|
Reviews and Recommendations
Rolly Maiquez reviewed all of our applications in his
blog on
The EdTech Advantage. He says...
"I had great first impressions of Leading Step's
programs... The assessment "games" are not like
typical drill games. They are actually fun to play!
(I caught myself 'trying out' the Shape Up and
Size It Up games and ended up playing for close to
an hour!)
So what else did I like about the Leading Step programs?
When I was testing all the programs, I realized they
were well-suited for one-to-one instruction. Since
assessment problems are random, students can thus
experience a virtually unlimited set of practice problems
in all the programs. Unlike paper workbook sheets,
students will not run out of problems to practice on.
And the programs provide immediate feedback - no need to
wait for the teacher to check the student's work. The
programs also provide students with a lot of positive
feedback. When they make mistakes, correct answers are
presented and students are constantly encouraged to keep
trying.
Since students are working on individual handhelds,
making mistakes doesn't become too painful - thus the
programs provide a safe environment learning - students
can move on at their own pace. The programs are also
highly customizable and can be configured to concentrate
on particular areas of skills. And since all the
programs monitor each student's progress on specific
skills, students and teachers are constantly provided
with information on how students are progressing and
areas they need to concentrate on are identified for
them.
Leading Step is tops in my list in the suite-type of
educational programs. All their programs are very simple
to use, yet robustly powered by a lot engaging of
variations, games, and exercises that would easily
capture and keep the attention of elementary students of
all ages. The prices in their online store are also in
the lower range of Palm educational programs. At $14.95
per license per title (except for Spell Champ, which is
priced at $19.95), there's no reason not to get the
whole set."
See full review...
Rolly Maiquez, Palm Education Training Coordinator
(PETC) and Technology Specialist at St. John's School,
Guam
One reviewer, Ashley Elsdon, had her children help to
review MathChamp! She says:
"My son (age 6) was playing this game when I got home.
When asked what he thought of it, he didn't reply. In
fact, he completely ignored me for some time. When I
did get his attention, he said, "Yeah, it's brilliant."
That's praise indeed."
See full review...
Ashley Elsdon, Reviewer, TamsPalm - The Palm OS Blog
"As I played with all these apps (MathChamp!,
SpellChamp!, Shape Up: Geometry, and Size It Up) I
realized very quickly that these were not just your
run of the mill educational 'flash card' tools...
These products are deep and follow the learning goals
that many state schools are already using, so as a
study tool these four apps are a perfect tie-in for
what your child is already learning in school. These
will be an invaluable tool for either the struggling
or the advanced student.
We need more educational products like these in our
schools. As funding issues become even more complex
and the classrooms become more crowded it is critical
that kids have all the tools they can get their hands
on to learn, and learn well. Parents: get these
applications for your elementary kids. For all you
Palm using teachers out there, check these out and
look into the grant programs and educational pricing
Palm is offering schools. Bravo Leading Step!"
See full review...
Mark Farley, Associate Writer, PalmAddicts
"With students today being onslaughted by multimedia,
such as video games, it is nice to see superb quality,
high interest educational games produced. The Leading
Step games are based upon the standards and are geared
for students in grades 3-8. These educational games
(Size It Up, Shape Up: Geometry, MathChamp!, and
SpellChamp!) are must-haves for elementary and middle
school students. If you are a parent or teacher of
those in this age group, and have the ability to
provide access to Palm OS PDAs for these students,
then buy this today! As a teacher I understand the
value and impact programs like these can have on the
educational progress of young students."
This review was originally written in six parts.
See the summary review...
Mike Moore, Associate Writer, PalmAddicts
"As regular readers know, I am the father of three young
daughters, and since I am such a PDAGeek, they get to use
mobile devices on a regular basis... My girls are in 6th
grade, 4th grade, and kindergarten, and a great feature
of all these Leading Step titles is that they can be
customized for use by children in grades 3-6 (and grade
8 for Size It Up)... The games have different activities
and options for you to customize them for your child's
abilities... If you are looking for some entertaining and
challenging applications for your kids, you should give
the Leading Step suite of games a try.
See full review...
Matt Miller, Geek.com
|