After browsing through both Inspiration and Kidspiration, it was obvious to me why Kidspiration was created. Although both programs have similar features and accomplish the same goal of organizational webs, Kidspiration was a lot more fun to play with. I used Inspiration only once in my undergraduate experience and it was just basic web creation. We didn’t really get a chance to play with the colors and different features; which is disappointing because that is what makes Inspiration such a great program. It does so much more than just create web diagrams.
Even in the 10 minutes or so in class when we had a chance to explore Kidspiration it was apparent to me that this program could be very addicting. I can totally see how kids could get distracted by the cool features and fun animation. I think I spent a solid 5 minutes using the drawing tools to make a funny looking man with a mustache when I could have simply chosen a preselected graphic. But that wouldn’t have been as much fun. When given Kidspiration as a tool, students most definitely need to be given explicit instructions ahead of time as to what is expected of them. Otherwise, they will spend all of their time drawing funny looking men with mustaches…
Chinchillaaaaaa 