Educational Software  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  Many Amiga owners are probably not aware of the growing amount of educational software being developed for children of all ages. Yet, if you stop to think about it, the Amiga offers certain features which make it an ideal environment for learning/teaching. Its ability to offer speech synthesis is perfect for spelling programs, and both the "mouse" and menu system provides ease of use that is an excellent introduction to computers. Education, in one form or another, has always been recognized as important for survival, and generally beneficial. How it is best done though continues to be a matter of constant debate. However, computers can greatly assist those who wish to learn, especially for disabled students or those in remote areas. As is the case with other areas where computers are used, the benefits and drawbacks are determined by the use of the tool and not the tool itself. The ability of a computer to give quick feedback often encourages a student to study with more enthusiasm. Australia has been actively promoting the use of information technologies in schools for some time. In 1984 the Commonwealth computer education program began to develop computer awareness, computer literacy and the professional development of teachers. Government statistics show that 98% of secondary schools and 55% of primary schools have reported computer applications - primarily for word processing, simulation and gaming, drilling and practice, and in maths and sciences. Many examples indicate creative and flexible approaches to using computers in education. Students in remote areas of Western Australia can communicate with teachers and each other by bulletin boards. Secondary schools in the Northern Territory are linked by a Minerva electronic mailing system to the Education Department's Darwin Office.  Caufield Grammar School in Melbourne has become the largest Commodore educational site in Australia, and its most recent addition has been the Amiga 1000 which is being trialled in the graphics and art department. If it proves to be a success more will be purchased. The schools philosophy is to use computers as they would be used in the real world. Another High School, Murray Bridge in South Australia, has just bought 12 Amiga 1000's to extend its computer-based education into music, art, design, technical studies, history and publishing (see Hunks&Headers in the Articles drawer). The main aim behind the move to Amigas is to replace the deteriorating network of Commodore-64's, and improve the school's subject range of software. So it just goes to show that some of our educationalist are prepared to give students the latest, and arguably the best, in computer technology. Let's hope more schools follow their example, because the reasonable cost of the Amiga makes it possible for both well-off and poorer institutions to have the newest in information technologies.  The software that I have been looking at for the last few months is largely aimed at younger children, and those young at heart. Although some of the maths programs would stretch even tertiary students! Sierra On Line has released "Winnie The Pooh in The Hundred Acre Woods", a children's software product co-developed with Walt Disney Productions. This graphics/text adventure would suit any child that can read simple sentences (probably ages 7-8), and can be run entirely with the mouse. It uses the same basic principles as more sophisticated games, like Deja Vu or Uninvited, while teaching them how to use the Amiga's Intuition interface. Before the end of the year, Sierra On Line will introduce two additional titles the "Black Cauldron", a 3-D adventure game and "Donald Duck's Playground", both children's programs produced by Walt Disney Productions.  Another company that believes in designing software to teach specific skills related to the school curriculum is Unicorn. Their aim is to make learning a positive experience, while entertaining children at the same time. All of the Unicorn programs feature exceptional graphics, and offer a broad variety of learning activities with multiple difficulty levels. Thanks to Computerscope of North Sydney I was able to "field test" (play with) 4 of their packages:- KINDERAMA - this requires the 1.2 version of the operating system, and is self-booting. It is based around 5 modules, all using Robots in one way or another, and is aimed at ages pre-school to 6. Initially a Main Menu appears and by using the mouse the module of choice can be selected with the left mouse button. Before each module (except the Robot Construction one) the computer asks should I talk? Type "Y" for yes or "N" for no. The child is then asked to type in his/her name. Press return to continue. Note that the TAB key turns speech on or off, but the sound effects remain. The program can be exited from the Main Menu by clicking on the robot on the right side of the Main Menu screen. The 5 different activities are: 1. The Robot Story, which is an interactive rhyme to teach subtraction. He/she will also learn to read the words by sight, the first step in beginning reading. It's rather similar to the old "Ten Green Bottles Sitting on the Wall" song I learnt as a child. Robots keep disappearing and the computer asks "How many are left?", the child must answer by typing in the correct number. 