CALL
SOFTWARE/WEBSITE EVALUATION #2
Software/Website
Title:
Learning
English Kids by the British Council
Grade/Age
Level: Geared towards elementary students. There are links
for pre-k children as well.
Language
and Content:
1)
What is the intended purpose of the software or website?
The purpose of Learning English Kids is just that.
The website was designed to help children learn English through interactive
literacy activities.
2)
What is the content of the software or website and how is it presented?
The website covers a broad range of content such as
letters, grammar, jobs, animals etc. One thing I noticed was that I didn’t see
math skills included.
3)
What external documents do the software or website include? Are they affective?
The website includes links to articles, blogs,
printouts and forums. Furthermore, there is a resource page full of websites
for parents, teachers, and kids.
4)
In what ways is the software interesting to the target audience?
The website is VERY interactive, colorful, and fun
for students. Students can set up their own account and interact with other
users in the comments. They can view movies, listen to songs, play games and
listen to audio books. There is also a good amount of extension writing
activities students can complete on their own.
5)
For what language goal(s) is this software or website useful/effective?
Children’s literature can be used to teach a variety
of language goals such as vocabulary, grammar, problem solving, and critical
thinking. This website is extremely interactive.
It can help students learn re-telling, summarizing, sequencing, comparing,
contrasting, and other literacy skills.
6)
Does this program or website offer practice? Assessment? Feedback? Of what
kinds?
Learning English Kids offers formative, fun and
formal assessments. The games offer practice for skills learned. There are also
quizzes and tests children can take and get immediate feedback on. Students
themselves can leave feedback on activities and share their results with others
in the correspondence blogs.
7)
Is this software or website easy to use?
The website is easy to use and navigate for children
of all ages. It is fun and colorful with a search feature as well. When a
student searches a topic or views particular content, there is a list of
related links on the right for more information and activities.
8)
What are the strengths of this software or website?
The website is easy to use, navigate and search. It
offers a variety of multimodal activities that are extremely engaging for young
learners. I like that students can learn through interaction with content in
the form of games, read alouds, songs, and poems. Also, the external links for
parents are valuable tools to help them help their children. The search feature
is great as I have seen many sites without it.
9)
How can this software or website be improved?
Like my first website evaluation, this site was
developed in the UK, there is somewhat of a disconnection in a couple of areas.
Where we have standards, it appears they have something called “tasks”. So,
while it may not transfer over directly, the content can be used by anyone and
adapted easily to any classroom. Some of the audio, spelling and dialect are
different but not in a negative way. If anything, it will help students see
that English sounds different in other parts of the world.
I wish the site would offer more cohesive units and
lesson plans instead of bits of information that are not linked. Also, I wish
the activities had grade-level or language proficiency suggestions to help know
what is appropriate for which students.
I like most what the BBC puts out. I think if it is used overseas that the accent and such will not be that much of a concern as their are many teachers from the UK. I did like the use of real people in the videos along with animation.
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