PLATO Achieve Now
© 2008 PLATO Learning
You'd hardly expect a teacher to say "OK, boys and girls. Take out your PlayStation Personals (PSPs)." But with PLATO Achieve Now, such a thing could be possible. The future has arrived. With the help of Sony, Plato Learning has adapted thousands of multiple-choice-style lessons and tutorials from the original PS2 format, to the PSP. The entire curriculum, that used to require having a special server installed on the school's network, fits on two single 8GB memory cards. Students log in to work their way through the standards-based lessons, filling in multiple-choice and/or fill in the blank questions. Because the computer fits in a pocket, they can work at home or at school. We tried one of the lessons and found the format to be clunky with the graphics filling up just the center part of the screen and with instructions that repeat too frequently. In addition, the answer selection process requires several key presses; a very primitive process, with the increasing availability of touch screens. Note that in 2003, Plato purchased the LightSpan content. The content is bundled in units of 10 or 30, and sold with the hardware.
PSP
Teaches: math, reading and language arts