The software presentations will be 20 minutes. The deadline will be strictly enforced so rehearse your presentation to make sure you cover all your important points in that timeframe. Based on the tv presentations, here are a few suggestions for keeping your presentations short without eliminating content.

  1. Overview of product- Be general, not detailed. State the age group , goal and general format of the product and give one example to illustrate

    . Example: The Playroom is a multi-activity CD-Rom designed for 3-6 year olds that introduces counting and letters. Two mice introduce children to their playroom where they can click on different objects which take them to a related activity. For example, children can click on a set of blocks to go to an activity focusing on letters. (As I would be talking I would have one member of the group paralleling what I am saying by showing the sequence on the CD or by showing overheads that show the various screens - the playroom and then the opening scene for the block activity. By combining the verbal with the visual you save time. You can usually turn the sound off or down on the program so that the class can hear you.

  2. Introduce activities: Briefly describe the activity(ies) you are going to address. (e.g., We are going to focus on two math activities, measurement and addition/subtraction)

  3. Theory/Research Describe/Explain what theory or research tells us about how kids develop the skill in question or what difficulties they typically have. (e.g., Preschoolers have been found to have misconceptions about how to use rulers to measure objects. In one study Ellis et al gave 4-5 year olds rulers that started at 0, 1, or 3 and asked them to measure various objects. She found that ....) This finding suggests that measurement activities that use non-standard objects to measure such as Ellis' rulers, could help children understand measurement concepts. For example, activities could give children two objects that are the same or different sizes and have them measure them with different rulers or other measurement tools. (If appropriate, you could tailor the implication of the research to the description of the software activity)

  4. Focus on one activity - briefly describe it and it's goals and then show a brief example (solve one or two problems, depending on how long it takes). It may be important to show/discuss what the program does in response to wrong answers as well as right ones. Discuss how the activity follows from what we know about children's understanding in the domain.

  5. Evaluate Activity: What's good and bad about it and why. For example, Is it too directive - and why is that good/bad? Does it only support rote learning - why is that good/bad? Does it allow the child to explore the concept in multiple ways - why is that good/bad?

  6. Recommendations: Based on theory and research, how would you improve the activity? Explain howwhy your recommendation is supported by theory.