Roamerworld

Reviewed by Joy Geiser
Published by Valiant Technology

Age Group: Age 4 to 8, Age 8 and Up
Type: Keyboard Bangers, Thinking Games, Science
Price: $70

Requires: 256 color, win 3.1 and up

Description:

Roamerworld is a program which is based on the ROAMER educational robot. ROAMER is a very popular robot from the United Kingdom where he is used to integrate technology across the curriculum from geography, to maths, and sciences. The Roamerworld software is similar to LOGO. You have a little picture of the robot on a split screen, where you can click on the commands to have the robot draw various shapes, etc. Children can also create backgrounds and then try to program the roamer on the screen to follow the paths or manoeuver around the obstacles.

If you have used the ROAMER robot, the interface is very similar to the programming console found on the back of roamer, otherwise, it is not very difficult to figure out. Although it is not difficult to figure out, I have used this program for many classes and can never remember where all the tools are. At the risk of cluttering the screen, I think it would have been better to have all the tools on the screen all the time instead of clicking on a symbol, then another and another to get the pen-up and pen-down commands. I was very impressed with how the screen resembled what you would see if you were looking down and using the real robot.

One benefit over LOGO is that Roamerworld is activity-based. There are 2 types of activites: Journeys and Routes. One other improvement Valiant Technology has made with the ROAMER experience is the addition of an interface cable (available separately) in which programs created in Roamerworld can be downloaded to the ROAMER and vice versa.

Features:

  • Graphical user interface, no commands to remember
  • Very lifelike
  • Commands are displayed at the same time as the results of the program
  • Easy transition between the robot and software

Technical Aspects:

The 2 floppies that the program came on installed no problem, but because I was using Win 98, I needed to get a patch for some of the graphics. The company emailed it to me and I had it instantly. Once it was installed, I didn't have any further problems.

Report and Conclusions:

We have used Roamerworld in individual classes, as well as in group situations in camps. The children loved using this and found it to be very easy to learn. The children seemed to remember where the tools were better than I. They enjoyed making up "games" for their teammates where each would ask the other to write a program to get Roamer to do something, they would run the program and together, correct the program if the result was not correct. I also like this software because each command is checked for syntax and logic as it is created. I would recommend this program to any school interested in working with programming with their students.




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