2. Letter Match - here the child gets the choice of matching Upper and Lower case letters. It is suggested they start with Upper case (type "U"), and once mastered move on to Lower case (type "L"). The child is given 3 turns before the computer asks him/her to find a specific key. 3. Count the Robots & 4. Robot Addition. These are similar in that robots are randomly generated. The child is then asked to count them, or add them, and type in the answer. Each time they have 3 chances before the computer explains the solution. The child must then type in the correct answer to continue. 5. Robot Construction. The objective is to build a robot on one of 3 body frames that appear on the right of the screen. They use the mouse to move the arrow icon and select a body, then heads, legs or arms. The variety of games helps keep the interest of the early learner. At the same time it helps familiarize the young child with the concept of computer menus, use of the mouse and keyboard, as well as develop hand-eye coordination. It is well documented, and there are notes for parents and teachers to assist in techniques. ANIMAL KINGDOM - consists of 6 activities for ages 6 -12, and helps develop reading comprehension, language arts, memory skills and discrimination. It does this using beautiful pictures of various animal species - fish, insects, jungle and prehistoric animals, birds, etc. The 6 activities are: 1. All About Animals - an electronic encyclopedia of animals. 2. Animal Spells - the child is shown an animal in its environment and must correctly identify it by spelling its name. 3. Amimalgrams - an anagram of an animal appears and the child must unscramble the letters. 4. Who Am I? - the child must correctly identify an animals picture from several details about its nature, behavior and habitats. 5. What's Different - the child must select which animal's picture from 6 depicted is from a different species. Incorrect answers are explained. 6. Animal Memory Game - this is a concentration game for 1-4 players featuring a great pictorial display. FRACTION ACTION - this is for ages 8 and up (believe me it can get really tough). The action occurs in the basement of a Mad Professor's Mansion, where his motley crew are holding you captive. The only way to escape is to get these creatures to unlock electrified gates, for which they have the keys. And they will only do this after you answer fraction problems correctly. Once they permit you to pass you've got to move quickly, or else! Incorrect answers are given full-screen explanations and an occasional drop down the basement's chutes by the Mansion's ghost. It's really a type of multi-screen arcade game. It offers multiple difficulty levels, a timer option to practice speed math and a variety of problems - division, multiplication, addition and subtraction. 1 or 2 players can compete, each choosing his/her own operation and difficulty level. This also comes with suggestions for parents and teachers to help the kiddies get the most from the "game"! READ & RHYME - for ages 5-10 and 1-2 players. This consists of 4 parts, designed to improve language skills, such as vocabulary, reading, rhyming, alphabetical order, tense, phonics, meaning in context, classification and discrimination. 1. Rhyming Rockets - the child must select which word does not rhyme with the other two. Young readers can use their knowledge of phonics to read and sound out the 3 & 4 letter words (from a database of over 400 words). Correct answers are rewarded when the rockets blast off! 2. Flying Saucer - a sentence appears with a missing word. Children must choose the word that best completes the sentence, making sure it's grammatically correct. There are 200 sentences on 2 difficulty levels that aim to develop classification, discrimination and meaning in context skills, as well as teaching vocabulary and tense. 3. Alpha Blast - Children must arrange lists of 10 words in alphabetical order, from a database of 1000 year 1-3 words, before the space ship can take off. 4. Rhyming Challenge - this is a fun 1 or 2 player game for children of all ages (even you adults). The object is to make as many words as possible that rhyme with the word the computer selects. Friendly aliens will tell you if you are correct and keep score. I must say I found these games from Unicorn Software to be good fun, very well presented and often quite difficult. Two other titles in their range at the moment are Math Wizard and Decimal Dungeon. Their names probably give you some clues as to what there about, so I won't describe them, as I haven't played them. However, they both offer multiple operations, multiple difficulty levels, timer options and explanations when required. Well worth a look at, and not overly expensive..  Micro Illusions have released three games all with the title DISCOVERY. There are Math, Spelling and Trivia versions. The basic premise is the same in each version. You are on the starship Discovery carrying a cargo of alien animal specimens when the ship crashes. You are the only survivor, and the aliens have escaped and are running loose. The aim is to move around the ship, while avoiding these creatures which can quickly sap your strength, and collect 12 fuel crystals to reactivate the starship. Another obstacle is the security doors which can only be opened by answering questions. At the beginning of the game you must choose to be one of 4 characters - Scott or Katy (both humanoid), Mek (a robot) or Lotar (the friendly alien) - definitely no sexism here! Then you must choose a category of question. In the Maths version you have 1-7 levels of Addition; 1-7 levels of Subtraction; 1-2 levels of Division; 1-2 levels of Multiplication; and 1 choice called "Mixed". In the Spelling version you have levels that go from A) very easy words, through average and common words, to J) very difficult words. There are also K) Geographic names; and L) Scientific, M) Technical or N) Computer terms. The Trivia edition offers 8 choices A) to I), but you can also make your own trivia questions by using a text editor (eg. Ed in the C dir on the Workbench disk) and following the instructions given in a Read.Me file on the disk. I think this is an excellent feature and it is not difficult (use a backup of your original). The only gripe I have with these games is that you must listen very carefully to the synthesized speech of the computer, which doesn't always pronounce the questions clearly. Otherwise the graphics, the music, the smoothness of the characters movement and general action are most pleasing. It would also seem that Micro Illusions plan to release new disks, as the program asks you to make a selection or use a "new lesson disk".  