Crick Software, which specializes in the development of literacy software, has released Clicker for Mac OS X.
Clicker is a writing and multimedia tool designed for children of all abilities. It’s practically an industry standard in UK schools and is now being adopted in other countries, such as the United States (Crick Software opened a branch in the US 12 months ago). It has won five BETT Awards, the “Oscars” of British Educational Software. These awards are voted for by teachers.
The new user interface, quality of fonts, outstanding graphics, and enhanced networking capabilities of Mac OS X, combined with Clicker’s literacy and multimedia tools, make a compelling combination for students, John Crick, Crick Software’s worldwide product manager, told MacCentral. Plus, Clicker is supported with high quality speech and is easy to customize for individual needs, he added.
Clicker also has a wide range of accessibility options for users who cannot use a mouse or keyboard. If you don’t want to create activities yourself, there is a huge range of ready-made materials available, including hundreds of free materials on the Clicker Grids for Learning Web site. And more info is added every two weeks, Crick said.
“Our product is suitable for students with learning disabilities, those for whom English is a second language, and ones who simply wish to do multimedia,” he added.
Clicker lets students with a “limited” vocabulary write thanks to its combination of pictures, speech technology, even the use of animated GIFs to clarify word meanings. The product comes with 1,000 pictures. You can add your own to the picture library and you can add photos if you have a digital camera.
It can also be used to do some fairly advanced multimedia projects. One school used Clicker to develop a presentation of its school layout, complete with student voices, hot links and more. All this is possible because Clicker is highly customizable, letting you add up to 100 cells on a grid. It also takes advantage of Mac OS X’s built-in support for two-button mice, assuming, of course, that you have a third-party, two-button mouse.
Crick Software implemented all of the Mac OS X development guidelines in full, making this a true Mac OS X version right down to redrawing icons to complete the Mac OS X look and feel, Crick said. They worked with Mac developers from the early inception of the product, he added.
“We’re delighted with the Mac OS X version of Clicker,” Crick said. “Mac OS X is a huge leap forward for Apple and for Crick Software as a Mac developer.”
Clicker comes in a variety of pricing options for educational institutes. See the product pricing site for details. The product CDs should be shipping in three weeks.