During my second round of playing the game, I discovered some new elements that I think will greatly benefit students. The first element that I discovered is that if you press the the lock in the lower left corner of the “select level” screen, all the levels will unlock (Image 1). Previously to pressing that button, the player would have to unlock each level one at a time and in sequential order (Image 2). This element is greatly beneficial for the students that may get completely stuck one level unable to move onto the next. The student is then able to continue coding in the next levels and able to retry the original level at a later date. I think that unlocking all levels will be helpful for students who get extremely frustrated when they are not able to pass a level and move on. This element is also helpful for the above level learners who would get too uninterested in the beginning, easy levels that would result in their abandonment of the game. Having this type of differentiation built into the game, is essential for encompassing opportunities for all levels of learner.
The second element of the game that I uncovered was the ability to add closed captioning to the games (Image 3). This was a part of the game that I was never specifically searching for. In fact, when I first saw the closed captioning option within the settings, I took a second to pause and reflect. I asked myself what type of learners would use the closed captioning and why is this an important element to include. My first answer would be that students that are hard of hearing could use the closed captioning as a way to take in the information that the game is speaking out loud to the players. My next thought brought me to students that are more visual learners that would process the information better if they could read the words instead of hear them. One thing I noticed about the closed captions that I did not find up to par for these two types of learners were that the closed captions were quickly written out and taken away. I would find them more beneficial if the print was in a larger font size and if the print would not disappear until the students clicked it away or clicked for the next sentence. Particularly with students that are still learning to read, the information is displayed and removed far too quickly before true processing can occur.
Thea's ED 386 Blog 