Teachers can read what their peers think about websites and software they've tested, as Jenny Benjamin reports
According to its founders, TEEM (Teachers Evaluating Educational Multimedia) was 'a project born of frustration'. In common with teachers across the educational spectrum, ICT consultants Anne Sparrowhawk and Ysanne Heald and Professor of Education Angela Macfarlane, then of Homerton College Cambridge, had searched in vain for advice on multimedia and its use in the classroom.
Their response was to set up TEEM, an Internet site where teachers could read objective software and website evaluations written by other teachers.
The pilot scheme, launched in 1998 with the support of the DfEE, was well received, and TEEM went on line at full capacity in September 1999. In addition to the DfEE and Sparrowhawk & Heald, TEEM is sponsored by the Guardian newspaper, BESA (British Educational Suppliers Association), and the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate, which hosts the website. Although 61 CD-Rom publishers now support TEEM, the organisation is independent and wholly non-profit-making. The site has gone from strength to strength during 2000 - its daily hit rate went up to 2,600, and 130 practising teachers were trained as evaluators, bringing the current total to 200.
TEEM's evaluators - the word 'reviewers' suggests too personal an approach - follow strict guidelines based on the requirements of the curriculum. This helps to ensure that their pronouncements are both consistent and to the point.
As well as at least one assessment of the CD-Rom or website, entries include the kind of useful information rarely found in reviews (yes, even ours) such as the educational backgrounds of the designers, the number of previous versions and the site or programme's suitability for individual or group use. Best of all, the evaluator also provides a detailed case study which explains exactly how the material was used in the classroom.
At the moment, TEEM's evaluations begin at Key Stage 1, though several of the programmes designed for reception/year 1 pupils are also suitable for pre-school children. There are plans to start covering nursery software some time in 2001, but this will only begin after the organisation has completed an evaluation framework geared to pre-school education.
TEEM is still looking for evaluators, so if you use computers in the classroom, have access to the Internet and e-mail at home and feel that you could work to tight deadlines, you should contact TEEM by phone (01223 505 207), via the website (www.teem.org.uk), or e-mail (info@teem.org.uk). Apart from the joy of seeing your name on screen, the rewards include pay for your online efforts and free training. And if becoming an evaluator sounds a bit daunting, you can always use the site to convey your software or website recommendations.
Software reviews Naming and gaming Simsala is Tivola's land of fairytale, where the stories of the brothers Grimm come to cartoon life. The tales are told interactively - the story doesn't move on until you have clicked on one of the 'hotspots' that enliven each frame. The stories also feature non-traditional additions such as cartoon animals who comment and take part in the action.
In the latest Simsala adventure, Rumpelstiltskin (Windows/ Mac, CD-Rom, Tivola, 19.99), two distinctly unmedieval creatures called Doc Croc and Yoyo appear alongside the usual cast of Miller, Miller's daughter, King and malevolent goblin with unusual name. There's also a baddie called Sir Randolph who roughs up the miller's daughter - rather too graphically on one occasion - and steals the King's gold. His function seems to be to exonerate the king from the charge of greed. Impoverished by this rascally knight, the king needs the gold to help his hungry subjects. These days, it seems, you can't have the heroine marrying someone who just likes immeasurable wealth for its own sake.
After each episode of the story, you must play a game before the next frame appears. The seven activities range from a 'repeat the melody' game, to a fiendish spatial puzzle that involves swivelling rings of dots until a particular pattern is achieved. The games are fun, and they do challenge players' powers of concentration, memory and logic. But they are much too hard for children at the lower end of the advertised age range of three to seven years, even when played at the easiest level.
The same goes for the programme's seven practical activities. Although children this age would enjoy making gold coins out of plaster, or biscuits containing real vanilla pod, they'd need a high level of adult input to cope.
The programme has some of the quirky appeal we expect from Tivola, but it is hard to move around in, and rather long-winded.