Old MacDonald's Farm Story Kit (for IntelliKeys)
by Gerry Kennedy
MacDonald’s Farm Story Kit from Hands On Concepts
For PC’s running MS Windows and for Apple Macintosh computers
Old MacDonald’s Farm from Hands On Concepts
This traditional song has been cleverly incorporated into a new Story Kit. It has been lovingly created and designed by Alison Jarred and Nadja Roelofs from Hands on Concepts in Western Australia. Old MacDonald’s Farm Story Kit is a multimedia CD-ROM that works with IntelliKeys. It is one of four titles that are distributed through Inclusive Technologies and are available from Spectronics. There are three main files that have been created with the IntelliPics program.
When you first install the software, the set up program installs the various utility programs first (IntelliPics Player, Overlay Printer and Overlay Sender). Some powerful speech engines are used as well. These are the tools that you use to run this wonderful early learning program. Overlay Printer prints the accompanying overlays (of which there are seven) and then by using Overlay Sender, you send them to IntelliKeys (sold separately). To use the software, you re-boot your computer. Attach your IntelliKeys or you can use a mouse, trackball, touch window to access the IntelliPics files. IntelliPics Player is the ‘engine’ that runs the program files.
The popular children’s song of ‘Old MacDonald’s Farm comes to life! The lyrics are re-versioned with the farm animals as the characters in a colourful, bright Story Kit onscreen and on overlay artwork. The entire kit has been produced and written in Australia. Children can sing along to the song. They can interact with the various farm animals and then do quizzes around animal noises, animal babies and animal facts. Animals include cows, pigs, geese, goats, mice, cats, dogs, hens and sheep.
Each page has both text and speech, using a digitised male voice (with an Australian accent) to sing the song. The high quality voice is clear and pleasant. As the file has been created using IntelliPics, you can increase or decrease the font size, change the style, colour or font itself, therefore catering to children who are vision impaired. In Activity Preferences, you can reveal or hide menu palettes, including the pictures, modifiers, numbers (range 1-20) and colours (12 from which to choose). You can modify how pages appear onscreen and change settings for individual users at any time. This is a key feature of all of the locally created HOC products for IntelliKeys.
The program has been especially designed to work with IntelliKeys, with or without a switch. Scanning is built-in as well, so that EVERY child in the class can participate using their preferred access device. This software is ideal as an inclusive solution in mainstream or as a dedicated package in a special setting. Children can work as independent learners or with a teacher aide, another child or in a group. It is also ideal for use at home as it is an engaging leisure and singing/reading activity. It includes a series of interactive learning activities for exploring word families – including ‘ao’, ‘ee’ and ‘oo’ – using the MacDonald Wordstudy overlay.
There is a writing overlay specifically designed to use with a word processing program. IntelliTalk I or IntelliTalk II (when released) will be ideal, as it is a voiced word processor with relevant and useful features for young children. If you wish to work with symbols, Inclusive Writer or Writing With Symbols 2000 can be used to build a story using text, pictures, symbols with speech. Tactile overlays can be used as a powerful learning experience. You can incorporate the sense of touch by placing toy figures of animals or objects on the board (using SoftKeys ®) or by using Velcro strips on customised printed overlays. You extend the theme as an open-ended writing activity.
The story file also has a number of quizzes that are pre-programmed. They include two Quizzes in the MacDonald Story overlay. Children will thoroughly enjoy answering the questions that are voiced using a male voice (or you choose the voice you prefer). Appropriate responses have been created to provide users with sympathetic and accurate feedback. Children will practise their understanding of animals and respond in kind.
Another file, MacDonald Activities, has three (3) activity quizzes. They are interactive questions and responses and are used with the IntelliKeys overlay file that accompanies the program. The other IntelliPics file is the McDonald Word Study. It has two activity quizzes. You use this file with the MacDonald Wordstudy overlay. All of the brightly coloured graphics have been drawn in cartoon style. They are suitable for students who have special learning needs who wish to explore themes of animals and farms. The Teacher’s Guide has useful and innovative ideas for use with this package as well as promoting further activities with related topics and themes. The seven overlay files are ready to use immediately with an IntelliKeys. The package is so easy to use when used with this elegantly designed keyboard – and can be used with a switch if required. There are extra overlays for you to print out and your students will enjoy colouring them in. They can cut and paste the animal pictures onto card or make posters and mobiles with them if they wish. They don’t have to be just used as overlays as they can be utilized as excellent resources to use in a theme to compliment your study of farm animals off and on the computer.