Kidspiration Maps Lite - Inspiration Software Inc

This review of Kidspiration Maps Lite was completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 26 May 2016.

About the app

This section contains details about the app provided by an ACCM Reviewer.

ACCM review

This review of Kidspiration Maps Lite contains the following information:

• The level to which the game was reviewed
• App description
• Reviewers comments
• In App purchasing
• Online information
• Gambling
• Advertising and product placement
• Gender stereotypes and sexual references
• Coarse language
• Game playing behaviour which may be of concern to some parents
• Other

The level to which the game was reviewed

This app was reviewed for approx. 1 hour.

App description

Kidspiration Maps Lite is an educational diagram creation app. The objective is to create various diagrams illustrating connections between topics. The skills required are comprehension, motor skills, and critical thinking.

Reviewers comments

When the app is first opened, players are presented with a screen with a variety of options. The topmost option is “Upgrade NOW!”, and selecting this takes the user to the Itunes app store, where the full Kidspiration Maps app can be purchased for $14.99. The Lite version restricts the user to creating 5 documents, and then requires the full version to be purchased. The below sections are Create Diagram, Create Supergrouper, and Open Document. Below these, there is another section of “Activities” which includes Reading and Writing, Social Studies, Science, and Math.

In the Create Diagram section, users can create basic diagrams, grouping and linking together various concepts into a mind map. Users can add recordings of sounds, images, and custom colours to different sections, and are able to draw arrows connecting these various concepts. There are no language filters or censors, and anything can be written within these boxes. Upon finishing a diagram, when players return to the main menu, they are shown a full screen popup suggesting the benefits of upgrading to the full version of the app. This must be manually closed.

Within the Create Supergrouper menu, users can create and link concepts with a higher degree of customisation. Sizes can be changed, concepts can be given images specific to them, and various types of diagrams can be created to explore similarities and differences between concepts and ideas. The first two sections appear to be entirely unstructured, and have no mission or goal structures.

Within the Open Document section, users can open documents that they have created previously, and modify them further. At the bottom of the selection screen is a banner advertisement that states “Upgrade Available Here!”

Within the activities section, a variety of completed diagrams exist with empty text boxes. The user is encouraged to “Use a variety of pictures and words to complete this graphic!” and these templates exist for the user to discover the connections between various concepts and objects. The diagrams vary between sections, and cover topics such as “All about me!”, “Cause and effects”, “Compare Cultures”, and “Animal Classification”. The diagrams are all initially left blank, with the user able to fill in parts of them to discover the relationship between the items that they fill in. Within the entire activities section, the “Upgrade Available Here!” button is on the bottom of the screen, and cannot be removed.

This app is educational in nature, and could be difficult to use without supervision.

In App purchasing

Yes: The full version of the Kidspiration Maps app can be purchased for $14.99

Online information

N/A.

Gambling

No simulated gambling content was found during this review.

Advertising and product placement

Ads for the full version of the app appear on almost every screen within the lite version of the app. It is assumed that these ads would disappear if the full version of the app is purchased.

Gender stereotypes and sexual references

N/A.

Coarse language

N/A.

Game playing behaviour which may be of concern to some parents

This app is not a game. This app is a tool which some teachers may use in school.

Other

N/A.

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