Listservs provide a great opportunity to interact on a particular topic. On the Way Cool Listserv, subscribers discuss software issues and ask questions about the project and the software reviews. All reviews are first published on the listserv where people often contribute additional comments we include when we publish the reviews on the World Wide Web.
The listserv format also has archives of past messages, so subscribers can go back to find any of the reviews that have been published on the listserv. Although the listserv allows such a facility, the World Wide Web format is far more user friendly in this regard.
The World Wide Web is a wonderful way to store and download information. It's graphic, attractive, user friendly, and more. The home page of the Way Cool Software Reviews Project was established on March 16, 1996 and has been hit 2600 times as of September 15, 1996. It provides a link to all of the software reviews, information on the Way Cool Project including a copy of the evaluation form most of the reviews follow, and links to related projects.
The software page of the Way Cool WWW site provides a link to all of the reviews of commercial software and shareware. Many of the reviews contain links to the publisher's home page or to a site to download the freeware or shareware. This presentation concluded with a discussion of some of the reviews and interesting features of the project.
Keywords: disabilities, software, software evaluation, software reviews, technology, computer, telecommunications
Way Cool Software Reviews is a project designed to encourage students, teachers, and others to write reviews of software they use at school or at home that they think is way cool. Although all reviews are welcome, we are particularly interested in software that would be useful for those with disabilities. These reviews are then published on the Way Cool listserv and the Way Cool World Wide Web site. The project represents a marriage of the best of listserv and WWW technologies.
The Way Cool Software Reviews Project was first announced at NAWeb '95 (October, 1995). It is a joint venture of the A. J. Pappanikou Center Technology Lab, and Chatback International of the United Kingdom. Chatback International is a foundation in the United Kingdom directed by Tom Holloway. Chatback provides access to the Internet to special education classrooms and schools and designs unique Internet projects in which the students can participate. A list of the current Chatback projects can be found on the Chatback International web site.
Listservs provide a great opportunity to interact on a particular topic. On the Way Cool Listserv, subscribers discuss software issues and ask questions about the project and the software reviews. All reviews are first published on the listserv so that people can add comments before we publish them on the World Wide Web. Common questions on the listserv are, "Is there also a PC version of this software?," and, "Does anyone know of good software for a student with a learning disability that is colorful and not too expensive?"
Fortunately, publishers are beginning to join the listserv. Thus, when subscribers asked questions based on reviews of Menlo the Frog and Pantsylvania a technical person from the companies involved was quick to answer the questions. This interaction between software publishers and software users is seen as a very positive and unique feature of the Way Cool Software Reviews Project. We hope to encourage many more publishers to join our ranks.
The listserv format allows subscribers to search the listserv archives of past messages to locate any of the reviews that have been published on the listserv. Although the listserv allows such a facility, the World Wide Web format is far more user friendly in this regard.
You can easily check all of the published reviews at our web site, but I'd like to select a few to illustrate special features. One of the most unique reviews was the one written by three and a half year old identical twins. Actually the review was written by their mother, Valerie Soja, a pediatric occupational therapist and a graduate of our UConn technology emphasis. Valerie was a leader in the group that came up with the idea of the Way Cool Software Reviews Project. Her daughters loved How Many Bugs in a Box? She asked them their views on all of the questions in the Way Cool Software Evaluation Form. The review consists of the twins' comments plus Valerie's comments provided within parentheses.
Many of our first reviews were written by a group of bright 10-11 year olds from Middletown, Connecticut. The Lost Mind of Dr. Brain is a good example of reviews from this group - it is a review of a computer game and it's fairly brief.
Another example from this group of students is The Oregon Trail. This review illustrates the value of publishing the reviews both on the listserv and the World Wide Web. We published the review on the listserv and a parent quickly jumped in to add his reaction to the software. We added his comments to the World Wide Web version of the review. It added an extra dimension and certainly enhanced the quality of the review.
Another interesting group of software reviews came a professor at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln Teachers College. Lynne Herr was a subscriber to the Way Cool Listserv and contacted me to see if I would be interested in receiving reviews from students taking her summer course in instructional technology. I assured her I would be delighted to publish her students' works, and received a number of these reviews in August of 1996.
Certainly the project gained from this exercise, but so did the students. Professor Herr told me that submitting the reviews to the project "really helped make my instruction regarding the use of the Internet in education more pertinent. Suddenly everything I'd been teaching them about the Internet bringing the world to their classrooms really happens. It's great."
