Review of interactive programmes for intranets and websites.

They’re easy to use. Kids like them. And they’re free. I’m talking about Hot Potatoes by Half Baked Software a suite of authoring programs I downloaded via the internet in September from Victoria University, Canada. I would have paid £100 at least for something with the level of sophistication and versatility of these five little programmes. So what do they do and why are they so finger-licking good?

For the debutant the easiest Potato, the "Instant Mix" is JCloze, where a text is simply typed or imported as per word-processor into the program window. To produce the gaps, the author (I mean that in a non-literary sense) clicks on a word and then onto Gap. An English teacher can therefore chose to knock out words of his choice according to some predetermined curricular imperative for the literacy hour or take pot luck and click on Autogap. Saving is performed in the same manner as for any text; adapting the file for use on an intranet with or without internet access is only a click away. Clicking on the web icon on the task bar enables the author to store the file as a webpage. This can then be customized with its own background in a program such as MS FrontPage. The author is prompted to view the webpage before saving and the exercise appears complete with the removed words in a rectangle at the bottom of the page ready to be copied and pasted into the gaps. Prompts are available and these can be customized-even changed into a foreign language.

There are quite a number of crossword makers around on computers but the Hot Potato version is definite one of the best, a real King Edward among programs. The author simply types his choice of words onto a grid manually (no autoplacing of words). After producing a crossword, clues are added with no limit on length as with some programs. One then follows the same procedure as with the previous program, that is to save the original file so that it can be reedited if necessary and then save as a webpage. The crossword has a definite on-line look, rather than that of a traditional black ‘n’ white crossword so it is not really suitable for printing off although this is not impossible.

JBC is a multiple choice testing program. A question is written in the box provided and then the four items are written with the correct answer checked so that a smiley face will appear when the correct answer is chosen. Producing suitable items is quite problematic as anyone who has tried it knows only too well-the ease of editing means that adjustments can be made to improve the test. As the webpage containing the exercise can be customized, the questions set can relate to textual or even audio material linked to the page or it could relate to a webpage that the student has to visit. A running total of the score is given as the student progresses through the exercise.

JQuiz has enormous potential for several reasons. The question is entered as in JBC. The author then is able to enter 4 different acceptable answers- the student answering the questions can check on his answer and be told which part is correct, enabling him to keep trying until a satisfactory outcome is achieved. According to the needs of the teacher setting the questions the program can be seen as an accuracy test or a test which enables the student to look at the 4 alternative answers before redoing the questions without looking. Some explanation of how to tackle this type of question should be given by the teacher according to the emphasis of the exercise. Again, the questions can be set on text, pictures or audio if required.

On first glance, Jmix is the least functional of the Hot Potatoes, the small one with knobbles that you don’t bother to peel, but with a little creativity it is actually one of the best. Ostensibly it just allows the author to write a sentence that is jumbled with the student doing his best to put the sentence back in order. This would be a worthwhile activity when complex clause use is being taught in English or another language where word order is important such as German. The author can add variations differing from the original sentence that would actually make sense. The way I use the program however is to get students to match words to paragraphs written onto the webpage produced to show that the gist of each paragraph has been understood.

If you don’t have a website and never intend having one don’t despair! The web pages (3 separate pages are produced for each exercise, 1 with the header, 1 with the body of the page and one with the program in it) when clicked on will run on any computer with a web browser. The files are small and fairly large numbers of them can be stored onto floppies and could be sent home with motivated pupils to try on their home PCs.

If you do not have the necessary experience to download the suite of programs initially or produce your own index page to link all the exercises together in a logical sequence, grab a passing webexpert-and get them to run you through the basics. You will then soon be rushing out and buying an Idiots Guide..or Websites for Dummies.

The suite of programs, available for Windows 95/98 or NT and for the Mac is downloadable from http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/halfbaked/ or www.zdnet.com and comes as a winzip file so you need to have Winzip, available from www.winzip.com to get at the program. The size of the program is only 2.3 megabytes so downloading is fairly quick depending on time of day and connection speed. Examples of sites featuring good examples of Hot Potatoes in action are available on the Home Page of ½ Baked Software. Examples in French are available on my own Bof! site which is for reluctant revisers of GCSE French.:

www.btinternet.com/~s.glover/S.Glover/languagesite/Default.htm A department of five people could knock up a term’s interactive course on a day’s inset if they put their minds to it - assuming that the exercise types were relevant-most humanities and language-based subjects would benefit considerably.