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Holt Spectrum Science
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The Challenge: Educational publisher Holt, Rinehart and Winston wanted to differentiate themselves from other educational publishers, in order to be more competitive and gain market share. They needed to add extra value to their high school textbooks, while still conforming to national standards. The proposed solution was to take advantage of students' interest in computer games and interactivity. “If you look at what current cognitive science argues about how people learn best,” says professor and author James Paul Gee, “you will find those principles embedded deeply in video games”1. Gee further argues that “games make the meanings of words and concepts clear through experiences the player has and activities the player carries out, not through lectures, talking heads, or generalities”2. Holt hired Second Avenue Software to create interactive learning applications for inclusion with two new Holt textbooks: Spectrum (physical sciences) and Biology. The application needed to conform as closely as possible to Section 508 guidelines. The Process: Second Avenue Software began this project by creating two documents for the client: a document definition, to outline the project requirement; and a design document, containing a sample of what the manuscript, storyboard and project plan would look like for a particular section. The next step was to create the source documents from which the developers and illustrators would create the application. A team of subject matter experts – often with the collaboration of the development team – developed manuscripts outlining the content. These included the accompanying narration, descriptions of the visuals, and descriptions of the individual game exercises. Based on these manuscripts, graphic artists drew storyboards to convey the content visually. The developers programmed each section of the application based on these source documents, and illustrators applied the final artwork. The finished application was shown to the subject matter expert for final review, and then submitted to Holt, who also reviewed the applications and requested any needed modifications. The application was also designed to account for differences in learning styles. Some students learn more successfully from written text, while others learn better from audio cues than from visual cues. Therefore, each application conveyed information verbally to the user in two different media simultaneously – spoken narration and user-controllable scrolling text – either of which can be activated or deactivated according to user preference. The Result: Twenty-two Biology applications and twenty-two Spectrum applications were created. These unique applications have aided the client in driving textbook adoptions, and helped them to gain market share. 1 Educause Review, September/October 2004 2 “Learning by Design: Good Video Games as Learning Machines”, E-Learning, Volume 2, Number 1, 2005 |
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