Activity 3: Exploring
other educators' software reviews
Reflect
on software purposes: 30 mins
Read reviews provided: 30 mins
Select one review on the Internet: 2 hrs
Send the review with an explanation to
the group: 45 mins
Comment on at least two reviews received:
45 mins
4hrs 30 mins
You should now have some idea of the
type of questions you should ask yourself when reviewing educational
software. In this activity you explore how other teachers
- in your country and around the world - have evaluated
software. See what you can learn from their experiences.
Activity
3
Instructions
Different software products are
created for different purposes. No software product
can be everything for everybody. What you want the
software product for, determines whether you think
a particular product is good or not (for that purpose).
Read these descriptions of some of the different
purposes of educational software so that you can
decide what type or types of software you require:
What other purposes
can you think of? What other types of software
have you come across or heard about? Write notes
to yourself in your e-diary
which you saved in Activity 2.
Read a few of the software
reviews and evaluations presented here. You
may want to focus on the ones that fit your preferred
software purposes or just choose a few randomly.
Make notes to yourself on any
categories or criteria that you find useful. Note
down which reviews you find useful. Which reviews
gave you the best sense of what the software could
do and what you should expect?
Visit a few of these online
software review websites to see some of the
ways that educational software is evaluated around
the world.
Can you find examples where:
Teachers have
evaluated the software after using it with a class?
Teachers have
given their opinions on a software title (without
using in class first)?
Learners review
the software?
The reviewers
are in similar a country and/or context to your own?
Note down your findings
in your e-diary. Save the
document.
Choose at least one review from
the Internet and share the document with your group online (using the subject heading "Software review"). In the message explain why
you chose that review.
Read and comment on at least two
reviews sent by your group members.
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