Evaluations

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Content

Clicker 4 is essentially a content-free software title. It comprises two main features; firstly, ‘Clicker Writer; which is a talking word processor that allows the student to write in pictures as well as words.  Text and graphics can be inputted directly from the keyboard. This view will either fill the whole screen or will appear above the Clicker grid in the top half of the screen. The student can choose an option that will insert pictures as they type.

The second option is Clicker grid – this grid appears in table format at the bottom of the screen.  The user can use word banks appearing in grid format or can create their own grids. When the user clicks on a word in a cell, this word automatically appears in the writer view.   Sentences are read aloud as they are completed or by clicking on individual words. 

 
‘STARTchef’ from the ‘Story Writing’ Chef Story showing Clicker Writing and Clicker Grids.

There are also a number of pre-determined wordbanks already available on the Clicker 4 CD-ROM. In our opinion, the word banks provided e.g. Romeo and Juliet were up to date, reliable and textually correct.   We felt that these word banks were accessible to struggling readers and writers and would enable them to write stories. I found the accent used on the ‘text-to-speech’ feature to be quite good in comparison with some other programs I have used. The teacher or student can also input their own voice using a microphone.

Crick software has a website at http://www.learninggrids.com where teachers can download further wordbanks for use within Clicker free of charge. They are graded according to their difficulty and the teacher can select appropriately from them.  These grids are also available on CD-ROMs entitled ‘CGfL Clicker Grids.’   The teacher can also determine the level of difficulty by entering appropriate content into the wordbanks to suit individual student or class ability.

Our main use of the software involved enabling students to write a story by inputting teacher led keywords into a wordbank.  However, we also recognise the extended uses of the software through the additional grids available on the website and the CGfL CD-ROMs and how they would be of great educational benefit. Both the teacher and student can control the rate of delivery depending on the pace and level the student requires.

Clicker 4 is a multimedia package and therefore appeals to a variety of learning styles, visual, auditory and linguistic. Students can choose to have instant pictures appear as they type into cells. Clicker searches the graphic library containing 1000 curriculum-related pictures and selects the appropriate picture.  New graphics can also be imported from the web and students can import their own pictures.  Finished documents can be saved as web pages.

Imported video clips can also be played anywhere on the screen. As well as the text read option, words can be heard phonetically by using the ‘explorer’ icon on the toolbar. The teacher can input new words to be read aloud and determine how it will be read phonetically, thus allowing individualised programmes to cater for a variety of pronunciation and accents. There is a useful spell check feature.  Stories can be printed for students to take home.