Have tried it with two kids now. Not impressed.
Son age 10
Big speech bubble over the avatars – when he clicked it went back to the login screen and then into my account.
Tried again, eventually the bubble went away but he thought all the avatars looked pretty stupid (I agree) – they are the sort of decoration you see in toddler rooms at nursery). He picked one.
It then said ‘this is the clock counting down your session’ but no clock visible. So we assumed the picture of pizza with some missing was a sort of countdown clock.
Then the textbox vanished and the pizza was actually part of a question about improper fractions. I’m not sure he’s encountered the tern ‘improper fraction’ (I HAVE!) but certainly fractions are quite hard at the moment. I don’t think it was a suitable question to start with, and some more guidance about what sort of questions there would be and how to answer would be needed.
The expected answer is 5/6 but in trying to make it ‘easy’ it asks how many equal parts each pizza is divided into, but one is divided into 3 and one into 2...
He panicked and ran away, so all a total waste of time.
I tried the various buttons which should have been explained before getting into the maths, had it go back to the non-existent clock and it crashed. The flashing images – the turquoise blob which I think is meant to be a hand on a mouse, especially – are horrible and have triggered a vestibular migraine.
In short, much more introduction needed, and surely the key to getting anyone to learn is to start simple with stuff they have a chance to do?!
Next day, daughter age 7:
Log in – she thought the avatars were silly and was disappointed the monster went away. We both had problems figuring out how to enter answers and where to click. After three questions it said “now you’ve had a chance to practise there will be an assessment” - and the questions were much easier than the ‘practice’!
Then we got to 1+2 = ?, and couldn’t enter an answer – no amount of clicking on the box and typing nor clicking on the number line would work. We skipped it and it asked if we wanted to go back. Same problem. Skipped again and same problem on the next (1+3 ducks).
Then Venn diagrams – very unclear what items were in the ‘excluded’ part and what were the labels we were supposed to be adding. Boxes round would have helped. It took both kids and me about 5 minutes to figure out what to do.
Then after some bar charts which were quite difficult, we then had count the items again.Dd entered the answer but got confused because it told her off as she hadn’t ‘made a selection’ and she didn’t understand the word ‘indicate’ either. She also spent a while trying to put a number onto a number line thinking from previous questions that the pointer wouldn’t be enough, and got more frustrated. The graphic at the end made no sense and she was unimpressed.
So a big disappointment as neither child would be able to use it without my hovering. Perhaps it would have been clearer with sound, but I doubt it. I’d also question why it bothered asking about SEN (and the subcategories for ASD are all ones not given in the UK – I picked PDD as the closest), given that the key things needed by autistic kids are clear instructions and consistency, and not starting too hard.