Children's Educational Software Review
Spex Review No 3
Spex 3D Design Educational Software was reviewed with children aged 11 - 12 years in ICT
in topics
include Environmental Modelling, Package Modelling and 3D Design.
Overview of Teaching with Spex
Spex supports aspects of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
and Design Technology. To a lesser extent, the program supports
Numeracy. With regard to ICT, the program can be used in modelling,
design and simulation. Spex could be imaginatively used to cover all
aspects of the Key Stage 3 Curriculum and a number of Attainment
Targets.
The program allows children to simulate a range of different
environments such as bathrooms, kitchens, and teaching rooms. Children
can then design these environments to meet the needs of a specific
audience such as a new home-buyer or DIY designer. With this program
children can change the objects, move the objects and change the size
and colour of the environments. In the process they can experiment with
modelling and examine changes in design and cost.
The strength of the software is in its simplicity. Children can easily
modify their designs and view their work in a number of different ways
(plan, three-dimensional, orientation). Little knowledge of the subject
matter or program is required as children can easily find their way
around the various menus and design applications.
The main weakness of the program is the limited range of objects (bath,
toilet, kitchen appliances, etc.) that allows the children only limited
variables to change. The spreadsheet is also very simple and does not
allow users to change rules or formulae. The design of the room layout
is basic with limited shapes (rectangles), and no capacity to change the
floor or walls to show brickwork or tiles.
Installation
The software installed correctly on the first occasion with no problems.
Images of the installation were then copied to all machines. This
process took about two hours to complete. No known conflicts could be
found and the machine’s configuration did not need changing. The
software loads quickly and efficiently when first used and no problems
could be found. The software responded rapidly to the children’ inputs.
All menus were quick to respond and opened first time.
Content
Spex allows users to model and design in various environments
including Shops, Classrooms, Bathrooms and Kitchens. It creates
environments to scale and the user can position various objects (baths,
toilets, cabinets, cookers, utensils, classroom materials, etc.) within
the environment. The environments can be seen from plan and
three-dimensional views. Different walls (north, south, east and west)
and a variety of objects such as doors and windows can be positioned
accurately.
The program is relevant to 3D design aspects of ICT and design technology
and children of all abilities can produce ‘professional’ designs of
different environments. The environments and objects are appropriate to
the audience and have sufficient detail to make them appear real. The
range of objects (different tables, doors, baths, etc.) is limited and
the range of colours cannot be changed. Wall and floor colours can be
easily changed to a wide range of colour schemes. It would be nice to be
able to add tile and wall effects to floors and walls to improve overall
design of the environments and make them more real in appearance.
Users can set a maximum costing to any project and create a spreadsheet
to track the costs. The spreadsheet is simple in design and does not
show all the costs of objects, the budget allowance and the sum of money
over or under budget. It does not allow users to experiment with
changing rules and only allows for limited variables (such as the cost
of objects). An improvement would be to allow the teacher to set the
costs or change the costs of various objects, so that a wider range of
variables could be examined.
Curriculum Relevance
With careful questioning and lesson design the program can be used to
cover many aspects of the Key Stage 3 ICT National Curriculum. It could
be used in conjunction with email (such as sending designs to respective
buyers, builders and designers) and its spreadsheet qualities could be
compared with Microsoft Excel.
It can support aspects of the Curriculum including: Finding things out
(1a-c); Developing ideas and making things happen (2a & 2c); Exchanging
ideas (3a-c); and Reviewing, modifying and evaluating (4a - 4d).
The program can also be used to support a number of Attainment Targets
at various levels, for example: Level 3 (sharing and exchanging ideas,
making choices to solve problems when using models or simulations,
describing their use of ICT in and outside of school); and Level 4
(interpreting findings and questioning plausibility, adding to amend
information from a variety of sources, presenting information to
different audiences, taking quality into account, using simulations and
models to pattern relationships and make predictions, comparing the use
of ICT with different methods).
Design and Navigation
The navigation and design of the program is easy to follow and use. The
menu is very similar to the basic Microsoft environment. Objects can be
easily moved using click and drag and double-clicking (using the mouse)
rotates them. The various screen views are easily accessible.
The spreadsheet is easily opened and automatically calculates all costs
and any revenue left over.
The only disappointing aspect of the design is that the Help menu does
not contain any Help features, but just informs the user of the name of
the product. The software does come with a simple user manual that
contains all the relevant information, with clear diagrams and notes. If
required this would be suitable for Key Stage 3 in terms of reading age
and ability.
Ease of Use
The program has been designed for a novice to use and is generally very
easy to learn by experimenting with the different menus and icons. The
children used this software with little help from their teachers, only a
few requiring assistance.
The program automatically opens on the room design screen, so that
children have to enter the room size before starting their design.
Children can then either move objects into their room or position the
doors and windows. The more advanced children positioned the doors and
windows first as this made moving the objects to their desired positions
easier.
The Help menu is poor; however, the program is generally very easy to
use and comes with a good user manual with clear diagrams and pictures.
The only other problem encountered was that children could not add their
names to their work so it could be easily identified. The program adds
value to ICT lessons, especially by introducing modelling, 3D design and
simulation, although most activities are relatively basic. With clear
lesson designs and careful questioning teachers could use the program to
explore more advanced aspects of ICT.
Spex for Children with Special Educational Needs
The classes who used this program were of mixed ability and all children
completed their projects in the time allocated, many of the Special
Educational Needs children having little difficulty using the program.
The program is not designed with Special Educational Needs children in
mind and has no special features like speech recognition. Any children
using this software would have to be capable of controlling a mouse and
using ‘click and drag’ techniques.
Courseware
The tasks covered by the program are all similar in nature, but advanced
users could be asked to use the spreadsheet facility to check their
spending, or design environments using objects from a range of
environments. Feedback is not given if an object is moved to an
unsuitable position, for example, in front of a door. However, children
can spot any errors themselves. The spreadsheet facility will inform
children of any money they have left. The teacher could set tasks of
varying difficulty to meet different children needs, but the majority of
environments require similar skills so this is not easily done. With
careful design of the lesson objectives the program could be used to
cover more advanced aspects of ICT, such as evaluating and comparing
software or comparing models and simulations to real life. Used in
conjunction with email children could simulate a sales and design office
dealing with online customers.
Conclusion
The software is designed well and is easy to use but could be improved
by including a wider range of objects or selection of objects (such as
more kitchen units). The spreadsheet facility is very basic and you
could not investigate changes in rules, for example, at Level 6. Help
could also be improved, as the program does not contain any Help
facilities other than listing the name and address of the company. It
would also be nice to be able to change the colour of the units and
objects in the way you can change floor and wall colours. The above
improvements are relatively minor and could just add to the complexity
of a nice a simple package that the majority of children in Key Stage 3
can use to achieve good quality work.
This children's educational software review was carried out by Tom
Sparrowhawk, a teacher at Magdalen College, Brackly. Two more
independent educational software reviews of Spex, also carried out in
classroom settings can be seen Spex Review
with children aged 7 - 9 years a
review with children aged 10 - 11 years |
