My First Computer Software

Vesela Ilieva, Ivailo IvanovSt. Cyril and St. Methodius Private School43 Fr. Nansen Str., Sofia1000, Bulgaria

tel./fax: + 359 2 66 42 80vessela@mail.bol.bg, vedapat@mail.bol.bg

Department of Information Tehnologies,Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, University of Sofia

5 James Bouchier Str.,P.B. 48, Sofia 1164, Bulgariatel: + 359 88 23 76 88

iivanov@fmi.uni-sofia.bg

Abstract

We will present software tools for children running under Comenius Logo. They are developed for working with graphics, text, sound, animation and video. They are used for initial introduction of pupils to the capailities of the computer to process different sorts of information and combine it into one. The software tools facilitate the process of learning about information technologies in primary school.

Keywords: educational software, Comenius Logo, primary school

1. Introduction

The main part of the national curriculum for working with computers and ICT for primary schools in Bulgaria is based mostly on the possibilities offered by the contemporary Logo-environment (1). In our country the Ministry of Education officially approves Comenius Logo as a school medium. Nowadays it is the most widely spread educational environment for children in primary school. Logo-ideas are also a leading educational strategy for introducing children to the world of IT.

Specially developed Comenius Logo microworlds are used in the primary school years and here we present our package of such microworlds. They are created in order to increase the number of activities, and to improve the study material presented in the IT lessons of the children in primary school. These are programs, designed especially for children who make their first steps in the IT area. They include a large range of activities - acquiring computer skills, working with graphics, text and animation, videos, sounds, etc. All of them give a full idea of the possibilities of using computers in different spheres. Several different programs serve every separate area. Usually one of them plays leading role and the others allow a step-by-step extension of the problems and activities, making them more complex. Most of these programs could be used many times in the four years of the study period. The programs are well integrated and this allows creating resources in one application and using them in the others. This is very important when combining information and creating huge projects with many children participating.

2. Methodical Aspects in Creating Educational Software

The main principle we follow while creating the software package is that no matter what age the child is or what skills she possesses, the computer should give her the possibility to create and realise all her initiatives. According to our teaching experience, the type of software that is preferred by children, even when first meeting a computer, is the one that suggests more than one possible decision of the problem, and that allows to figure out a personal idea and to solve it. We'll prove our opinion with two of the initially created programs - we'll point out shortly the differences between the two of them and the way children

reacted to them. These are the programs Spring and Christmas. The purpose of the two is similar - to help the child improve one of the most difficult and important movements with the mouse - dragging an object, while pressing the left button. The aim of the games, however, differs. In Spring a picture must be finished by putting each of the missing elements in a defined place on the right. This requires from the children and at the same time leads them to make precise movements, but keeps them in the position of an accurate performer of another’s design. Every diversion of this design is considered a mistake by the program. This lack of variety and possibility for the children to make their own decisions leads to a lack of motivation and the program can’t keep their attention for a long time. When the children encounter the program for the first time, they like it. But when they have already completed the task and they meet with the same game situation, problem and design, the expected enthusiasm is not shown again. This lead us to create a new program, called Christmas with the same educational ideology but with a different style of working - infinite number of the main elements to combine (toys for a Christmas tree) and the possibility to place them anywhere on the screen. This guarantees that each child can follow her individual ideas while solving the educational problem and allows multiple returns to this game.

Before we started to work out the concrete programs, we figured out for ourselves some main conditions which all of them should accomplish. These conditions were leading us while writing the scene for the program and discussing its design and programming ideas. So, the program should:1. Correspond to the age of the children and their skills and knowledge;2. Possess a graphic interface with clear meaning and simple navigation - buttons with normal symbols,

often used keys;3. Have an attractive design. It should have many possibilities for sense movement - interesting graphic

design, rich colors, animation, sound effects;4. Offer the possibility to use many different instruments for work;5. Present an adequate feedback. It should have a clear system for mistake control;6. Give a strong motivation - intellectual challenge, fantasy stimulation, attracting curiosity, creating an

expressive product which could be shown to others;7. Carry a definite educational concept in a concrete school area;8. Offer the possibility to create one’s own projects and solve educational problems.

