Contacting Cricksoft, the company
who produce Clicker 4, via e-mail was the quickest way to resolve
minor problems, but the problems in using the programme on a 16 unit
network was often too much even for their experts.
By this time some groups were definitely
losing interest in their work. Unfortunately, it was the able boys,
the very group that we had hoped to inspire by the project, whose
concentration was the first to wane.These particular boys were highly
skilled in many areas of ICT and were obviously frustrated by the
problems caused by using Clicker on a our network. Other less able
groups, however, were happy to continue with the work, waiting for
problems to be overcome. Two children with SEN statements were able,
with LSA support, to achieve a finished article of which they were
very proud. One group consisting of three girls of below average ability
produced by far the best results. They were delighted to be the first
group choosen to show their work to the young audience.
Positive outcomes
Along the way there have been many
positive points to recognise. The capabilities of the pupils have
increased greatly - they have become familiar with the Clicker 4 programme
and many are able to identify further uses of it in other areas of
the curriculum.
They have learned how to combine
self-generated graphics from one programme into another. Lower ability
groups have been particularly proud of producing an attractive and
successful story alongside their more able peers.
In retrospect, we feel it was a
mistake to limit all of the groups to writing for Year 1 pupils, as
the content of the work was a strong element contributing to the disaffection
of many of the boys. Perhaps this would not have happened if they
had been writing a comic strip, for example, aimed at slightly older
readers.
Is Clicker an appropriate mutimedia
tool for Year Six?
Would we recommend using Clicker
4 to produce this type of book? Yes, particularly for lower ability
pupils. The grids are easy to use as they stand and can be linked
together. We would say that before embarking on such a major project
it is important to know how Clicker will perform on your computers.
Stand alone computers would eliminate the problems that we experienced.
If the children are not familiar with the program it would be more
appropriate to create a collaborative class book. Each pair could
contribute a page which could then be linked into one book by saving
under the same name plus the page number as in our Alphabet book.
This would become a more manageable project, taking up far less time
and yet still giving scope for consideration of the literacy content,art
work and ICT skills required in creating a multimedia presentation.
