Artefact Four Evaluation

This artefact involved one-on-one interviews with kinesthetic and visual learners. During these interviews the learners were asked to view three websites that had been chosen specifically as they are all aimed to help people gain new knowledge and varied widely in the way they displayed information. Each learner was asked to answer questions about each website including, ‘What would you change?’ and ‘What are your opinions on the layout and colour?’ The aim of this was to help to find out more detailed information from the learners about what they find is useful and what is not from an online learning tool. The feedback varied with each website but there was some consistency on main points such as; overcrowded pages; dull colours; unclear navigation; too much bulk text. When improvements to the sites were discussed it became apparent that dividing the page in a clear way is important, as is text layout. It was also a popular opinion of the learners that sectioning up a page can help to make a lot of information seems less intimidating but if there are too many sections then it can become confusing. Some of the learners commented that they became frustrated with the websites when the navigation was not clear and there were forced to look through a lot of buttons and links hidden in large blocks of text before finding what they wanted. This information is useful, as I have learnt what is effective in online learning tools and what is not. Therefore, in my next artefact I plan to produce a digital version of artefact three to find out if this can be a successful interactive learning tool for visual and kinesthetic learners when based on-screen or if physical movement is too integral to the learning process.

Artefact Four Presentation

Website Games - Drawing

The actionscript was a lot more complicated for this game so I'm glad that I grasped the more basic scripting in my previous two games. I decided to add a drawing board onto the ICT section of the website as it will help to increase mouse accuracy skills in primary school children as well as being a bit of fun.

Artefact Three Evaluation

For this artefact an interactive paper-based learning tool was produced. Eight historical facts were printed, each on a different coloured piece of paper. The aim of this artefact was to find out if the act of physically laying out information could help with the learning process. The test was carried out on ten kinaesthetic and visual learners, each was given the information and asked to lay it out in anyway they thought it would be effective to learn from. A picture was taken of the final layout and then feedback and reasons were given from the learner. The layouts were all different but many learners gave similar reasons for their choices. The main reasons for the layouts included using the dates, similar topics, colour coding, or completely random. The feedback received was positive and it was discovered that, although it was not a particularly physical task, the act of moving and laying out the information helped the learner interact with the information. In general the leaners felt they had absorbed the information more than they would have otherwise. Being in control of the layout encouraged effective learning as it was completely up to the individual which, in turn, made the information more personal to the learner.

Artefact Three Presentation

Website Games - Healthy Eating

Website Games - Environment

From the actionscript I created for my first attempt I was able to build the first of my games in full, I'm really pleased with the result. I realised when testing the game that I needed some sort of timer on the 'well done' message. The 'try again' message stays until the picture is moved and but the 'well done' message now only stays viewable for a few seconds.