3. Step-by-step Development of Educational Software

The Idea Delivery

The ideas for creating a concrete program came spontaneously from our work with the children. Working with a computer stimulates the child imagination. As the time goes, the ideas that children want to fulfill with a computer become more and more. In most of the cases the program with which the children work doesn't match the richness of their ideas. Then the child asks his teacher to be his partner and to help. The questions we hear then are: “How could I do this?”, “How could I change this?”, “What else could I do?”. These conversations show us the specification of the software that is needed.

Writing an example scenario

An example scenario outlines the main possibilities, which the program should possess and the way in which they should be presented to children. The main design of the program, the different styles of work and instruments are described here.

Creating a Prototype

The ideas from the example scenario are realized by choosing adequate programming tools. In this activity, often one or more possibilities of the programming environment are rediscovered in a new context. An example for this is the common use of turtles as regulation buttons and instruments.

Prototype Testing with Group of Children

This is the time when we first discover how we have realized the idea. In this process we find the answers of the questions: Is the program easy to use? Is it interesting for children?; Can the program keep the attention of the children for a longer period? Are there any bugs in the program? Can children do what they want with this program?

Beta Version

At this stage we correct technical mistakes, change some of the possibilities of the program and add new ones in order to complete the results of the testing. At the same time we begin creating new levels and variants, and also the last definitions that allow openness of the software. This openness would later guarantee the possibility to regulate the complexity of the problem and the speed of working according to the individual wishes of the children.

Testing in Real Conditions

In this process the real educational value of the program is shown. The complexity levels for the different age groups are clearly introduced. Thus, in the program Sounds, the first level could be used by 5-6 years old children, but the other levels need somewhat greater maturity and computer skills (work with dialogue boxes). It is checked how comfortable the definitions are made and if they supply an individual way and age differentiation in the education. This occurs in a spiral way of education in time.

The Final Variant

Final corrections, concerning the programming part and possibilities, are made.

The Documentation

In this process we create documentation of the programs including description of their resources, instruction for use by children and description of additional and technical settings. This documentation will be used in the IT classes in the school. Parallel with this we suggest methodical directions for teachers described how and when the program must be presented to children; for introducing instruments; examples for projects and ideas for individual and group work; how to use additions for differentiated training in class. We have published this documentation in series of books entitled "The Computer in Primary School" (4, 5, 6, 7).

4. Some Risks in Developing an Educational Software

In the development process we discovered some existing "reefs" that could cause a catastrophe in the work. One of them is connected with the program design. Because of the desire to make the program look more attractive, we started piling on too many new elements. This changed the accent of the program and the way children understood it - the educational purpose of the program shifted to mostly visual effect. At the time of first testing of the program we found that the children's attention was directed to the visual effects. The purpose, at the beginning, to solve a definite problem (for example to create animation) becomes uninteresting and the wish to feel strongly the visual effects in the program replaces the motivation for it. Of course, we should also look at the other problem, opposite of this - too much simplicity and schematic design in the program. Such a decision usually creates a wrong impression in children when they first meet the program and breeds a lack of motivation to work with it. In the development of programs for children from 5

to 10 years of age, it is really important to reach a balance in which every design element is definitely oriented to the educational purpose of the program.

The second problem that could appear is connected with the functionality of the program. Certainly, we strive to achieve a treasure of functionality, to supply a variety and richness of projects that children could create. A balance should be established here, children shouldn’t be given lots of instruments with little possibilities, but the opposite - a low number of instruments to use with great possibilities each. In this way, a simple navigation is reached and thus the children's attention is caught in the problem solving and not in "how to find the right instrument".

The functional richness of the program depends on the age of the children it would serve, on the skills they already have or still don't have, on weather it is an introducing program for some concretive activity or its purpose is improving skills and knowledge.

5. Comenius Logo as an Environment for Developers

We are teachers, not professional developers. We have taught Logo for many years and we have great experience with different versions of Logo. We have no experience with languages like Turbo Pascal, C++, and Borland Delphi which professional developer of software usually use. We tried to develop educational microworlds by using the old version of Logo (2). But our ideas were more powerful than the capabilities of the Logo environments and we didn’t have enough good results.

