This blog shall be a comment on the different learning software we used in the session on Tuesday. Unfortunately, my group was only able to analyze one of the two learning programs since we were not able to install the different programs. First, we tried to install the foreign language learning program called “Lernvitamin Plus English” which did not work. Afterwards, we tried to install the program called “English + Mittelstufe”. Unfortunately, this program didn’t work as well. We were only able to install the guide tour of the program which was not very helpful in terms of our task. Finally, we were able to install the foreign language learning program called “Lernpaket Englisch Klasse 5-6”. But since we had such big problems to install the language learning software our group was only able to analyze the latter program and not two different programs.
Therefore, here is my analysis of the foreign language learning program “Lernpaket Englisch Klasse 5-6”:
First of all I can say that the software was very easy to handle, in my opinion also for 5th- or 6th-graders, although there were some tasks which were rather complicated. I can remember a kind of puzzle where we had to recreate a picture by pushing around some pieces of the picture. Unfortunately, we were not able to figure out the sense of this task. Irrespective of this, we were not able to bring the pieces into a correct order. (-;§
However, the software was developed to train writing, grammatical, and reading skills. I cannot remember if there were more skills which can be improved with the help of the program, because after our installing Marathon there was not much time left for a very deep analysis. Nevertheless, I’m not quite sure if the software does really lead to an improvement of these skills since the tasks were organized according to the theory of the behaviorism only. The students only have to fill out gaps to make a sentence complete. Besides, the words which the students have to put into the gaps are given below the sentence (the letters of the word are mixed). I could imagine that this can be very boring after a short time so that students, especially ten or eleven year-olds (5th or 6th-graders) won’t use this software very often. In my opinion language learning software should provide the user with tasks based on different language learning theories. In my opinion this is very important to meet the needs of different learner types.
Nevertheless, the design and the background of the tasks were quite okay and appropriate for students of that age, although I think that everything could have been a little bit more interactive.
Summing up, I can say that I would not recommend this foreign language learning program because it focuses too much on one learning theory and therefore can be very boring after a short time.
Additionally I want to say that in Tuesday’s session I experienced first-hand when the new media don’t work. (-;
Hi Daniel, comrade in the fight of technical problems!
Since we worked in the same group I can agree on all the facts you stated. I liked your comment because it reflected the situation and trouble we had in class very well. Learning software may support further study at home but not in school.
Enjoy your day,
Maike
Hey Daniel,
thank you for your evaluation! Indeed I am glad that my group was not the only one which had problems with the installation…;-)
I think it is quite difficult to write a constructive comment on a software program which I have not seen by myself. So I can only state that you did a very good job in evaluating significant aspects of the software. As your group ran out of time it was a bit cursorily which is no problem at all. But to get a better understanding of the problem I should take deeper look on the program by myself.
But the first impression is important and you could prove your negative attitude towards the software by convincing arguments.
Greets,
Jan