A Touch of Learning

Learn Time Lite (Age 3+)
	Overall: Quality: Education: Longevity: Fun:

Learn Time (Age 3+)
	Overall: Quality: Education: Longevity: Fun:

Once Big-T could read numbers, I tried him on reading the clock. Pointing at a clock up on the wall was a bit tricky (too far away to point accurately) so I went searching for an app and found “Learn Time”. It is exactly what I was after, but it falls short in a few important areas that made me give up on it.

The main killer for me was I was trying to use the game mode in the lite version where it picks a random time to solve (1 o’clock, 7 o’clock, 4 o’clock, and so on). Normally you leave the long hand pointing straight up and move the hour hand. At 12 o’clock however the short hour hand is behind the long minute hand, requiring you to move the minute hand out of the way before moving the hour hand. This was very hard to explain to Big-T why it was necessary to do. It just seems a silly little mistake. The shorter hour hand should be on top, allowing the user to select the short hard on the long hand (depending on where they touch).

The Application

The lite version has two modes – “Move the hands” and “Free play”. The first mode is a quiz where there are two levels (the second level is initially locked). You start on the o’clocks. If you get enough answers right, it suggests moving to the next level. The second level you get quarter hour times. The second mode allows you to pick the time yourself and have it show the time in digital form.

The full version has more levels to practice with, with finer grain minutes values such as 9:20 and 1:23.

The Good

• The graphics are pretty good.
• There is a consistent nautical theme throughout – nicely done.
• The app has levels where later levels become unlocked as you complete earlier levels.
• If you get the time wrong it tells you the right time.
• The app focuses on teaching a single concept well.

The Bad

• The (long) minute hand is in front of the short hour hand. So at 12 o’clock to adjust the clock to another time you have to move the minute hand first, then move the hour hand, then move the minute hand back. This was a killer when doing the o’clock quiz mode.
• If you set the time to 4:55, the hour hand points directly at number 4. This is not what a real clock will do – it will point just before 5. While completely sensible, it does mean when you teach your child on this app then see a real clock, the child may get confused. Doing something like highlighting the segment or the number to show the range of values which means say 4 o’clock might be a better approach (maybe – its much easier to critique than to come up with a good solution).
• The app drops back to standard UI controls at times. A lot of the app has an “emersive” feel, which makes the standard UI controls feel out of place.
• The reporting the quiz and the feedback (reporting when you get the time right and wrong) visually are very similar. Different writing appears, and when you get it right there is a ship’s bell that rings, but it really requires an adult to be present to use the app as you need to be able to read.
• If you get the time wrong it shows how to move the hands to the right time which is a great concept, but the visual representation was completely lost on Big-T. Not sure how to improve it, but it would be a real benefit.
• Does not seem to teach “a quarter past three” or “five minutes to four” – only digital times such as 3:15 and 3:55. Would be good to say it out loud, in both formats.
• The quit button looks greyed out (disabled) but works. Then it asks “Do you want to stop playing” with a red “Yes” button. This feels a bit out of place – the red button in other apps is normally used for “Delete” where data will be irreversabily lost.

Educational Value

Teaching the time is clearly of high educational value.

My Score

3.5 stars. The concept is great, the graphics are pretty good, but the app for me falls short in a few critical areas – resulting for myself gaving up using the app when teaching Big-T to read the clock. My score would definiting go up if they fixed some of the issues.

Get it in iTunes

More information, screen shots, and user reviews can be found in the iTunes store.

• Learn Time Lite
• Learn Time

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