For the first time we had a chance to realize our ideas after meeting Comenius Logo. Working with Comenius Logo convinced us that it is not only an environment for teaching algorithmics, but it’s also an environment for developing software (3). The main characteristics of the environment that we used in developing our microworlds are: Communication in Bulgarian language; Working with multiple turtles with different shapes like images and text, which can be dynamically

changed (textbox turtle); Creating and redefining the turtle’s shape by the Logo language (using the Image command); Using different colours, patterns, widths for the turtle’s pen; Working with full colours – 16 bit colour pallet; Defining commands with variable number of inputs; Playing a sound files; Working with multimedia using MCI instructions; Full animation; The many commands included in the main menu and the speed bar are only equivalents of similar

commands of the Logo language; The environment can be easily set by the Logo language; Working with the graphics interface – dialog windows and messages; Using the standard Windows clipboard; Full mouse and keyboard control.

In the process of developing our microworlds we have met some difficulties. The main problem was in some limitations of Comenius Logo: Restriction the turtle’s shape in image size (only 255 x 255 px) and file format: No compilator (the projects can running only under Comenius Logo); No parallel process; Loading and saving screens only in bitmap format (which is with big size); No commands for creating, erasing and listing directories; No commands for editing text printed on the screen.

6. Software Presentation

Name: SPRINGDescription: The child must put down the flower's head on its body.Levels: no levelsTarget group: 5 - 7 years oldModule: Get control of computer systemAdditionals: no

Name: CHRISTMASDescription: The child must decorate the Christmas tree with toys.Levels: no levelsTarget group: 5 - 7 years oldModule: Get control of computer system Additionals: no

Name: PICTURESDescription: A program for colouring, drawing and constructing a picture. The child can use different colours, lines, shapes, textures and images to create its own pictures.Levels: no levelsTarget group: 7 - 10 years oldModule: Working with graphicsAdditionals: Choose size of pictureName: WORDDescription: A program for constructing words using letters and syllables. The children can choose the alphabet - Bulgarian or English.Levels:

Letters - construct words using letters;Syllables - construct words using syllables.

Target group: 8 - 9 years oldModule: Working with textAdditionals: noName: ABC…Description: The program introduces the keyboard as a tool for inputting letters in the computer.Levels:

First - children press any key on the keyboard. The pressed key is the first letter of the name of the picture that appears on the screen ;Second - after a key is pressed by the child, a picture whose name starts with the given letter appears on the screen. The child can add the other letters in the picture's name.Third - some pictures appear on the screen. The child can input the first letters of each picture and construct a whole new word as a label.

Target group: 7 - 8 years oldModule: Working with text Additionals: Edit the words given on the third level.

Name: REBUSDescription: A program for guessing the rebus presented by pictures. A new word is constructed vertically after the child fills in all words in the rebus.Levels: noTarget group: 8 - 9 years oldModule: Working with textAdditionals: Edit the words given vertically.

Name: HANGMANDescription: A program for guessing a word. Levels:

Countries - for guessing the name of a country;Cities - for guessing the name of a city.

Target group: 8 - 10 years oldModule: Working with textAdditionals: Edit the words for guessing and add new a theme with new words.

Name: CONVEYERSDescription: The object falls down on the moving line. The child has to input its name before the object falls down in the box. Levels: noTarget group: 9 - 10 years oldModule: Working with textAdditionals: Choose the speed of the moving line.

Name: GOSSIPDescription: The train with words on the carriages appears on the screen. The child can construct a sentence using the words. Levels: noTarget group: 9 - 10 years oldModule: Working with textAdditionals: Edit words and parts for sentence, like subject, verb etc.

Name: NOTE-BOOKDescription: Work with a database. The child can add, edit and search for information in a database. Levels:

Input data - input information in the fields. The child can choose the type of database: about friends, about films, about the school program;Edit data - edit information input in the database;Search data – search for information in the database.

Target group: 9 - 10 years oldModule: Working with textAdditionals: no

Name: TEXTDescription: Text editor with tools for choosing font, colour, save, open, print, left and center alignment. Levels: noTarget group: 9 - 10 years oldModule: Working with textAdditionals: no

Name: CALCULATORDescription: A simple calculator with a notebook for solving math problems.Levels: noTarget group: 8 - 10 years oldModule: Get control of the computer system, Working with textAdditionals: The child can choose how to input numbers: using the mouse or using the numerical pad on the keyboard; editing problems for solving.