Another American company calling themselves "The Other Guys", from Utah, have released two educational programs that I've recently been examining thanks to Diskworks (in St. Leonards, Sydney) who have the Australian distribution rights. One is called "Match-It", and is designed to teach young children their basic colours and shapes. Very little instruction is needed to run the program because it is all menu driven. It was designed to run on V1.1 and is self-booting, but I have had no problems running under V1.2. After a short title song a Main Menu appears with 8 choices, 6 of these are learning games and the other 2 are "Help" which explains each game, and "Stop" which shows them how to stop the program and totally reboot the system. Every procedure is explained by the computer and also shown with illustrations. The menu boxes are selected using the left mouse button. The other program by The Other Guys is "Math-A-Magician" (see the ARTGALLERY Drawer for the Title picture). Before using this program you must go through an install procedure, as it uses several files on the V1.1 Extras diskette. You should make a copy in the usual way and use this as the working version. If you try to boot the original it will show up a WARNING screen in red and white, so it's hard to go wrong. With the copy made you MUST use Kickstart 1.1, then insert the copy (NB. it should be renamed "copy of Math..." to "Math-a-Magician") and follow the instructions. I tried this install procedure using V1.2 and the program would not work. However, once I had done the installing, I had no problem running it under V1.2. ( Clear...??) The game itself is designed to teach new skills to beginners and challenge the experts. After the intro, you use the right mouse button to make selections from a menu that will appear in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. There are 3 choices - the first continues with the program, the other 2 provide maths tables for Addition or Multiplication. These 2 tables are to help teach beginners. The program (1st choice) provides a number of choices and once you have made these questions will be asked. Three chances are given for each problem. An Owl keeps a score on your results and shows it at the end of the round - in the hardest mode with the quickest time I found it difficult to score 50%. So it is certainly good for exercising the old brain cells (presuming you have some left). The program makes great use of sound and colour cycling - very spectacular! I think you would have to be 6 years or older to play this one....  Finally, I'd like to mention 2 other programs. The Talking Colouring Book by JMH Software of Minnesota is ideal for 3-5 year olds. The computer explains everything as you go, and only the mouse is needed. It provides 4 options: A) Demonstration of colour words B) Practice Identifying colour words C) Colour a Picture D) Draw a Picture (the child can then colour it and save it if desired). While the child plays with this program he/she is again learning how to use the Amiga and they can't damage the computer, so don't fret!! Another fun program for youngsters is Little Computer People by Activision. The idea behind this is that you have a little person and his pet dog living inside your computer. You can talk to him by typing messages; you must feed him - otherwise he'll walk to the screen and tap on the glass, or eventually start turning green and getting quite sick; you can play any one of 5 games with him; you must also take care of his emotional needs, because he is quite sensitive and shy; you can make him perform a number of tasks by hitting certain key combinations, eg.CTRL-C makes his phone ring, which he'll answer and chatter away. In fact there isn't much you can't do with him. I'm not sure that you would classify this as an educational program, but I found it quite educational how some Dealers became quite attached to their little computer person, and would rush to check he was happy in between serving customers!! It is certainly one of the more innovative programs I have seen on the Amiga, and the graphics and movements display just what a truly magical machine the Amiga can be.  The above is just a sample of what is available for the younger members of an Amiga household. Although many Amiga owners would not have encountered computers at school, their children certainly will. Computers have become a fact of life and it behoves all intelligent owners to see that their kids get some exposure to the machine whenever possible. Unless individuals have some computer literacy in the future they will certainly be at a disadvantage with their peers, and within society generally.  ========================END OF EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE======================