Table of Contents

1. The Program and its Objectives
2. Children Activity
3. Aides for the Learning Process
4. Roles of the Teacher
5. Interests and Limits
6. Proposals for Improvement

1.The Program and its Objectives

Adibou, a program designed for children of the age 4 to 7 intends to support the child's (pre)- school development.
Adibou is a little talkative extra-terrestrial who invites children into his  imaginary land "Pays Adibou" where he offers creative games (eg. planting, cooking, puzzling). The program provides a good mixture of animation and different playing activities and integrates interactive and instructional components of teaching and learning..
The different activities that  are compromised in the program contain a variety of different learning methods. First of all the child  is invited to choose a different module by clicking on the picture (animals and vegetation; adaptation of space and social life; life in different milieus; objects and their technical realization and different ages of human being). Once a module is chosen the child has the choice of different chapters, presented by pictures like for example nutrition for animals, the sun and planets or technical evolution over the years.
After the selection of the chapter, the child listens to Adibou's explanations. The child then chooses an activity, e.g.:

• recognition or identification of animals, forms or volumes
• discovery of particularities about life in other climatic zones
• placement and reconstruction of objects following a plan
• set up of mechanisms or electrical circles
• people and objects from other epoch
• identifaction of different parts of the body or the evolution of life depending on the season.

These activities integrate different elements of learning, e.g.: listening, recognizing or identifying. All elements contribute to an excellent system which allows the child to obtain and enlarge knowledge and understanding about nature and science.

2.Child Activity

When the child enters the imaginary land of Adibou it can unrestrictedly select his/her own starting point and level. The module is strictly determined by six exercises within each difficulty level. Adibou provides information if one or more answers are necessary. For the validation, it is obligatory that the child validates the chosen answer. After validation Adibou gives immediate feedback.
Further the program provides activity plans (fiches d'activité) which are accessible from each exercise and may be printed. They help to develop the childs manual skills without the support of a PC, e.g:,  a construction plan for little sailing boots or cooking recipes presented graphically in a way that they can be easily executed by the children.

3.Aides for the Learning Process

Different types of help can be distinguished:

• There is always a button formed like an interrogation mark. By clicking this button the child will find further explanation regarding the activities on the current screen.
• If a child gives a wrong answer, Adibou explains that the child's answer was almost perfect, however some correction is necessary, Adibou repeats the instruction, then corrects the answer and offers a second try.

4. Role of the Teacher

Considering that children at the age of 4 to 7 have a lot of  questions about nature or other epochs, teachers in  regular schools  could use this program to support and control the understanding of the teacher's explanations about nature and science.

5.Interests and Limits

• + Rich in interaction, Adibou encourages and rewards children's work. The content of the subject, provided help and the presented environment is complete.
• + The modules are satisfying und allow enough choice.
• + Saving and evaluating is automatically done.
• + The designed pictures, the animation and the effects are of good quality.

• - It is disagreeable that Adibou mentions directly at the beginning of a module "tu vas cliquer où" or "à toi de jouer"  because children of this age need more guidance through a computer based program.
• - It is inconvenient that Adibou expresses by leaving the program even after two hours being active "tu n'avais pas très envie de travailler...", that wording "travailler" will potentially leave a negative impression with a child who sees this as a game and plays with the computer.

6.Proposal for Improvement

The program could be improved by a replacement of  the call for activity with an introduction into the program by the offer of a "guided tour" explaining what happens e.g. introduce a module by an explanation of different animals, their need for different environments and nutrition - that should motivate the child to start that acitivity.