The Hindu Business Line : All play...and some work

SAY computer or software and it somehow has a ring of adult responsibility to it. So much so that it sometimes seems almost unbelievable that software today has sizeable material designed keeping the child in mind.

In fact, children today are among the major sustainers of the software market. Once they were identified as potential customers, special care has been taken to create ideas related to their cognitive development.

Software for children are generally "teaching devices" (either introducing or enhancing ideas) meant to augment daily learning through games and fun. The magic lies in the methods devised to get across an idea and in the uses of the images and colours — in short what makes them so important is their sheer presentability.

Take, for instance, "Pajama Sam: You Are What You Eat From Your Head To Your Feet" by Humongous Entertainment. It is meant to teach three to eight-year-olds good eating habits. Pajama Sam, the world's youngest capped crusader, chases bad foods (fats and sweets) off MopTop Island and replaces them with good foods. Kids enjoy the chase and the multiple game paths, colourful characters, problem-solving, and mini-arcade games that provide hours of learning and entertainment.

"Curious George Paint and Print Studio" created by Sunburst.com, designing educational software and teacher resources, allow children to make their own endless varieties of creative projects with more than a 1,000 stamps (some of which are animated); scores of canvases, backgrounds and borders. The best thing about this is the text feature that lets users narrate their own presentations.

Helping budding guitarists is the eMedia Guitar Method 1 developed by the Emedia Music Corporation, which has more than 25 lessons teaching future guitarists how to read music. It is armed with songs from all the major genres, with bass, keyboard and drum accompaniments to enhance the learning experience. An animated Fretboard shows fingering, and a Fretronome displays notes and chords at any tempo.

For those into sleuthing, the "Nancy Drew: Stay Tuned for Danger" is a virtual detective software featuring more than 100 cryptic codes and puzzles in a 3-D setting, with eye-pleasing graphics, where participants interrogate suspects, uncover secrets and discover "the truth." Made for ten-year-olds and older children, this helps develop quick problem solving skills and increase mental agility.

"Email detectives" introduces children to electronic mail through the use of an innovative and realistically simulated e-mail environment. It teaches the essential skills and knowledge to use an e-mail program without actually requiring the children to connect to the Internet, which is as well given questions of cyber safety. This makes the program a safe and viable option. This CD-ROM contains 10 interactive tutorials covering all key e-mail skills. Besides the tutorials are made to suit all, irrespective of reading ability, as the text is fully narrated, and the interface ensures that the skills learned can be easily transferred to a real e-mail application.

The Sherston Company, developing software for education have created Izzy's Island, filled with colourful characters and engaging in activities designed specifically to fulfil many of the curriculum requirements for four-to five-year olds. The structured activities, which include retelling a story, vocabulary of size and colour, matching and sorting, counting and listening skills, repeating patterns are supported by age-appropriate narration, attractive graphics and intuitive screen designs with three levels of difficulty available for each activity. This enables a task, or series of tasks, to be selected to meet each child's learning requirement and the CD-ROM as a whole to provide a flexible, interactive teaching tool.

"The Magic School Bus Explores the World of Animals" by Microsoft combines information and humour in an exploration of the animal kingdom. Children can explore Ms. Frizzle's classroom and her students' reports (a mix of animation, photos, and live action video) to learn all about specific animals. The Magic School Bus travels to investigate biomes all over the world. Games in each biome educate about specific concepts, such as food chains, camouflage, and even scat. Players are additionally challenged to find animals, which are in the wrong environment. This is a fun-filled, interactive introduction to animals of all kinds, says the company. Requiring a Multimedia PC with Pentium or higher and Win 95/98, this software is aimed at the three-to-eight age group.

The Encarta Interactive World Atlas 2000 by Microsoft provides a virtual tour of the world.

This atlas allows the user to view the Earth in 21 different map styles, ranging from political maps to a topographical presentation. Besides providing views of the Earth at night, brief articles, sounds, links to the Internet and images are just a mouse click away.

The presentation is focused and the ability to copy maps and other information into other documents makes this product an essential tool in libraries and homes.

The Encarta Africana 2000 presents African and African-American cultures via multimedia. Spanning the history of ancient civilisations to the more recent accomplishments of African American cultures with timelines, images, and sounds to draw the user into a detailed exploration of African cultures, from music and history to biography and traditions, this virtual encyclopaedia succeeds in providing a well-rounded and informed perspective.

It fits easily into any Windows or Macintosh-assisted computer. The only thing prohibitive about it is probably the price — varying between $24.99 and $79.95, depending on the number of users.

The basic idea of making software of this kind is to create an interactive machine out of the PC and make learning fun and digital.

Many children take naturally to computers, and educators want to make sure they become computer-literate to succeed in the 21st century. The introduction of children to computers should be a gradual process.

Only software that respects their intelligence and imagination, while exhibiting venturesome creativity, and encouraging the interests of users, can be deemed suitable while truly serving their purposes.

For further information and purchasing ideas:

Email-info@softease.co.uk

Email-info@sherston.co.uk

Further information:

http://www.microsoft.com/kids/msb/animals.htm

http://www.microsoft.com/encarta/atlas/atlas.htm

http://www.edmark.com/prod/mindtwister/

http://www.harmonicvision.com/

The author is a freelance journalist and can be reached at paromita_pain@yahoo.com

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