EVALUATION OF SOFTWARE by Gloria Henke

Question Mark on-line testing software from Question Mark Computing at http://www.qmark.com/home.html.

This software is a product of the United Kingdom and shows its origins in a few of the differently-spelled words such as "colour" and "organisation."

Usability - the software was very easy for the test taker to use.  Questions were easily answered with a click of the mouse or by typing in a response.  I did not evaluate the test preparation module.  It was a little annoying that the user cannot jump to the end of the set of questions.

Usefulness - A wide variety of question types and responses were available:  multiple choice, true/false, fill in the blank, drop-down lists to select from, position a graphic over a response.  More than one response was allowed and paragraph responses were also.  In addition, the software provided the ability to survey people with a range of values for answers.

Limitations of the software - although the software was very versatile and could be used for a wide variety of training purposes, I did not think it would be as useful for teachers wanting to test students in a classroom setting in a computer lab.  It did not seem to provide the opportunity to give different versions of the same test or scramble the answers to discourage cheating.  If it did provide those options, the demo did not say so.  Also, the validity of each answer was given immediately - a good idea perhaps for training purposes, but not as good of an idea for a test which is given for evaluation.  I could see students panicking as they realize they answered questions incorrectly.  Psychologically, that could affect their performance on the rest of the test.
 

Math Lab Toolkit from Prentice Hall Publishing
This mathematical software is for high school mathematics.  It covers Algebra, Geometry, Data Analysis, and Statistics/Probability.

Usability:  The software is tricky to learn.  A manual comes with it, however, and if the user reads the basics in the manual, it is fairly easy to use.  A coordinate graphing utility comes with it, but in order to view the graph of an equation, the user must type the equation (easy to do) in one window and "link" the equation to the coordinate graph for it to be drawn.  This can be confusing at first.  More than one graph can be drawn at a time for comparison.

Usefulness:  Because it comes with so many modules, this program could easily be used for the first three or even four years of high school mathematics.  The geometry module allows the creation and measurement of a most geometric figures.  Measurement must be done, however, by linking the figure to a cell in a spreadsheet.  The statistics module simulates rolling a die and spinning a wheel to calulate probability.

Strengths: The toolkit is comprehensive and will meet the needs of many mathematical levels.  It provides on-line worksheets for each of the Algebra, Geometry and  Advanced Algebra modules.  Students can follow the instructions in one worksheet and then click to do the next part of it.  An online student and teacher's workbook with printable worksheets is included in the program.

Weaknesses:  The program cannot be used intuitively.  To just draw an angle in the Geometry section, I had to go to the help screen.  The help screen is very good, but I wonder how many people would have the patience to refer to it each time they wanted to do something in the program.  Once one became familiar with the program, I think it would be a useful tool for mathematics classes.

EVALUATION OF WEB SITES

http://www.learnthenet.com - An Internet tutorial site

Usability:  The site took a little bit of time to load initially, but was responsive once loaded.  There is a nice explanation of the layout of the site and how to navigate it.  Return links are at the end of each section and there is a frame on the side with all the major topics.

Usefulness:  Just when I think everyone knows how to navigate the Internet, I come across a group of parents that have never used a web browser other than AOL.  This site is an excellent tutorial on almost everything associated with the Internet.  It would be good for beginners, but it also has historical information for experienced users.

Strengths:  The strong point of the site is that it has screen image graphics accompanied with explanations so that the user knows what each component looks like.  The site was last updated in February of this year.  That is pretty current, but could be a little more so.

Limitations:  The site is a little wordy.  I have seen other Internet tutorials that were more concise.

http://humanities.uchicago.edu/romance/resources/spanish/ - a site with resources for Spanish students

Usability - I keep going to this site in the hopes that it will fullfill my expectations, but it always disappoints me.  Trying to determine where to click for the links is tricky.  Sometimes I get the hand pointer and sometimes I don't.  I'm not sure what the difference is.

Usefulness - Although the site is labeled as a site with resources for Spanish students, it only gives links to other sites.  One would expect more from the University of Chicago.  It is of limited usefulness.

Strengths - The site is concise and doesn't waste time loading a lot of graphics.  Some of the links are good and not usually found elsewhere.  There is a link to a free online Spanish tutorial

Limitations - This site could offer so much more to the student.  It is not very easy to select one of the four components.  There are only four links to textual resources.  Surely there is more out there than that.  The site does not indicate the time of the last update.

http://math.bu.edu/DYSYS/chaos-game/chaos-game.html - a site which discusses Fractals and the Serpinski triangle

Usability - there are links to go forward and backward through the site at the beginning of each page.  A summary of the purpose of the site is at the beginning with links to hop forward to each section.  The creation date was posted on each page with the author's name.

Usefulness - this page is a copy of a paper printed in a book.  The author states it could be used in a secondary classroom.  He gives a few ways to create the Serpinski triangle in a classroom.  His instructions are clear and accompanied with diagrams.

Strengths - Because the author is an instructor at a major university, I feel the site is credible and I would feel comfortable having students use it.  I liked the diagrams and the sample lesson plan to teach the concept.  I have seen this demonstrated at workshops and would use his suggestions in a classroom.

Limitations - I noticed that the site is four years old.  In that amount of time I think it could have been updated with some Java script showing some animation in the graphics.  Showing the movement of the ball in an animated graphic would be much more effective that talking about it.