"Improvements" to Pocket Phonics app

[eloquacious]

So sad when app makers "improve" their app and actually make it worse. I don't like most of what Apps in my Pocket have done with their Pocket Phonics app. They've taken the letter/phoneme writing and linked it with the word game, and in so doing made it ten times less challenging. Now, all words after a certain sound only have that sound. This is a good first step, I suppose, but I prefer the way it was before - write four to six sounds, then practice words with all those sounds in them, switching back and forth between the sounds being practiced.

 

Meh.

[SorrelZG]

I liked this app a lot more several "updates" back. :-/

[jof]

Eloquacious, as I think you've correctly identified the change was in part to make it less challenging for beginners based on feedback we'd had from customers. However, I accept that we should also look to stretch those who are more capable. I'll give some thought to this for the next release. Although it sounds from your comments that if you could have a setting so you could choose to have them practise writing all the letters first and then the words that would be good.

 

If there's any other things that you don't like about the new release, please say. I'm keen to hear all feedback.

[jof]

SCGS, what did you prefer about the older versions? Happy to look at what we can do to rectify.

[SorrelZG]

SCGS, what did you prefer about the older versions? Happy to look at what we can do to rectify.

 

It was simpler to use. Now it feels like there is a lot of going in and out of menus. When on the letter tracing, for instance. Having the one click option to repeat the sound or erase without shaking or move on to the next letter was more convenient.

 

A number of the new features I didn't care for, like the extra talking (rather than just letter sound) and goofy music when tracing, I realized I could turn off in settings. Side note, I can't even get it back if I wanted to. When I went back into settings "Sound effects" was blue already ("off" had been blue last I left the settings screen) but no sound effects besides the letter sound, regardless of what I do with it. Did a new update get rid of that again or is that a glitch?

 

Besides that, I also preferred having the word game separate from the tracing and with all letters (however it use to be a year or 18mos ago). For where my children are at, there is no longer any challenge to the game. And again, getting to the game without going through the tracing means more in and out of menus and then again to get the tracing option back. Keeping in mind that the menus are protected (understandably) from little fingers by the equation, it's an irritating amount of effort to have to go to for something that originally could be done, and enjoyed with a little challenge, in a single click.

 

I realize you can't please everyone but I appreciate your concern and effort all the same. :)

[eloquacious]

I think if there were different levels it might be beneficial. For very beginners, the way it is now might be just right. (By that I mean only having words with each phoneme after the phoneme is introduced/taught.)

 

However, to make it more challenging, I would recommend returning to the groupings from before, though perhaps slightly modified. I noticed that the phonemes are introduced in the same order as taught in the UK Letters and Sounds program. That being said, they were in slightly different groupings. I didn't much mind, as we weren't using that program exclusively, but I think perhaps aligning it better would be beneficial to those using the words/sentences from that program.

 

For instance the introduction of letters in 'Letters and Sounds' is as follows:

 

set 1: satp

set 2: inmd

set 3: gock

 

The first two groupings in the app were:

 

group 1: satpin

group 2: mdgock

 

(And yes, I realize that I am a MAJOR nerd for remembering that.)

 

At any rate, as I said it didn't matter much to me, but UK users might appreciate the correspondence.

 

Also: I noticed that if you have handwriting correction turned off, there is no navigation to get to the word game. With it turned on, the app automatically advances to the word game, but when it is turned off, there is really no way to move on.

[jof]

Hopefully, some good news. There is a setting that allows you to practise letter sounds and words together (the default), or just focus on letter sounds, or just focus on words. Does that help?

 

There is a bug with the switching on and off of the sound effects. Next time, I'll ensure our tester spends more time in this area. If you do switch the sound effects off again, and then on again, most of the sound effects will come back, but not the tracing - which is a puzzle. We'll fix this in the next release in January.

 

The reason for moving the one-click buttons into the menu was because a lot of the feedback I'd had was little fingers accidentally touching them. Do you find that you frequently want to erase the writing or have it repeat how to write the letter?

[jof]

There is a setting that allows you to practise letter sounds and words together (the default), or just focus on letter sounds, or just focus on words. Does that help? Thus you can set the app so the child just focuses on words.

 

I was very impressed you could remember the order/grouping of the letter sounds! The order of letter sounds is intended to be the same as Letters & Sounds. The groups are bigger (six letter sounds rather than four) to allow a larger set of words to be taught (particularly for the first group where the child would only know 4 letter sounds). As I'm based in the UK, and my wife teaches, I have more contact with UK teachers than I do US. It's not a problem that they've raised. My impression has always been that they care about the order, but less about the grouping.

 

If you touch the menu button in the top right corner of the screen when tracing, a menu will pop-up that offers the option to move onto the next word. I'd be interested to understand when you find you need to switch the handwriting correction off?

 

I agree on the need for more levels. A key challenge for me has been to make the app easily accessible to people not familiar with phonics and convey quickly what it does. I do though also need to stretch pupils who are more capable.

 

The other thing I'd be interested to hear about is what you make of the new scoring system that provides a star rating for each letter sound. What I ought to mention is that if you do set the app so the child is just practising words then the star rating given is just for words.

[SorrelZG]

Hopefully, some good news. There is a setting that allows you to practise letter sounds and words together (the default), or just focus on letter sounds, or just focus on words. Does that help?

 

There is a bug with the switching on and off of the sound effects. Next time, I'll ensure our tester spends more time in this area. If you do switch the sound effects off again, and then on again, most of the sound effects will come back, but not the tracing - which is a puzzle. We'll fix this in the next release in January.

 

The reason for moving the one-click buttons into the menu was because a lot of the feedback I'd had was little fingers accidentally touching them. Do you find that you frequently want to erase the writing or have it repeat how to write the letter?

 

 

 

The one-click buttons were helpful for my little one still learning sounds and formation who would typically want to hear/see/repeat that quite a few times before moving on. At the very least could the replay button be put back on the screen?

 

I found the setting for switching between letters, words and both. The problem is the inconvenience of having to go into settings every time one wants to switch between them. The original set up that had the two choices (letter tracing or word game) right on main screen was vastly more convenient and allowed my child to switch back and forth as he pleased rather than needing me to change the settings every time. If that was changed to somehow be as convenient as it use to be, there was an option for the word game to be more challenging again and the replay button was put back on the tracing screen, my former love would return. :)

[jof]

I'll take a look at these things after the break.

[jof]

There is now a new minor update to PocketPhonics to download for free from the App Store. I'm afraid although I did manage to include some other changes requested by customers, only one of your's made it. That was the bug fix to the sound effects setting. I'm afraid our time has been taken up with a major change that will go into pilot with schools over the next few weeks. It's proven to be very challenging and eaten up the time I'd have like to have spent on your amends.

 

The good news is that we are now starting work on the next release, and your requests are up the top of the pile.

 

Sorry I don't have better news.