole sets of road signs, or playing cards), and some headings promise much but deliver very few images. History is represented only through costume. I find the faces on the human figures slightly odd, some of the proportions look a bit strange and the poses very uncomfortable. There is a large Xmas section, including a whole lot of cards which look a bit like those 30-for-75p selection-box cards that children give their teachers - you have been warned! On balance, though you need to be slightly selective, I think this represents excellent value for money.
Having spent ages sifting through thousands of Public Domain clip art images, I had high hopes of the Zenta Clip Art Collection CD-ROM (£29.95, Acorn only), which also has 10,000 images covering a wide range of topic areas, not all of which are of use in the primary classroom. As the images come from a wide variety of sources it is difficult to generalise about them. Some are very well made, and others are awful, Many are not grouped at all, so when you try to move or re-size them they fall apart. A large proportion did not start out as drawfiles, and do not behave like drawfiles when you try to manipulate them. Files originated in many places, and there is a strongly American bias in some sections. The whole 'Education' directory is ghastly, and I really cannot imagine ever actually using any of the images in it.
The EasyClip viewer, supplied on the disc, is rather tedious in operation. Overall, it is the quality of the images that depresses me most. I suppose at more than three images per penny I should not complain, and there is good material here, but the need for sifting has not been diminished. If I were a strapped-for-cash school, and could afford only one of the above, I think on balance I would opt for the Sherston Collection.
All quoted prices are ex-VAT.
Desktop Projects Ltd., Unit 2A, Heapriding Business Park, Ford St., Stockport, Cheshire
SK3 OBT - 0161 474 0778
Logotron, 124 Cambridge Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge CB4 4ZS 01223 425558
SEMERC, 1 Broadbent Road, Watersheddings, Oldham OL1 4LB - 0161 627 4469
Sherston Software Ltd., Angel House, Sherston, Malmesbury, Wilts. SN16 OLH 01666 840433
Zenta Multimedia, 10 Ravenhurst Drive, Birmingham B43 7RS - 0121 358 3054
The software was used with children from Year 3, Year 4 and Year 5, of varying ability and working in pairs. All children were able to find their way into the program with ease and chose various categories which they felt to be suitable for them. There is an excellent variety of words which meant that all of the children could be challenged. The categories are divided into:
Many of the categories are further divided into various letter patterns, some of which are:
These look a little confusing on the menu to begin with but the children soon realised what they meant. Some of the children had had previous experience of Starspell without voice. The voice was felt to make the activity more interesting and enjoyable. Where the children had difficulty in finding the letter on the keyboard and maybe losing concentration, they simply pressed the 'ear' picture and the voice sounded the word again, as many times as necessary. This is very useful, as is the small picture showing the object being spelt. The use of different colours for letters which are placed incorrectly and a further different colour for letters which did not appear in the first spelling attempt, is also helpful. The computer being used was sited in a busy hallway which meant that the 'voice' was difficult to hear. The sound control was at a maximum but maybe a higher sound output would be beneficial. Headphones were used which helped this situation. The children were able to print-out their 'results' after each category showing words which needed attention. When all were correct the screen shows the words: All words OK.
The children themselves felt that this should be something more complimentary like: "All words correct - Well done " The print-out provides the scope for children to carry out spelling tests independently, giving themselves and the teacher a record of achievements.
The Speaking Starspell program combines the successful way of teaching spelling (look, cover, remember, write, check), with IT and keyboard skills. The way in which it categorises the words into letter patterns will hopefully enable the children to recognise such patterns and apply these rules in other contexts. (National Curriculum Key Stage 2). It is felt that the factors mentioned, together with the 'voice', results in a very worthwhile and enjoyable learning experience for the children, thus making 'Speaking Starspell' a valuable addition to the school's collection of software.
Price Single User: £25
Site Licence: £50
Platform: Acorn
Key Stage: 2/3
Curriculum Area: English
This is a spelling aid for children. It is an on screen dictionary which can be used alongside a wordprocessor. When the children are stuck on how to spell a word they can type it into the spellbank. Spellbank provides a list of possible correct spellings, the child clicks on the correct spelling and then on 'insert' to add it into the text. The words offered are generally a good match and most of the time the word the children wanted was available.
Specific spelling banks can be built up for individual children and topics. There was some scope here for working collaboratively with the children to make these. It gave the opportunity to discuss spelling, to talk about words which may be a problem generally and words which may be a problem related to a certain topic. Working this way meant that some more adventurous words could be put in the spellbank to help extend the child's vocabulary. Unfortunately lists of words can be somewhat daunting to some children and there is no way around this with this particular program.
This work was mainly carried out with special needs children, although if I continued
using it I would use it with more able children, as this particular spelling program is
not the best for supporting children with special needs.
On the whole neither I nor the children this product particularly easy to use and
unfortunately I got little help from the Semerc helpline.
The main disadvantages to this program are:
The program is packaged on three 31/2" discs and includes instruction manual, User Guide and sample student worksheets/diagnostic tests. This is a fairly comprehensive package to test a child's ability in spelling and can be used to diagnose problem areas, for example speed of recall, structure patterns etc.. The words are categorised in a complex way and this includes blends, plurals, suffixes, homophones and commonly misspelt words.
Word Memory
This activity uses the LOOK, COVER, WRITE and CHECK method.
Here the child is shown a word from the 'teacher chosen' list, asked to look at it, click
when ready, then asked to type in the word either on the keyboard or by clicking on a
screen display of the alphabet. A very pedestrian approach is adopted in the progression
of difficulty - I am sure 'Wayne' would agree if asked about this!
A tally is kept of the number of words the child has attempted , the success score and the
number of attempts the child has had, as a percentage.
Word Speed
An identical approach to that used in Word Memory but this time with the challenge of the child being asked to work against a pre-decided time limit, say ten seconds for each word. A tally is kept of the results, as in Word Memory.
Word Splash
This is a traditional, good fun, Hangman type activity which challenges the child to use established word structures to solve the letter composition for each word. Great fun!!
Rocket
A supplementary activity to Word Splash. A novel variation on the theme of Hangman. The child having to decide the letters which compose a given word. In both Word Splash and Rocket the teacher can change or select the word list to focus on a particular blend or digraph.
Word Find
This is an activity using a complex form of a word search. The words are displayed to read in all directions, except diagonally backwards. This is a very challenging activity which may well only be fully useful with older or more advanced children. Great fun though, if frustration doesn't set in first! Additionally there is the facility to create or edit the word lists making it possible to 'tailor-make' lists to support particular topics, activities or visits etc.. A very useful program to be used sparingly as part of a structured approach to spelling strategy. The Word Find will usefully occupy a place as a supplementary activity in any topic based project.