Topics
- Review
an electronic resource for children or young adults
In a
previous post I reviewed my first book. I am furthering that by now reviewing
an electronic resource for children. I started this
process by determining whether there is a difference between reviewing a book
or an electronic resource. It turns out that the process of reviewing is the
same. Therefore, I decided to follow the same review format which I used to review
the books, because there are no official criteria to define what constitutes
good or bad. My observation from reading blogs, websites and online journals,
is that the criteria which is used to review items against, is developed
internally by the organisation or the author.
The most
useful resource that I found were:
- Mashable
- Tips for writing book reviews by Luisa Plaja
- How to Write a Book Review by Rebecca Graf
- The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing by Mayra Calvani and Anne K. Edwards
The
following is my review of a children’s electronic resource provided at my local library.
Busythings
is an electronic
resource provided
by the Brisbane City Council Libraries (BCCL) on eLibCat, the Library Catalogue,
for children between the ages of 3 to 7. Busythings can be accessed by anyone
within the library via the libraries catalogue computers. Members of BCCL can
also access this electronic
resource at home
using their library membership.
 |
| Busythings login page |
Busythings
is an education resources provided by Q&D, a multimedia company based in
Derby, England. It aims to make
education and learning fun by working with teachers and children to create
games that teach problem solving, shapes, letters, sounds etc.
While
these games are a fun distraction and useful to children in Australia, parents
need to be aware that the education elements are not based on the Australian
education curriculum, but on the overseas curriculum such as Scottish
Curriculum for Excellence. It was
interesting to note that the Busythings website claims to be in over thirty
libraries in Australia. So I checked all the major Library Services in
Queensland and all had a subscription.
I spent
an afternoon exploring and playing the games within Busythings. I found the
graphics to be bright, attractive and clear. Also very age appropriate and
appealing.
Most of
the games were very intuitive, with no to little introductions needed to figure
out how to play.
The one
drawback of Busythings is the sound effects and music. Often the sounds are
click responsive and the sound effects and music can become repetitive and severely annoying. I asked a group of children and parents for
their help with evaluating Busythings. When I asked them about the sounds, I
was staggered when the children all responded to have not noticed the sound
effects. Yet the parents gave feedback that they would need to mute the game if
it was going to be played for longer than 15 minutes.
I would
highly recommend Busythings to
parents for use by their children as an educational game. However, I would
place heavy emphasis on the game aspect of the Busythings rather than it being an
education tool. Therefore, it would not be useful for children as an education
tool to improve, reinforce or assist with learning areas that a
child may be struggling with.
References
Brisbane City Council Library
Services. (2013). eLibCat, the Library Catalogue.
Retrieved from https://elibcat.library.brisbane.qld.gov.au/uhtbin/webcat
Busythings. (2013). Retrieved
from http://busythings.co.uk/
Calvani, M., & Edwards, A. K.
(2008). The Slippery Art of Book
Reviewing. Kingsport: Twilight Times Books.
Graf, R. (2013). How to Write a Book Review. Amazon
Digital Services: Silver Tongue Press.
Mashable. (2013).Retrieved from http://mashable.com/
Plaja, L. (2013). Tips for
writing book reviews. In Booktrust.
Retrieved from http://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/teenagers/writing-tips/tips-for-writing-book-reviews/