I'll highlight two of the Nebraska reviews. The review of Scholastic's The Magic School Bus Explores the Human Body is very comprehensive and provides a link to the publisher. The ability to link to the publisher is another one of those advantages of the world wide web over a listserv.
Another Nebraska review highlights the way the listserv can compliment the world wide web presentation. A student wrote a review of Desert Storm: The War in the Persian Gulf. The student indicated that she found pictures of Americans being held as Prisoners of War on the CD-ROM and was appalled at the treatment they received. When the review appeared on the listserv a Canadian indicated that he thought it was indeed a good CD, but took issue with some of the reviewers comments. He rightly indicated that it's appalling when prisoners of war are mistreated whether they be American, Canadian or for that matter Iraqi. He also pointed out that our "smart bombs" weren't that smart and in fact killed innocent people. We added his entire message to the world wide web version of the review. Clearly, these additional comments led to a more powerful review.
Before leaving the student evaluations, it should be pointed out that we insist that teachers seek parent permission before we publish reviews by K-12 students. The students and their parents can decide whether they use first names only, initials, full names, or pseudonyms. We do not publish the students' EMail addresses, but do publish the teachers' EMail addresses if they are willing.
Some of the Nebraska students also sent their reviews to me with only their first names. I mentioned this to professor Herr and learned that after their class discussions of how to use the Internet safely with K-12 students, many of these college students didn't think they should publish their names on the web. It is my feeling that there comes an age when a person would want to use his or her actual name when publishing a review, even on the Internet. My feeling is that a college student should be aware of possible problems, but should also feel safe in using his actual name associated with his publication on the Internet. I conveyed this message to the Nebraska students and some of them gave me permission to use their full names on their reviews.
The Magic Applehouse is an example of a review written by a teacher. As you might imagine, teacher reviews tend to be much more comprehensive. They may be of more value to other teachers because they tend to offer more suggestions for using the software in the classroom.
The final category of reviews is that written by parents. Menlo the Frog came to us in an unusual way. The publisher received a letter of support for Menlo the Frog from a parent and inquired whether it could be used as a Way Cool Review. After receiving permission from the parent, I did edit the letter into a review that was subsequently published on the listserv and world wide web.
When I received a review of Pantsylvania from a parent, I'll admit I was a little suspicious. Software named Pantsylvania, published by a company called Headbone Interactive made me think that someone might be trying to play a trick on us. However, a simple search revealed the Headbone Interactive home page on the web. Sure enough, the name of the software and the name of the company were both authentic and we published the review.
These two parent reviews were discussed earlier under the topic of the listserv. These are examples of the publishers joining the Way Cool listserv and responding to subscribers' questions about the software. We hope that publishers will continue to be involved in this way with the Way Cool Software Reviews Project.
Many of the reviews of commercial software contain links to publishers' home pages where more information is provided. However, the shareware reviews provide links so that you can download the shareware. With Gif Converter, for example, a link is provided to the Info-MAC HyperArchive provided by the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science. On the other hand, the MediaBlaze review provides a site to download either a 16 or 32 bit version of this Windows shareware.
Please spread the word. We encourage teachers to have students write reviews for Way Cool. Anyone teaching a course on educational technology is also encouraged to use the Way Cool Software Reviews Project as a means for having students publish their reviews. The Way Cool reviews are being viewed and used by people all over the world.
To subscribe to the Way Cool listserv, send the following one line message
to:
listserv@UConnvm.uconn.edu
Subscribe wycool-l Yourfirstname Yourlastname
In conclusion, it is hoped that this paper has presented a strong case for the value of using the best of both the listserv and world wide web technologies to develop Internet projects. Should you have further questions about such projects or the Way Cool Software Reviews Project, feel free to contact me.
Chauncy N. Rucker, Ph.D.
Director, A. J. Pappanikou Center Technology Lab
University of Connecticut
249 Glenbrook Road, U-64
Storrs, CT 06269-2064
Rucker@UConnvm.uconn.edu
http://www.ucc.uconn.edu/~wwwpcse/techlab.html
I've been a professer of education at the University of Connecticut since 1967. As director of the A. J. Pappanikou Center Technology Lab, most of what I do now has to do with technology for individuals with disabilities.
N.A.WEB 96 - The Second International North America World Wide Web Conference http://www.unb.ca/web/wwwdev/ University of New Brunswick.