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Feb. 15, 2001
Quick Picks
Quia
Quia offers busy teachers free tools for creating online quizzes and interactive games. With easy, self-guided instructions, teachers can either explore the database of existing teacher-submitted content or create new quizzes and games from 12 different templates for over 40 subject areas. Quia animates the drills that test how well students have absorbed factual information, and activities can either be used in the classroom or assigned as online homework.
Teachers can choose from templates that include flash cards, word searches, hangman, and even a rags-to-riches quiz show game. Variety is certainly a marker here, with games in over 15 foreign languages, from Chinese to Esperanto, available. Standardized test preparation is also available; the SAT section has received high marks by users.
Overall, though, matching and word search games, the most commonly used activities on the site, could use more variation. Activities would be improved by offering multiple clues, increasing levels of difficulty, or even adding eye-catching graphics to challenge students who may become too familiar with recurring test formats. Furthermore, content for each category is unbalanced. While the History and Foreign Language categories each offer almost 20 different activities, Astronomy and Special Education are sparsely represented.
Most kids, especially those who struggle with traditional drills and memorization, will enjoy the more interactive and friendly nature of Quia's activities. Teachers will like the password-protected management tools for posting homework, designing class Web pages, and creating online quizzes with automatic scoring and evaluation functions.
Evaluator: Kristin Foster, assistant editor of T&L.
Emphasis: Testing and management tool.
Grade Level: 2-12.
Platform: Web-based.
Price: Free.
Publisher: Quia Corporation, Burlingame, CA; (650) 259-4200
JumpStart Artist
Kid-tested and kid-friendly, JumpStart Artist lets budding Rembrandts create their own masterpieces while brushing up on art appreciation. This dynamic program offers a mix of activities, from drawing and painting to creating arts and crafts. Students also get a full range of tools: for example, in the Art Studio little hands can experiment with various media, including tempera, watercolor, charcoal, colored chalk, and spray paint. A 32-bit True-Color palette lets kids create and blend realistic colors. Pictures can be saved and displayed or even exported.
Jumpstarters choose from five activities based on the National Standards for Arts Education. In addition to the Art Studio, students learn about shape, form, and color by using a wacky paint machine, and they are introduced to Claude Monet, Leonardo da Vinci, Pablo Picasso, and other famous artists in a concentration game that encourages them to collect clues to match the artists with their work. Students will enjoy an arcade-like game where they learn about the symmetry and patterns used in folk art around the world. There's also a movie tent where kids can paint, draw, and fill in pictures that come to life in short musical animations. (Think plaid pyramids in Egypt.) Unfortunately, there are only four movie settings, with three pictures in each.
The disk comes with a printable activity guide, but you need a magnifying glass to read the table of contents. And, while kids may think differently, the music is annoying-but it can be turned off. Also included on the disk is a parent's guide to additional activities located on the JumpStart Web site.
A Teacher's Edition of the program will be available this year.
Evaluator: Jamie Keller, journalist and experienced classroom and movie-set teacher in Berkeley, Calif., and other locations.
Emphasis: Art and art appreciation.
Grade level: K-2.
Platform: Mac/Win CD.
Price: $19.95; teacher's edition $49.95; site licenses available.
Publisher: Knowledge Adventure, Torrance, CA; (800) 542-4240
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