The Digital Frog 2, by Digital Frog International

Software Evaluation Guide/Outline

Title: The Digital Frog 2

Publisher: Digital Frog International

Subject Area: Natural Science

Summary: A comprehensive anatomy and physiology program supported by a full interactive dissection. More than 70 detailed screens include human anatomy comparisons and amphibian ecology.

Ease of Use: This is a software that a young person can use with minimal help. Basically you need to be able to use the mouse and point at things on the screen to be able to use this program. The target grade is probably high school.

Skill Set: To use this software you need basic reading skills.

Program Design Features:

Control of Pace            yes

Reviews/Help                yes

Ability to Backtrack     yes

Levels of Difficulty      no

Physical Interface         no

Speech Features           yes

Childproof (child reality ready?)          yes

Individual Use                          yes

Use with pairs/Small groups      yes

Printer Use                               no

Test/Recordkeeping/Game Save feature yes

Add-on Option-Can incorporate user content no

Scaffolding no

Program Comments: The Digital Frog 2 is an interactive virtual frog dissection and anatomy program to teaching about a specific ecosystem. The program uses a mix of encyclopedic information with learning through discovery and interaction. Activities include videos, readings, clicking and/or drawing with the mouse on different parts of the frog, and doing evaluation through multiple choice quizzes. The program is intuitive and easy to use. The illustration have zoom capabilities, and some of the videos have a slow motion option, both very good for learning. The video is very clear, and informative. On the other hand, pictures and illustrations are low quality, they seem dated: They could be better. In some of the screens, the background is the same color as the frog, this might not be ideal.

The program is a good source for learning about frogs and their ecosystem, it lets students learn at their own pace. The assessment system is good, but the program  should not let you continue before doing the quiz, or at least prompting you to try the quiz. This would be a good way of providing different levels of knowledge, instead of waiting until the end for the quiz.

In terms of the Common Core Standards, it definitely promotes literacy. A great feature is the option of defining any word that you click, a great way of expanding the students’ vocabulary.

Problem Solving Skills: Using a model, Question posing, Gathering information- discerning what is important information, Organizing information, Procedural Thinking, Stimulate imaginative thinking, Ability to explore, Breaking complex problems into smaller parts.

Fun Factor: The program is fun to use. Things like slowing down a video, or zooming in some of the images are fun things that students will enjoy. It is also fun to be able to explore the Frog without having to harm a real frog every time you want to review or learn about its ecosystem and physiology.

Supplementary Material: No

Follow-up activities: No follow up activities are suggested by the program itself. Teachers will probably have to design follow up activities.  

Matrix of Games and Types of Work

FIERO

“Fiero”: Finishing games like Nintendo’s Mario Bros. and Professor Layton games. After long hours of playing a game that seems that is going to last forever, it feels very good when you finally get to the end and accomplish what you have been trying to accomplish for a long time.

These games have smaller ‘accomplishments’ and they also made me experience ‘fiero,’ like solving puzzles or beating a particular enemy in Mario Bros. 

The Moon Modules

High Jump:

This game is trying to teach children about gravity, and how it changes according to the planet, or place in space.

The ideas is interesting: it is good to see that there is a variation depending on where you are, and that different planets are going to produce different effect.

The game would be better if:

We could see that each planet has a different size.

Maurice jumps from the planet that we select, instead of always going back to Venus, which is confusing.

Not having to use the ‘reset’ and ‘jump’ buttons. Better if we can click and drag Maurice.

Adding some sound could make it more interesting and engaging.

Lacks a clear win condition. There is no way within the game of tracking how many planets Maurice have jumped from. Adding a check mark could be a solution for this.

Moon Phases:

Little kids will hardly stop to read the text. Once they start moving the slide they will focus more in movement than in text. In general anything that moves is more engaging that motionless text.

Text is very small. There is no real difference between this interactive image and reading this from a book in which each moon phase has an image. Actually this might be better and easier to understand if we read in a traditional book, or a regular blog style website.

The ‘very distant’ text referring to the sun might be unnecessary. We might as well say ‘very big’ or  “huge,’ there is no point for that description.

Survival Hike:

The concept of the ‘survival kit’ is interesting, it can become a challenge in somehow it is connected to reality, i.e., we all have to pack things eventually to travel. The graphics are fine, not great but acceptable.

It would be good to get a better definition, or explanation, of Mare Humorum: that way you can make an educated guess of what to take with you. Mindlessly you can go through several items and by trial and error figure out what to take. In other words, you don’t have to think to be able to accomplish the activity. I would probably create a way of having only 3 opportunities; that way you think more before checking if you would make it. Make it more dramatic in both cases, packing the wrong things or packing the right things. The gratification could be even more climactic and exciting.