Reviews

Click, click, hooray
London Press Service, November 2000

A vast range of people across the world with differing needs are benefiting enormously from a unique British designed word processing and multimedia computer program that enables them to communicate either in their own or a foreign language with whole words, phrases and pictures.

It was originally created specifically for children, including those with disabilities. However, in a world where more people now speak English as a second language as opposed to their first, the software is becoming increasingly valuable as an essential learning tool for people of all ages. It is one of the first programs that enables such learning to take place where the user is able from the start to use structured sentences with whole phrases.

Clicker 4, as its name implies, is currently in its fourth generation of development. It can be best described as a very special talking word processor supported by a clicker grid. This is a kind of on-screen keyboard that has replaced fixed keys with grids of anywhere between 1 and 100 cells, each holding a letter, word, phrase or picture. When a child clicks on a cell in a grid, the text and/or graphics it contains is sent into the word processor. Cells can also speak their text using the built-in software speech, or the user can record their own voice directly into a cell

Already in many countries, Clicker is frequently used in schools and other educational establishments to give writing support to people, such as younger children and those with special needs, who have difficulties with writing. They may have problems because of physical disabilities. These can range from difficulties holding a pen or pencil, in using a keyboard, or simply in expressing themselves.

"In fact, Clicker was originally intended to aid access to writing for switch users, but has now evolved into a sophisticated writing support package for people at different levels of literacy," said Ann Crick, the curriculum resources director at Crick Software, in Northampton.

The program has two main components that are divided between the upper and lower parts of the computer screen. The upper part is a word processor, 'Clicker Writer', and the lower part displays the 'grids'. The basic principle behind the software is that the teacher can create, either alone or in collaboration with the students, a grid for a specific purpose.

The grids are composed of cells, each of which contains a picture or a word. When the grid is completed, children can click on individual cells, for the contents to be placed in the word processor. These can be printed, edited, saved or even e-mailed.

Using this approach, for example, the simple phrase ‘I like to eat fish and chips’ can be written and printed easily by children with severe cerebral palsy or those who need help with spelling. In a similar way children, asked to write about a more advanced class topic, can see grids containing a range of appropriate and specialist vocabulary that will help them in any related writing assignment.

A range of options in Clicker 4 allows this basic principle to be flexible and sophisticated. The computer can speak aloud words and pictures in cells if it is fitted with an appropriate soundcard. Different sizes of grids can be created and cells can be colour coded to help in such areas as using syntax. Depending on the picture files a word can automatically add a picture to it.

Clicker 4 has an extended range of features, including easy-to-use templates, such as those for creating your own multimedia books, cell adjustment and file management, multimedia features with graphic and text boxes, and the possibility of linking to video and midi files.

Clicker Writer has been completely re-written and all documents are now written in html for web access and e-mail. It also has its own powerful spell checker with speech and picture support. A novel feature is that it can be tailored to individual children’s errors. This makes it possible for the spell checker to show only some words as mis-spelt, thus preventing the possible de-motivation of users being told most of them are wrong. It can also be used as a thesaurus suggesting optional synonyms for children who frequently use the same word.

Clicker 4 can be customised to individual children’s particular curriculum components. It can also be used collaboratively with children, aiding awareness, creativity and language expression. The latest version has additional features, and in addition to the spell checker, introduces modern multimedia capability for the first time. The ability to send documents by email is proving very attractive to teachers and children alike, along with the possibility of publishing children’s own work as books or on web sites.

The uniqueness of Clicker has been officially recognised by being five times winner of the Special Needs Software Award made by the BETT (British Educational Technology and Training) Awards. These are designed to reward excellence in product design and usage in all areas of ICT and are sponsored by Compaq, 3Com, Microsoft and The Times Educational Supplement. This has served to establish Clicker as the most important software in its field.

Exports are strong in a range of countries including the US, Europe, and New Zealand. In Australia, the State of Victoria Department of Education’s ‘Software Rolling Fund’ has recommended its use in both schools and colleges. This means that the department bulk buys the software to pass on at a discount. Foreign language versions already exist or are planned shortly in French, Italian, Norwegian and Swedish. Now that the translation kit has been established by Crick Software, it says that, depending on sufficient demand, it can be readily converted into most languages.

Crick Software runs a very useful and informative website at www.cricksoft.com. It contains examples of grids that can be downloaded, along with free resources for hard-pressed teachers or students.

Michael Boyd

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