Software Titles are Solid Classroom Additions
Escape From Planet Arizona
Escape From Planet Arizona (EF Multimedia $39.95) uses Apple's QuickTime Virtual Reality technique so that users can turn around 360 degrees in the game. It was filmed in Arizona and contains 3-D graphics along with sounds and music for approximately 40 hours of playing time.The student begins the game as an alien who has crash-landed in the Arizona desert. The student's task is to find the seven objects needed to repair his or her spaceship. Clues for finding these objects are given in English at various scenes in the program such as at a computer terminal or from a library.
At the beginning of the game is a swirling planetary system to which a female student commented, "This is so difficult to read. Look at those fast planets. It makes me dizzy." In contrast, the two male users liked the swirling planets and mentioned that they were "cool".
Some students were anxious to begin exploring the game environment before reading all the clues and directions on the spaceship computer. This led to confusion about how to play the game.
Also, most students did not realize it when they had "put on" the body suit that allowed them to leave the spaceship. I needed to tell them that they were indeed wearing the body suit and could now leave the ship.
The game characters motivated students differently. The female users all liked the librarian with one exclaiming, "Nice!" thinking her behavior was funny. Students said that it was a very high quality game, but that it was "kind of for normal people more than for ESL." One student said, "That can be a very interesting program if I know how to do it. It's very detailed and very nice. It requires more computer game intelligence than English intelligence."
Azar Interactive
The Azar Interactive CD-ROM (Prentice Hall Regents $125) provides grammar exercises. It is presented in an aesthetically pleasing combination of readings with grammar in context, audio clips, and motivational video clips. There are more than 50 grammar topics from which students can choose.Some students really liked the video clips and even did little dances during them while exclaiming, "Cute!" I heard several students say, "That was cute," after the clips. I believe the video clips motivated students to proceed to the next exercise with anticipation. One drawback was that the "grammar charts" were difficult to read due to small font. Also, students did not think there was much variation in difficulty levels. There was also some confusion with different colored fonts. At first the blue, red, and black fonts were thought of as places already visited and places yet to visit as on the WWW. After trial and error, students learned that the different colors represented different lesson types. On the other hand, there were several positive comments including the popular student control features. One student said, "This is a very enjoyable program because of the visual and audio displays. It's patterned, but not too strictly patterned so that I canšt go where I want."
The Rosetta Stone
The Rosetta Stone Level II English (Fairfield Language Technologies $395) contains 118 lessons. It is already widely used in many language laboratories across America. It comes with a student workbook and study guide. The first thing students noticed was the comprehensive list of menu choices at the beginning of the program. After beginning the exercises, several of the students giggled and appeared to enjoy the sound effects and images.One student wanted the objectives of each lesson to be stated in advance and sought the objectives in the student study guide. Although the study guide helped, he said that he would have preferred to have the objectives contained within the CD-ROM. Another problem was that the program window did not maximize to full screen, so parts of the desktop were still showing.
The best aspect that students mentioned was the extensive content. One student said, "It repeats the same point 12 times so for the beginner it is very helpful."
Software Titles are Solid Classroom Additions
Escape From Planet Arizona
Escape From Planet Arizona (EF Multimedia $39.95) uses Apple's QuickTime Virtual Reality technique so that users can turn around 360 degrees in the game. It was filmed in Arizona and contains 3-D graphics along with sounds and music for approximately 40 hours of playing time.The student begins the game as an alien who has crash-landed in the Arizona desert. The student's task is to find the seven objects needed to repair his or her spaceship. Clues for finding these objects are given in English at various scenes in the program such as at a computer terminal or from a library.
At the beginning of the game is a swirling planetary system to which a female student commented, "This is so difficult to read. Look at those fast planets. It makes me dizzy." In contrast, the two male users liked the swirling planets and mentioned that they were "cool".
Some students were anxious to begin exploring the game environment before reading all the clues and directions on the spaceship computer. This led to confusion about how to play the game.
Also, most students did not realize it when they had "put on" the body suit that allowed them to leave the spaceship. I needed to tell them that they were indeed wearing the body suit and could now leave the ship.
The game characters motivated students differently. The female users all liked the librarian with one exclaiming, "Nice!" thinking her behavior was funny. Students said that it was a very high quality game, but that it was "kind of for normal people more than for ESL." One student said, "That can be a very interesting program if I know how to do it. It's very detailed and very nice. It requires more computer game intelligence than English intelligence."
Azar Interactive
The Azar Interactive CD-ROM (Prentice Hall Regents $125) provides grammar exercises. It is presented in an aesthetically pleasing combination of readings with grammar in context, audio clips, and motivational video clips. There are more than 50 grammar topics from which students can choose.Some students really liked the video clips and even did little dances during them while exclaiming, "Cute!" I heard several students say, "That was cute," after the clips. I believe the video clips motivated students to proceed to the next exercise with anticipation. One drawback was that the "grammar charts" were difficult to read due to small font. Also, students did not think there was much variation in difficulty levels. There was also some confusion with different colored fonts. At first the blue, red, and black fonts were thought of as places already visited and places yet to visit as on the WWW. After trial and error, students learned that the different colors represented different lesson types. On the other hand, there were several positive comments including the popular student control features. One student said, "This is a very enjoyable program because of the visual and audio displays. It's patterned, but not too strictly patterned so that I canšt go where I want."
The Rosetta Stone
The Rosetta Stone Level II English (Fairfield Language Technologies $395) contains 118 lessons. It is already widely used in many language laboratories across America. It comes with a student workbook and study guide. The first thing students noticed was the comprehensive list of menu choices at the beginning of the program. After beginning the exercises, several of the students giggled and appeared to enjoy the sound effects and images.One student wanted the objectives of each lesson to be stated in advance and sought the objectives in the student study guide. Although the study guide helped, he said that he would have preferred to have the objectives contained within the CD-ROM. Another problem was that the program window did not maximize to full screen, so parts of the desktop were still showing.
The best aspect that students mentioned was the extensive content. One student said, "It repeats the same point 12 times so for the beginner it is very helpful."