The schoolzone evaluation

Moles is a delightful little piece of software, which is as much about early mathematical language and counting skills as it is about mouse control. The main emphasis of the program however is to break down the stages of mouse control into small achievable steps before progressing to the next stage. The program can easily be customised so that it fits with the needs of individual children. The five stages of mouse control are: roll over, roll over and drag without clicking, single click, double click and click and drag.

The aim of the game is to ‘encourage’ the moles back into their holes, or to put them onto a deck chair in the sun when using the drag option. The colourful characters pop out of their holes in random order and respond with a wobble and a squeak as they are caught. At the same time, a number line of moles at the top of the screen is used to count how many moles are caught, and how many are left to catch, as they lie down. The numeral appears above each caught mole. This can be easily used for developing mathematical language and for early addition and subtraction. Alternatively, the numeral of moles caught can be displayed on the right of the screen, aiding the understanding of the numeral representing the sum of the group rather than an individual mole. A clear voice counts the moles as they are caught. There is verbal feedback at the end of each game. The number of moles increases by one each time the game is played until a maximum of 12 moles are on the screen. The next option is to play the game against the ‘clock’. This is represented by a worm getting closer to the moles left to be caught at the bottom of the screen. If the time runs out, the worm gets eaten by the moles.

The screen is bright, colourful and uncluttered, free from distracting navigational features. The background is a field of mole holes. The scene varies slightly with each game in that the sun is in different positions - a bonus science and time related discussion point. Overall, I feel that this program fills the gap in the need for a staged approach to developing mouse control in the Early Years ICT curriculum.

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