With the implementation of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation, schools across the nation were required to present an entirely new way of assessing their educational programs. New York State, where I have been in the field of education for close to three decades, was no exception. Although New York already had one of the more rigorous testing systems already in place with student assessments taking place in grades 4, 5, 8 and graduation level testing in grades 10 through 12, this was not sufficient to fulfill the requirements of NCLB.
Beginning this year, students are assessed in the areas of Language Arts and Mathematics every year in grades 3 through 8. This is in addition to the regular state level testing that was formerly in place to include science social studies and the graduation level Regents exams in all subject areas from grades 10 through 12.
Hot Lava Software, Inc. has produced a line of software for the Palm as well as the Pocket PC to help parents and students do some home preparation for this new testing that is required by the federal government. The series is called the Kids Mobile Learning series.
The software modules are distributed by grade level (i.e. Kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade, etc.) and subject area (i.e. Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, etc.). Each module is very reasonably priced and can be downloaded directly from their website.
Hot Lava provided me with access to the series and I was eager to see how they may be helpful to aid students and parents in preparation for NCLB. This review covers the Palm OS modules in a general overview rather than each specific program.
First and foremost in my mind is how closely these programs align with the New York State Learning Standards. One of the challenges with this issue is that each state has their own form of learning standards. While there is a general congruence of the various standards, each state will vary with the level of expectations for students.
As a result, I was not surprised to find that the Hot Lava preparation programs present a subset of the New York State Learning Standards instead of each area of expectation in my state. In discussions with the company I was informed that the software actually was developed to align with standards for the state of Virginia. Users in other states will need to keep this in mind in the use of this software. It is one piece of an entire preparation plan.
Each of the modules reviewed is presented in a multiple choice format. There are nice colorful graphics where appropriate and the text is easy to view. The Palm based software makes limited use of the 5 way navigation pad, standard on most newer Palm devices.
While using the software it must be remembered that this is a basic software package. I did find that if you keep providing a wrong answer, or even no answer, the program will give you the correct answer after three tries. While this is common in educational software, I also found that even if you answered every question wrong in a module, you were congratulated at the end for doing a great job!
Although I understand positive reinforcement, this could easily be misconstrued by youngster. Perhaps simply a message of congratulations for completing a module would be more appropriate. A more in-depth analysis of the answers in a program that costs less the $3.00 US is too much to expect.
The only other caveat that I would suggest to those who consider the Hot Lava assessment preparation modules is that the New York State assessments (I don’t have first hand knowledge of those in other states) have more than multiple choice questions. As mentioned previously these modules should be considered as one part of a complete test preparation routine.
As an educator, can I recommend the Hot Lava Kids Mobile Learning Series?
Absolutely. The software is a low cost, easy to use method for students at various grade levels to quickly review concepts anywhere. Handheld computers are quickly becoming common place among students and families. The Kids Mobile Learning series from Hot Lava Software is a good way to put that handheld to a positive educational use. Check out the growing list of educational options at their site.