Name: MUSICDescription: The program demonstrates capabilities of the computer to reproduce sound through the speaker. The child chooses melody for listening.Levels: noTarget group: 5 - 7 years oldModule: Working with soundAdditionals: Add and remove melody.

Name: SOUNDSDescription: The program demonstrates the computer’s capability to reproduce natural sounds by sound blaster.Levels:

Listening sounds - The child clicks on the object in the picture and listens to a sound;Guess sound - The child hears sound and tries to find an object which produces this sound;Make sound picture - The child puts sounds on the objects in the picture.

Target group: 7 - 10 years oldModule: Working with soundAdditionals: no

Name: MIXDescription: The program demonstrates the computer’s capabilities to mix different sounds. The child can choose a melody and sounds, it can also record voices and mix them in one sound clip.Levels: noTarget group: 8 - 10 years oldModule: Working with soundAdditionals: no

Name: PIANODescription: Virtual piano for composing melodies. The child can choose notes, tempo, instrument and save/load its own melody.Levels: noTarget group: 9 - 10 years oldModule: Working with soundAdditionals: no

Name: CD PLAYERDescription: Simple CD player.Levels: noTarget group: 8 - 10 years oldModule: Working with soundAdditionals: no

Name: VIDEODescription: The program demonstrates capabilities of the computer to reproduce video. The child can choose a video clip from a library, review forward and back, watch frame by frame.Levels: noTarget group: 7 - 9 years oldModule: Working with animation and videoAdditionals: no

Name: ANIMATORDescription: The program demonstrates the capabilities of the computer to reproduce animation like a sequence of pictures. The child can choose different positions of sportsmen and combine them in animation.Levels: noTarget group: 9 - 10 years oldModule: Working with animation and videoAdditionals: no

Name: CARDSDescription: The child can create greeting cards with animated elements, text and pictures.Levels: noTarget group: 9 - 10 years oldModule: Combining different types of informationAdditionals: no

Name: KOMIKSDescription: The child can create a comics.Levels: noTarget group: 9 - 10 years oldModule: Combining different types of informationAdditionals: no

Name: STORYDescription: The child can create living books and illustrated stories with text and pictures.Levels: noTarget group: 9 - 10 years oldModule: Combining different types of informationAdditionals: no

Name: CINEMADescription: The child can create film withs animated heros and sounds.Levels: noTarget group: 9 - 10 years oldModule: Combining different types of informationAdditionals: no

7. Conclusion

The programs, presented here, have been developed for 3 years. We performed their first approbation with the children from our school. Now these programs are used in the IT lessons in more than 30 primary schools in Bulgaria. About 2500 children are taught with them. In September 2000 the First National Seminar for use IT in primary schools in Bulgaria took place. We received an excellent mark from the teachers using the software package while working with children. They presented a great variety of projects, created with this software. This was a really important indicator for the usefulness of what we have done.

8. Reference

1. Ilieva V and Ivanov I (1999) Informatics and Information Tehnologies in Primary School based Logo environment Proceedings of the Eurologo'99, Sofia

2. Ivanov I (1994) MATHLAND - an Idea for Teaching Informatics through "transparent" Software Informatics for Secondary Schools - Today and Tomorrow. UNESCO International Workshop, Sofia.

3. Blaho A, Kalas I and Tomcsanyi P (1993) Comenius Logo: Environment of Teachers and Environment for Learner Proceedings of the EUROLOGO ’93, Athens.

4. http://edusoft.fmi.uni-sofia.bg/primaryICT

5. Ilieva V and Ivanov I (1999) Graphics – series of books “The Computer in Primary School”, “Regalia 6”, Sofia.

6. Ilieva V and Ivanov I (2000) Animation and Video – series of books “The Computer in Primary School”, “Regalia 6”, Sofia.

7. Ilieva V and Ivanov I (2000) Text and Sound – series of books “The Computer in Primary School”, “Regalia 6” Publishing house, Sofia.